Some of my jottings concern aging and health issues. Boring... perhaps... reality... definitely.
For several years, since my late 40s, I've been making multiple "pee" trips during the night, often five times in about seven hours. There was no warning whether there'd be a trickle or a flood. Since I'm not a person who sleeps the night through, traipsing to the bathroom could have been even more bothersome, but getting out of bed was still annoying. For the most part, I'm healthy, though carrying slothful extra pounds. I have the prostate digital exam every year, and annual PSA blood tests also show no cancer. But this multiple "going" still nagged at me, so my GP sent me to a urologist to get things checked out.
Well... there are procedures that I never knew about (and people think I'm a hypochondriac). Over the course of a few months, all the appointments fell into place. The first was a "flow test"... I had to ensure that my bladder was full and that I was near the point of losing control (much like a task I've seen on a cruel Japanese game show). Then I was directed to a room wherein there was a funnel device that you urinated into (a uroflowmeter). Something like peeing in a Militta filter funnel, but metal and attached to equipment.
After this, you lay down and a technician puts jelly on your belly, and one makes the usual lame jokes about "when am I going to have the baby" etc, since the procedure does bring up images of fetal scans. A piece of thermal paper soon appears from a printer, and the technician can determine how much urine you did not expel. It seems that my flow was not free-flowing enough, and there was too much urine left over.
Another day, another test - much more uncomfortable - was a biopsy of the prostate. Yes, it is done just the way you think, with your ass in the air and a pincer or needle of some kind being inserted and micro bits of tissue being seared off. I think it was ten sharp "clips" - a bit uncomfortable, but not unbearable, and over quickly.
The result of all of this, once the analyses of the uroflowmeter test and the biopsy were done, the follow-up was arranged to see the urologist for the verdict. It seems that I, like so many of us, have an enlarged prostate, but luckily, nothing more serious. The prescription was for Flomax, and I may be on it for years. It does not shrink the prostate, but it opens up the tubes, so to speak, and lets the river flow. A follow-up flow test a month or two later showed little urine left over after a robust interaction with the uroflowmeter.
The change is marvellous: I'm only up about an hour after I go to bed (because of the red wine I had that evening), and once, if at all, during the next five to six hours. Since I also get up to let the dogs out, some nights I'm still going to the bathroom 2+ times, but this is more because I'm already up than because my bladder alerted me. And, the flow is strong, and the piddling is less.
A happy customer (luckily with a prescription plan); all in all, I recommend the medication, but caution that I'm no doctor, and this is just my experience with it. There are side effects, as there are with any pills, and at first you have to be careful not to get too dizzy if you move too fast. But that side effect is now rare, at least for me.
Unlike some people I know, I'm not afraid of going to the doctor. I do not abuse Canada's health care system, and do not clog up emergency rooms if I have a cold. But prevention is the mantra of our health providers, and I believe a scepticism or defensive posture regarding one's health is... well, healthy. By contrast, a good friend likes to say that he doesn't go to doctors, as they seem to find things, but if he doesn't go, he'll be alright. Well, to me that is just ridiculous. I go to avert calamities, not to ignore them. My mantra has long been that "knowledge is power" and I assume my friend's is "ignorance is bliss".
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Take note that this is my personal experience with Flomax - there are no guarantees to be discerned here. (And this personal experience is not related to nor remunerated by the manufacturer.)
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