Adventures in the Emergency Room

[tom67inMA]

When we last left my continuing adventure, I had a urology appointment in which my urologist said the cause of my problems was "friable tissue" in my prostatic urethra.

Fast forward to the wee hours of Monday morning, when I woke up with severe abdominal pain, thinking it might be my appendix. "If this doesn't get better I'm going to the ER", but after a modest BM it started getting better and responded to pain meds. It came and went for the rest of the day and I thought it was a bit of IBS due to constipation.

And then this morning, again, I woke up with severe abdominal pain, and it seemed even more like an appendix or similar issue. After some time writhing on my couch waiting for pain meds to kick in, my wife took me to the ER where they did a CT scan.

Well, the appendix was fine, gall bladder was fine, intestines were fine, but "there's a growth on the outside of your bladder". What?!? They called my urologist who basically said the same thing, so they re-consulted with the radiologist and said they think it's a growth in the prostate growing into the bladder. And of course, they don't have the scans from my original diagnosis so there's no way to tell if this is just my status quo or not. (My PSA is undetectable and other blood numbers are fine, this would really be unexpected)

Also, my right kidney is a bit inflamed which apparently is the source of the pain, and they think it might be a partially obstructed urine duct, but since I can still urinate on my own I can go home and follow up with my MO. I guess my other kidney is working just fine and they're okay with that.

It's been a stressful day to say the least, and other than the "free" Percocet I'm wondering if anything was actually accomplished. It's possible this prostatic growth is just my original tumor, and the kidney may be angry due to prophylactic Cipro as part of last week's cystoscopy. But at least I know the pain is probably more than just constipation.

Thoughts? Similar experiences? I'm thinking emergency departments are a bit of a dice roll as they aren't intimately familiar with your history and end up making best guesses which can be a bit unnerving. On the other hand, I got a CT scan in a timely fashion and at least some answers as to what's going on.

[Haniff]

Take good care Bro.

Hope your MO comes up with a great plan to get rid of the pain and get you up and about running again. Will pray for a great outcome.

My very best to you.

Haniff

[dougnola]

Hey Tom

Sounds like you’re on top of it. Keep us posted and I’m sending my positive thoughts to you. Doug NOLA

[Jimhoy]

Last May, only mine turned out to be appendicitis with a umbilical hernia!! Or was it?!!!!

Jc

[tom67inMA in reply to Jimhoy]

Did they take out your appendix? Which is to say, did they get rid of the evidence?

[Jimhoy in reply to tom67inMA]

Yes, emergency laparoscopic appendectomy and hernia repair in one sitting!!! 2 or 3 extra small incisions and I still look swell in my Speedo!! Swell or swollen..... semantics!!!!!

Inflammation raised havoc at every turn! Coming out of it now being @ 12mo’s off ADT!!!

Jc

[depotdoug]

Wow, each one of us seems to have an ER or more than one ER moment. But they aren’t moments, hours in ER’s. Yeh I had (2) terrible ER visits that could not could not get my clogged urethral structure blockage in-blocked. I didn’t even know what a ‘stricture’ was then. My Neurogenic Dx’d bladder at Prostate cancer Dx Aug 2005 was complained. Mr Bladder(mine) could hold up to 2,300mL of pee, but there is a limit.

My pain wasn’t from the Urethral Stricture, just overloaded bladder.

The fact is ER RN’s or staff usually do not know how to open, ream out a stricture, mine. There was no, absolutely no Urologist on duty in that hospital. So I wait and wait and.... Conclusion: that hospital ER finally gave up, really! And since my Urologist was not affiliated with their hospital I had to physically drive to my own urologist office( large facility) where my Urologist group opened me up. Case in point, ER’s do not always no what solution to do and in my case let’s get him out of here because his urologist is one of ours. Ouch!! I’m not making thus up.

I’m very selective with questions whenever I go into ER’s now. Assuming I’m conscious enough to know what’s happening. A caring ER is an excellent welcome, most of them are, my medical physicians not on staff of different hospitals for competition reasons are not. Yeh, I’m a complicated complex medically problem guy, aren’t we all too some extent.

Good luck tom67inMA!!

[tom67inMA in reply to depotdoug]

Wow, what a story! I went to ER with urinary retention after my bladder surgery, talk about painful! When they finally got a catheter in about half a gallon of the most ugly, bloody urine you ever saw came out.

I do believe that they want to help and come up with an answer, and perhaps a wrong answer is more comfortable than saying "we don't know"?

[Hidden in reply to depotdoug]

Wow. I can relate to that horrible situation. In my case it was horrible and panic inducing waiting for the staff at my urology office to give me relief. I was in retention and couldn't pee a drop. As time passes the pain increases as does the panic -- is the bladder going to rupture or be damaged? How about the kidneys? I finally got relief. The nurses? They were there ... just on their lunch hour !!! The air head receptionist had me fill out a form for an unscheduled nurse consultation. She was kind enough (sarcasm) to suggest I go to the ER ... and what, wait two hours more there? This was all brought about as a consequence of a Xiaflex injection for peyronies slowly turning into a complete blockage. I had done a trial catheter removal at the urology office that morning. They said come back if there's a problem. I came back and the nurse who had removed the catheter was gone and no one knew or seemed to care about my situation. That left me thoroughly disgusted with this urology practice. BTW, thanks to advice I saw here on this forum, I cured my peyronies by taking iodoral, an iodine supplement.

