PSA on PSA (The Agitated Walnut)

At the ripe age of 32 I know more than I want to know about my Prostate than I care to. Its not a bad gland, one of the best in fact, but to have issues with it this young is not necessarily normal. The next few posts from me will delve into a very hard to reach part of my body and why something the size of a walnut can freak you out. Later in the series, we will also have a guest appearance from Jason M. Greenfield M.D., Board Certified Urologist. I'll be asking him some questions along the lines of definitions, preventative measures, and a bunch of other stuff I wish I would have asked my doctor at the time. This is valuable information that he's providing, and since we aren't backed by Google yet, he's doing this for free. So for that we are extremely grateful.

The Agitated Walnut

It was a fairly normal day. I was at work pretending to do my best, making customers happy, and counting the hours as they rolled by. Halfway through the day I noticed that I wasn't feeling incredible well and my mediocre drive to excel was going farther downhill. I was starting to feel funny. My muscles were achy, I had a headache, lots of low back pain, and I was getting a fever. I pushed through the end of the day like all great employees but by the time I got out of the office, I was a wreck and completely sick. I went home, took some ibuprofen, and for the most part went straight into bed. I was fairly confident the fever would break and I'd be fine the next day, but I was proved wrong. That night I got up to relieve myself and I was struck with 2 things: 1) it burned like fire and 2) it didn't all want to come out. After about 15 min in the bathroom and achieving about what i am guessing to be about 90% evacuation I went back to bed. I laid there for about a minute and it felt like I still had to go. So I went back to the bathroom. This cycle happened a few times before I could go back to sleep. When I woke up to do my morning routine, my symptoms weren't any better and the pain was still there. If I can go off track for a second, the pain is different than if you get kicked or something down there. It was like lava was trying to escape my body through my water hole. Also, when I would "finish" the left-over lava that hadn't escaped made an extremely uncomfortable sensation.

And we're back... With the fever still in full force, my muscles sore, and the pain when I had to pee, I decided to call the doctor. Like most men, I am not one to frequently call or visit the doctor. Normally things work themselves out, but the trifecta of symptoms warranted at least a call. I was told to get right in there. When I arrived, I was greeted by the friendly receptionist with a slight look of disgust after seeing that a man so foul looking could exist. I made my way back to the room and met with my doctor. I was a bit hesitant to explain my symptoms in the lower half of my body to my doc, but figured that wouldn't be fair to either of us if I didn't. When I mentioned my symptoms down there, he broke out the rubber glove and asked me to drop my pants. Well, thats what I get for telling the truth. He did his examination which I don't necessarily need to explain, but I can tell you there's really only one way to reach the prostate. Luckily my doctor had done a few of these before and he could tell very quickly that my prostate was inflamed. I had an infection, most likely a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). He prescribed me some anti-biotics and referred me down the hall to set up an appointment with his office neighbor the Urologist. I had to make an appointment 2 weeks out since the doctors wanted to have the anti-biotics run their course and the results of my exam with the Urologist weren't skewed.

With-in 24 hours of taking the anti-biotics I was feeling better. The fever was gone, my muscles weren't sore, no hot lava, and 100% evacuation. I am very glad I decided to tell my doctor all of my symptoms when I went in and was on the road to recovery. I just had to meet with a Urologist in a couple weeks. No biggie.

My next post will get side tracked just a little bit from the this story. I think it would be a good idea to go over some terminology before I continue on. Also Dr. Greenfield provided a ton of info and I don't want any of it to go to waste.

So in the meantime, I will just encourage you all to be up front with your doctor. If you are embarrassed for some reason to explain any symptoms to him/her, go find a new one that you are comfortable with. An open and honest dialog with your doc should be one of the top lines of communication in your life.