Ibuprofen keeping me mobile

Hi Derek

After I had back surgery for some years ago the only thing that kept me mobile was ibuprofen and paracetamol alternately, both three time very 24 hours. My guts were hell to deal with until my wife suggested I take two/three apricots (hydrated) with ibuprofen which seemed to help. I also take Losartan to protect my stomach from acid attacks which cab be caused by ibuprofen. I hope you get sorted soon.

Edited by member 17 Mar 2024 at 21:52  | Reason: Not specified

I can't see in your BIO if you ever had PSMA PET scan? That may help put your mind at rest.

Re Ibuprofen and hip pain. My left hip went from fine to "completely fxxxxd" in the space of about 3 years, all of this was while I was being treated for PC so you can imagine what I was thinking. Anyway a hip replacement ultimately fixed it but not until the ibruprofen stopped working. This was actually a test suggested by the hip surgeon as being the correct decision point ie can't stand the pain anymore with ibruprofen means it's the right time for surgery.

BUT if you are taking ibruprofen regularly you MUST also take the stomach protecting tablet otherwise you risk serious gastric issues.

Decho, I would not be too worried about it being prostate cancer in your hip. My logic behind this is that your hip pain is increasing, but your PSA is not increasing, if they were related they would both increase together. I have made assumptions about your (former) cancer cells and made logical inferences, any of which could be wrong. The next question is 'do many people in their late 60s (happy belated birthday BTW) develop hip pain which isn't cancer related?' the answer is YES. So on the balance of probabilities, I would say with 99% certainty, you don't have prostate cancer in your hip. Clearly you have a hip problem which needs investigating, and a professional oncologist not a random guy on the internet should be making decisions about your cancer, but until you get a professional opinion hopefully my amatuer opinion will put your mind at rest.

The history is that ibuprofen was originally developed by the Boots company, who in those days were a proper pharmaceutical company not just a high street chemist. It was a point when paracetamol was being marketed as causing fewer side effects than aspirin, and Boots got their research chemists to look for a compound that worked in the same way as aspirin but without the effects on the stomach. When they came up with ibuprofen they applied for a licence to sell it with a maximum dose such that there were fewer side effects even than for paracetamol.

So unless you are personally sensitive for some reason, taking 3 x 400 mg ibuprofen should be fine. In fact ibuprofen isn't seriously toxic even if you take quite a lot more (though inevitably side effects will then be greater) and there are conditions for which doctors prescribe twice as much, admittedly under supervision. And apparently it is unnecessary to take it with food. In contrast taking double the recommended dose of paracetamol is likely to lead to liver toxicity problems.

However most doctors are unaware of this background, and apply the same cautions to ibuprofen use as they would to aspirin or other members of the same drug class which have far greater effects on the stomach.

As you have discovered, many people find ibuprofen particularly effective on musculoskeletal aches and pains. Obviously you want to get your specific problems checked out, but there is a good chance that if your hip pain responds so well to ibuprofen it is likely to be the sort of musculoskeletal problem all of us are liable to as we get older, and quite separate from your prostate cancer.

Can’t help you I’m afraid Derek, but replying to bump your post back up the list. Happy belated birthday by the way 👍

Though I think cancer isn't the problem, I think prostap could be something to do with the problem. No one seems to have had quite such a bad problem as you on prostap, but prostap could be exacerbating some other hip problem.