Waiting Room
April 22nd 2009 19:18
On Tuesday I had a follow-up appointment at the Urology Dept - follow-up to my prostate op back in February, that is. Eight weeks and a day.
Because you have to do a flow-test in conjunction with the appointment, and because you don't have to do it on the same day, I opted to go in a day early, because I find the hassle of waiting around for the appointment combined with trying to fill my bladder is all a bit much.
Anyway, did the flow-test without too much problem, on the Monday, and came back on Tuesday to find that the waiting room had some thirty patients in it, rather like too many tourists crammed into an airport foyer waiting to go off to their boutique hotels.
I was due for 2.30, but so, it seemed were a bunch of others - and there was a sign saying a half hour wait was likely. And another sign saying that if you'd had to wait for more than half an hour you should tell the receptionists. Don't think there was much point.
So I borrowed a pen from my neighbour and tried - without much success - to finish a cryptic crossword that someone had started in an old copy of North and South.
Finally the name got called, and off I went to wait in another room - one of those with a desk that usually lacks the right forms, more old magazines, and a bed that looked like someone had already been using it.
After a few minutes, the urologist who'd done my biopsy came in, with his usual cheerful smile and warm greeting. He's been a good person to have on the journey, I must say.
Basically he just went through the notes: flow-test (which he hadn't realised I'd done the day before, but that was fine) showed I 'was peeing like a teenager' - a great phrase which has stuck in my head ever since.
The bits of prostate that had been removed showed no signs of cancer, confirming the biopsy even further; I hadn't considered that there might be a chance of this, so it was a bit of a (good) surprise.
Otherwise he asked how the flow was going in general - it's fine, though occasionally still a bit painful in the muscles around the area - and did I have any incontinence: nope, but sometimes I had to go leaping to the toilet because of sudden urgency. That can be a bit of an issue, but he said usually I wouldn't have been seen for three months, so these things would probably have settled down by then.
He did an ultrasound to check the level of fluid in the bladder (minimal) and it was all clear.
I did ask him about the rather odd side-effect of the op: 'retrograde ejaculation.' Apparently part of what's removed in the op is the muscular stuff in the prostate that controls the ejaculating of the semen. As a result, the semen 'takes the line of least resistance,' as he put it, and flows back into the bladder, to be removed with the next urination. It has a rather odd effect on intercourse, as you might expect, but doesn't stop erections. Except in the unlucky group of guys for whom this bit doesn't work after an op either. I seem to have got the water retention beforehand 'problem' but not the non-erection. A 5% chance of the former, and a 20% chance of the latter, if I remember rightly.
Talk about playing dice.
So home free is the report. Things might get affected again in twenty years or so - but I guess all you can say to that is that it's a long way off. Let's hope I either go to be with the Lord by then, or....
Because you have to do a flow-test in conjunction with the appointment, and because you don't have to do it on the same day, I opted to go in a day early, because I find the hassle of waiting around for the appointment combined with trying to fill my bladder is all a bit much.
Anyway, did the flow-test without too much problem, on the Monday, and came back on Tuesday to find that the waiting room had some thirty patients in it, rather like too many tourists crammed into an airport foyer waiting to go off to their boutique hotels.
I was due for 2.30, but so, it seemed were a bunch of others - and there was a sign saying a half hour wait was likely. And another sign saying that if you'd had to wait for more than half an hour you should tell the receptionists. Don't think there was much point.
So I borrowed a pen from my neighbour and tried - without much success - to finish a cryptic crossword that someone had started in an old copy of North and South.
Finally the name got called, and off I went to wait in another room - one of those with a desk that usually lacks the right forms, more old magazines, and a bed that looked like someone had already been using it.
After a few minutes, the urologist who'd done my biopsy came in, with his usual cheerful smile and warm greeting. He's been a good person to have on the journey, I must say.
Basically he just went through the notes: flow-test (which he hadn't realised I'd done the day before, but that was fine) showed I 'was peeing like a teenager' - a great phrase which has stuck in my head ever since.
The bits of prostate that had been removed showed no signs of cancer, confirming the biopsy even further; I hadn't considered that there might be a chance of this, so it was a bit of a (good) surprise.
Otherwise he asked how the flow was going in general - it's fine, though occasionally still a bit painful in the muscles around the area - and did I have any incontinence: nope, but sometimes I had to go leaping to the toilet because of sudden urgency. That can be a bit of an issue, but he said usually I wouldn't have been seen for three months, so these things would probably have settled down by then.
He did an ultrasound to check the level of fluid in the bladder (minimal) and it was all clear.
I did ask him about the rather odd side-effect of the op: 'retrograde ejaculation.' Apparently part of what's removed in the op is the muscular stuff in the prostate that controls the ejaculating of the semen. As a result, the semen 'takes the line of least resistance,' as he put it, and flows back into the bladder, to be removed with the next urination. It has a rather odd effect on intercourse, as you might expect, but doesn't stop erections. Except in the unlucky group of guys for whom this bit doesn't work after an op either. I seem to have got the water retention beforehand 'problem' but not the non-erection. A 5% chance of the former, and a 20% chance of the latter, if I remember rightly.
Talk about playing dice.
So home free is the report. Things might get affected again in twenty years or so - but I guess all you can say to that is that it's a long way off. Let's hope I either go to be with the Lord by then, or....
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