So like I was a little worried about regularly taking the quantity of Advil required to stifle this hip pain, especially since others were voicing their concerns. Indeed there are warnings and such and since my needed dose is four times the recommended single dose and two of my doses would exceed the recommended daily limit (6), well, it was a legitimate concern. THUS, I called the CTC today to 1) inform them that inflammation was involved in the hip pain, 2) see if they'd gotten the xray reports and what they said, 3) ask about ibuprofen and risks.

1) No other explanation as yet for the hip pain except for the induced increase in bone marrow production of red blood cells, but that doesn't wholly fly because it's only in one hip and no other large bones, which would be the usual effect.

2) The xrays are clear. They show nothing out of whack. This is good, of course, other than leaving the mystery intact.

3) I am perfectly clear to take up to 800mg (my glorious four tablets) of Advil/ibuprofen every 6 hours!!! The touted risks generally refer to long term use, which is not in the plan, and the primary damage would be to my platelets but my platelet count is just fine right now so I can get the pain relief I need!! AND... because they work in different ways, I may also take a Lortab (hydrocodone) WITH the Advil if needed. In fact, I can take a Lortab5 (5mg of hydrocodone with 500mg acetaminophen) plus another Tylenol to make 1000mg acetominophen, if I want.

Man oh man I am ecstatic! I feel I can get by with the 800mg (4tabs) of Advil/ibuprofen, but it's great to know that if that doesn't do it, I can hit it with the Lortab5+. Yes, baby, I plan to be without pain or damned near it, by golly you betcha. Halle-fukin-lujah!