[dockam]

Oh dang Brother- that's crazy! Hope that it's status quo - fingers crossed

Fight on

Randy

[greatjohn]

well...my first horror story ER event was in Nashville on our road trip....where they let me go with antibiotics and the doctor said I was "above her pay grade".

Next stop (thank you Jesus) was in the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. (an official branch office of Heaven). They couldn't figure it all out...but they certainly tried...and got me on my way (3 days later) with a Foley Catheter . I think the super antibiotics that they had me on (IV) and pills did a great deal towards healing some of the issue that was causing my blockage....

Still after 6 weeks in catheter..and ANOTHER ER visit in Manhattan at Lennox Hill Hospital...I finally gave a "big push" and some "blockage" ...looking like a large piece of chewed up chewing gum shot out of me....THANK you Jesus...since that moment (and it's going on almost 4 months....) I have been peeing freely and happily. A little incontinence at times...so I wear pads...but...again, THANK YOU JESUS...with NO catheter. Here's hoping you pass a boulder like I did and you "start peeing like a teenager".

gJohn

p.s. I swear there were Ghost Angels of the original Nuns in the St. Mary's hospital section I was in for three days and THEY starting my healing miracle! I am not "Catholic...by injection".

[tom67inMA in reply to greatjohn]

Interesting.. I generally pee well most of the time but recently have passed blood after exercise. Was wondering if your saga may have been triggered by increased activity on your trip. Would have happened eventually but I'm starting to think activity can cause some loose bits to fall off unexpectedly in both our cases.

[greatjohn in reply to tom67inMA]

hmm...perhaps...but at the point of my issue arising....I had been more sedentary than usual. We were sitting in a car riding/driving. I'm generally walking the dog...going to the gym, cooking, etc. My issue was after a week of sitting more than usual.....

I suppose a change of either direction to more active (or less) could be a cause for things like this to happen.

[tom67inMA in reply to greatjohn]

Hmm.. well sitting too much at the computer makes me sore so perhaps so.

[addicted2cycling in reply to tom67inMA]

My solution for CS (computer sedentaryosis) is to bicycle 75 to 100+ mile rides between computer use. Keeps the body feeling good and the hours of excellent conversation with me-myself and I is of an intelligent level low enough that even I can comprehend.

[tom67inMA in reply to addicted2cycling]

The one downside of returning to work is it does make it difficult to take multi-hour long exercise breaks during the day.

[addicted2cycling in reply to tom67inMA]

WORK !!!! Maynard G. Krebs -- Dobie Gillis ;0)

I used to bicycle to work, 28 miles round trip, if I didn't go out of my way to make it longer. Almost got struck by lightening on the way home thanks to FL. afternoon storm .

[Hidden in reply to greatjohn]

That’s one hec of a road trip... believe in miracles .

[depotdoug in reply to greatjohn]

Try self catheter ing for almost 15 years. No choice. With my neurogenic bladder. Oh I’ve tried and tried. I’ve had two MEDTRONIC interstimulator devices implanted to help stimulate my peeing instinct but both failed, an expensive and 2 semi-painfull surgeries. More detsiks available. TBD

[greatjohn in reply to depotdoug]

yipes. We all could use the "easy" button!

[Hidden]

Whoa Tom! That’s a crazy experience to say the least . That kind of pain must be fixed . 😎

[tom67inMA in reply to Hidden]

Yeah, I thought of you when they suggested I might need a kidney tube. Hoping it turns out to be a kidney stone, even though that best came up in the ER. I put on my amateur radiologist hat and looked at the cat scans and there is something that could be a stone not far from the bladder on the side with the angry kidney. But there was a similar spot in my diagnosis scan 15 months ago.

Can't tell much else, the bladder and prostate look like grey blobs to me. I only found them by looking at reference images online. Will know more tomorrow. Good news is less pain today!

[greatjohn in reply to tom67inMA]

less pain is good news (every/any day).

gJohn

[Jimhoy]

The worst experience I ever had in an ER was when I was admitted for them to prick my boil. They got it backwards!!!

Jc

[binati]

My 'horror' story was not about pain but medical malpractice. If doctors do something to you to earn more money only then that's malpractice!

I have kidney stones for the past many years. The radiologist said I have a stone quarry in my kidneys. After playing golf one day i went to the loo and peed red liquid. Obviously, I guessed it was blood possibly from the urinary system somewhere.

Went to the GP who sent me to a Uro in a well known hospital. After a brief examination and looking at some old pyelograms and ultrasound pictures he said we got to go inside and examine since it could be serious. So he gives me a spinal and shoves a cystoscope right up into my kidney and washes the blood out with water. He shows me a monitor and says you're lucky everything's ok. Thank you doctor! I was stupid to fall for his BS. Paid a good sum of hard earned money for nothing.

[greatjohn in reply to binati]

WOW.