River: I don't like my body right now

[mdlbear]

So this is kind of a follow-on to mdlbear | River: Something about me and my cat, which I posted a little under three weeks ago. (I'm starting this one on Tuesday, October 3rd, and will probably finish it sometime Friday.) The rest of this post is mostly medical TMI and may be disturbing,

but you've been warned.

An aged man is but a paltry thing, A tattered coat upon a stick... -- W. B. Yeats, 1926

... and I'm definitely feeling a bit tattered these days.

Part 1: Tuesday--Wednesday

My longest-running problem is my lower back, which has been giving me occasional trouble with painful spasms (mostly in the QL muscles) since my 20's. The best things for it seems to be heat and NSAIDs (which unfortunately I can't use until Thursday evening -- see below).

So last Wednesday I had the prostate MRI I mentioned in the above post. The results came back: "findings consistent with T2a [prostate cancer], provided targeted biopsies are positive." Whee! Also, ..."bladder: trabeculated" meaning its walls are thickened from working too hard against an obstruction. Such as an enlarged prostate. "If the elasticity of the bladder wall muscles is lost, it can be difficult to regain."

So I have a biopsy scheduled for Thursday. I would like to find out the results immediately, but apparently it could take a week. As long as it's done by my previously-scheduled urology appointment the following Friday (the 13th, of course). There are two flavors of prostate cancer -- the more common one progresses so slowly that if everything else is okay it's often left untreated in someone my age. Of course, everything else is not okay, because my urethra is blocked. So there is some kind of surgery in my near future; the only question is what kind.

Meanwhile, complicating all this, is my extreme constipation. (In fact, the constipation could be what's blocking my urethra, though I think that's unlikely.) My gut seems to respond very slowly to laxatives; we'll see whether the bottle of magnesium citrate I chugged a few hours ago will have any effect. It worked the last time I tried it, but that was several years ago. It also doesn't help that my diet tends to be quite low in fiber.

Part 2 - Thursday

Well, the bottle of magnesium citrate I chugged Tuesday evening finally came through (literally) Wednesday morning. "Works in two to six hours" yeah, right. But I did feel better afterwards. And the last couple of days have been considerably less painful than the previous couple of weeks. So that's good.

And this afternoon I had my prostate biopsy, which involves poking hollow sampling needles through the anterior wall of my rectum. Didn't hurt much while they were doing it, thanks to lidocaine. Not nearly as much as it did the last time a few years ago. An hour later, though, ouch! I don't think the sampler has any chance of catching on as a sex toy, but you never know.

The procedure involved using a device called a UroNav to combine real-time ultrasound with last week's MRI to make sure they sample the right parts of my prostate gland. They call it a "fusion biopsy" -- not to be confused with nuclear fusion.

Results in 5-7 days. Whether or not it's cancer, the fact that it blocked my urethra suggests that there's surgery in my near future in either case.

Part 3 - Friday

... so now I'm on cipro again. I got 3 tablets to go around the biopsy to prevent sepsis. This is because a urine test done Tuesday -- or maybe the preceeding Sunday -- found bacteria. In other words, a UTI. Whee! I think this is my first. The combination of sepsis and a UTI is part of what killed Colleen.

I could probably write some more, but it's getting late. Time to wrap this up, and go splat.

Comments

[gingicat]

Hoping for a better-than-predicted outcome.

[mdlbear]

Thanks. I'll settle for any outcome that treats the problem and isn't excessively painful.

[ellenmillion]

Wishing you a quick recovery and hope you feel better soon!

[mdlbear]

Thanks!

[redsixwing]

Fingers crossed for you, and for the best possible outcome.

[acelightning73]

Keep in mind that cancer is not the automatic death sentence it was forty years ago. I have had two kinds of cancer, both were surgically removed and I had radiation therapy afterwards (the chemo they offered me could have given me another kind of cancer). I have kidney problems, congestive heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and my gall bladder was removed, which has bizarre digestive effects. I have had various types of UTIs, and most of the time the antibiotics gave me diarrhea, and eventually the UTIs went away, and if there was any sepsis involved, it went away as well. My main physical complaints are lack of physical stamina, and a desire to sleep a lot more than society considers acceptable.

HOw about transferring my consciousness to a fully functional, repairable android body?

[mdlbear]

HOw about transferring my consciousness to a fully functional, repairable android body?

I could go for that. Prostate cancer, at least in most cases, progresses slowly. But with my urethra blocked they're going to have to do something anyway.

[acelightning73]

I believe clearing a urethral blockage is relatively simple in men. And it might be benign prostate hyperplasia, but that's why they want biopsies. BPH is easy to treat.

I want a functioning gall bladder, and I want my full mental acuity back. I don't enjoy having to look at my phone to know what date and day of the week it is. I want to be able to drive again!
I want to be able to stand enough g forces to go into orbit, or to Luna City, to celebrate my 100th birthday in 2047. (Backup plan is any one of a number of place in NYC that would be fun to have a party in.) (And making the first step using balloons would reduce the physical endurance necessary to claw my way out of the gravity well.)

I expect to see you at my party.

[mdlbear]

I'm already being treated (with drugs) for BPH. (The drug is doxazosin, which is an ACE inhibitor that supposedly shrinks the prostate as well as treating hypertension (though it's not the first choice for that). My BP has also been creeping up recently.

[acelightning73]

I had bad reactions to the ACE inhibitors I was given for hypertension, atrial fibrillation, and congestive heart failure. This ACE doesn't take well to being inhibited.

[patoadam]

Hoping for the best!

[mdlbear]

Thanks!

[gorgeousgary]

Thinking healthy thoughts. And remembering Bette Davis' famous quote about getting older...

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[jesse_the_k]

Very best wishes for excellent outcomes and respectful treatment from the medicos!

Constipation experience

I've had back pain since I was 19, and constipation since I was a baby. The latter always ramps up the former: this post is about how managing my poop lowered my pain levels.

Urinary thoughts

Also, while self-catheterizing is initially scary, it feels wonderful to empty a full bladder. For the last two decades, four or five times a day I insert a 15cm, 4.5mm dia silicone tube in my urethra to drain mine -- which has reduced my UTIs to countable on one hand. (Without the catheter, I'd fill up until almost a liter, then empty a bit of it on my own, and repeat and repeat. This behavior is due to a "neurogenic bladder," and nobody knows why.) I recognize that my urethra is less complicated than yours, but self-cathing could be an intermediate solution before surgery.

Re: This reply is entirely optional

[mdlbear]

Useful information. Thanks!