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Lower back pain following RARP

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User
Posted 19 Jan 2022 at 14:20

Having being diagnosed with Gleason 3 +4 T2BN0M0 in May 2021 at aged 57 I had RARP in June 2021 and last 2 PSA readings were <0.03 so undetectable. 

I never have lower back pain but since October 2021 (4 months post op) I have experienced lower back pain on my right side. It feels like muscular pain but it has not gone and as I had read somewhere that lower back pain can be an indicator of cancer  Im therefore  now completely paranoid that perhaps the cancer had spread before they took it out? I did not have any PET scans or bone scans prior to RARP as both RMH leading onco and surgeon said not necessary. So my questions are how likely is this to be related to my prostate cancer and what should I do? Could my PSA be undetectable as it is a present but the cancer still have spread prior to the op without us knowing? Any advice or observations gratefully received.  Should I know be insisting on bone and PET scans? I thought my undetectable PSA meant I was in the clear for now but now Im not so sure….

 

Jeremy

User
Posted 19 Jan 2022 at 15:05
It is easy to imagine that every creak snd groan is cancer related but it isn't. With a good pathology and a low stable PSA, you wouldn't have an unnoticed bone met significant enough to be causing such pain. It is likely that the pain is related to the op rather than the cancer - either as a result of nerve damage, something trapped while you were dangling head down on the operating table or due to the epidural (if you had one). Although medics often deny it, there are hundreds of thousands of women left with chronic back pain following epidural births.
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard

User
Posted 19 Jan 2022 at 16:39

Thanks Lyn. Thats very helpful. Ive been getting myself into a bit of a state about it. I did have a Thai massage around the same time it started and the lady (who was rather overweight) was walking all over my back so it may also have been that but I thought it would have passed by now whatever caused it…unless it was cancer. 

 

I think I will go and see a back doctor !! And see if he can sort it. 

User
Posted 19 Jan 2022 at 17:34

As Lyn says it could be lots of reasons but definitely easy to relate everything to cancer (as I do with my OH). I myself have been experiencing a lot of lower back pain, I know it’s not prostate cancer 😂 I’m still young-ish and my first port of call will be physio. Maybe try a couple of sessions and see how that goes. Really hope all ok Jeremy x

User
Posted 19 Jan 2022 at 18:50
Personal opinion but having a Thai massage just 4 months after major abdominal surgery may have been a little foolhardy!

Pain is not always felt in the place where it is being generated - neural pathways are like that big mess of wires behind my TV and the brain can get the wrong message. Lower back pain is also closely associated with kidneys and UTI - sometimes the only symptom of an infection.

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard

 
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