esrosedotblog

PIPING

I went to the Urologist today and reviewed the results of my tests taken over the last several weeks.

It turns out that I still have some bladder function but not enough to be self sufficient. I think I knew that but this confirms.

So there is an option of opening up the pipe through the prostate to see if I could get a functioning bladder back. 70-80% that the procedure would work. If it does not, I would still need to self catheterize. If it does I might need to self catheterize occasionally.

So I am letting the operation or "procedure" option sit on the back burner and will go next Tuesday to learn how to do my own procedure. Every four or five hours depending on water intake. It is pretty simple. The gear is straightforward. I already "took lessons" on YouTube. These will be one on one. It is pretty common.

If it doesn't work for me or I decide to go ahead with the operation I can do it at my leisure and not rush it in.

Also I get the bag off my leg.

Gym and shorts and a normal life can resume. I will be on my bike at Golds Wednesday morning.

They didn't want to do the lessons today nor did I as we are heading into a weekend and a holiday weekend at that.

I think it is good news. I knew there were not going to be any miracle cures.

Besides, they say that old timers should have hobbies and work with their hands. Mind body practice.

Labels: urology

ROAD TEST

I went for my urodynamics test this morning.

This is not a rock group.

It is a test of bladder efficiency and stuff.

It was quite an experience.

This is no simple thing. Hi tech.

A really neat woman ran the thing. A medical technician, not a nurse. She put a wired catheter up the penis and the rectum. Each! Both. Together.

The penis one has two tubes. One electronic and the other a water supply. The rectum measures something around the stomach.

I also got wired up with four EKG type electrodes around my pubes (no shaving required, ouch at the end). She has a computer equipped with a water bottle and a small pump.

We got going and water gets pumped into the bladder. The subject, reports "sensations". Not many for me until it is time to pee. She says until, if I was riding along the highway, I would be getting off to take a leak. Not until it hurts hurts but more like well, full.

I complied.

The machine hummed.

Before too long, the test was over.

They put my leg bag back on. I can't do without it but I knew that.

I set up an appointment with the Doc and the soonest will be May 24. Two weeks.

No shorts, no gym, same deal until we get a solution. But there will be a solution. I have been assured of that.

I was a little disappointed. I thought maybe the Doc would be waiting for me in the next room and they would teach me how to self catheter.

No.

The options seem clearer now actually. A laser on the prostate to widen the passage, a tube inserted to widen the channel, or self catheterization for life if the bladder is flubbed out. I suspect the latter but one can only squeeze so much info out of a technician and so, I wait.

It could be a lot worse. I could be feeling like I had to pull off the highway to pee all the time.

Labels: urology

AWOL

I have been very sick for the past week.

The blog came second and third and often not at all.

I had a lot of pain in the abdomen a week ago Monday and went to the local, right up the street, Urgent Care, a new facility just made for this kind of situation.

I thought I might have appendicitis but they told me that could not be the case as I would not have been able to drive there and would be in acute pain.

But I had pain enough.

The doc pummeled me around and identified a problem with my bladder. Tight as a drum.

They have the facilities of a small modern hospital there and it was easy to get a cat scan to see what was going on.

I had what one doc would later describe as a "horribly" distended bladder.

I have evidently had this for some time. Slow urine flow backs the bladder up and the result is distension.

It is common among, ahem, old guys who have a history of peeing problems, in my case, probably, the result of past years' radiation and slowdown. My prostate while "dead" is enlarged apparently.

So.

They put in a catheter and drained it. I lost a lot of water.

They can't move too quickly as there can be spasming of the bladder and something not good for the kidneys. So they left the catheter in.

That night, being tired out from six hours in the urgent care, we went out to dinner and when I came home I lost it all. No one told me not to eat.

So I didn't for a few days.

And I was sick as a dog. My abdomen missed its distension. Adjustments are always difficult.

It took a week to come to a balance point.

Yesterday, I went to the kidney doc I had been seeing and she pretty much acknowledged that my kidneys had been affected by this and that my function tests would have to be redone entirely. End of this week.

She did point out some really good news and that was based on the cat scan there is no other culprit on the scene for the kidney problem. So far. I definitively do not have cancer.

Today is the urologist who I am hoping will take the catheter out, prescribe flo max or something to try and take me on as a client. Patient.

We shall see. I think that I qualify.

I feel a lot better, am eating normally and have a good level of energy.

I have not been back to the gym because I can't really work out, for now, with the tubes in me.

If he takes them/it out today, I will be in the gym, on my bike, in my shorts tomorrow morning.

Even if I just go in and pedal a little bit.

Sorry to have been away. A lot has happened this week.

I don't have a lot to say about it anyway. The gun control bill, the marathon bombing.

I will try to pick up where I left off.

Labels: health, kidney, urology