TMI, PROSTATE PROBLEMS

This all started over twenty years ago.  I noticed, at work, that when I went to pee I would "finish" then wait eight seconds and finish again.  I chalked that up to "getting old."  That went on for maybe five years and after I retired.  Then I noticed my stream was getting weaker and slower.  I'm not entirely sure of the chain of events, probably I mentioned it to my family physician who referred me to a urologist.  In any case, I did a bit of research and found an acceptable doctor ( Dr. Cuellar, highly recommended) just a few miles away. 

Dr. Cuellar did the various tests, digital and blood work and determined that yes, my prostate was larger than it should be.  Proper term is Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH).  The prostate forms a semi-circle around your urethra (tube leading from the bladder) so when it grows it squeezes the urethra, thus less urine.  It was then that Dr. Cuellar said the words that I often repeat to other men who are getting old: "In young men the prostate is responsible for a good erection (or words to that effect) but in old men the prostate will either become enlarged or it will give you cancer."  My emphasis is on "either/or."  It doesn't stay the same, it does one or the other.  In my case, just enlarged.

Apparently mine wasn't large enough to operate on (TURP, a laser treatment to cut away part of it).  We went with medication.  The medication worked well and I adjusted to the side-effects (not listed here).  But last year, after ten years on medication, at my annual checkup, he brought up the prospect of undergoing a new procedure which would get me off the medication.  This new procedure involved shooting staples through the urethra into the prostate which would pull it back from the urethra.  Think of purchasing multiple pairs of socks and snipping off the plastic thingies that hold them together.  

After thinking about it and looking it up online, I scheduled an appointment to have it done.  But the recovery time was very close to our trip to England and I thought that if anything went wrong or took too long, the trip would be a nightmare.  So I rescheduled.

Earlier this year I had the operation.  I have six staples in my prostate.  All went well and within a week I was almost back to normal.  The reason this post was done has to do with a 70-year old memory.  It has to do with strength of urine stream.  For years I couldn't hit the back of a urinal and always relied on gravity to keep things in order.  Within a few weeks after the operation, I could.  That was my clue the procedure was a success.  Back in grade school, John Burroughs Elementary, the boys bathroom consisted of a line of back-to-back urinals.  Maybe six urinals in a line on one side and six on the other, with a common wall.  As a grade schooler, I was maybe four feet tall and the wall was probably six feet.  I distinctly remember being able to clear that wall with my pee (no one on the other side).