Flippy - I Rant, You Read
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
The Little Engine That Couldn’t
I went to the urologist today. It was a pretty inoffensive visit, especially since I didn’t even need to get undressed for it like I was expecting. Damn, and I was all prepared for the pants off stuff today. I shaved my legs and tidied and everything. 
The nurse came in and took my history, then he sent me off to the bathroom to get a urine sample. And wouldn’t you know it, when I go in complaining of urinary urgency, my bladder had absolutely no urgency when I needed it to. They gave me two big cups of water to drink to help me along. Sadly, the water didn’t help while I was there. They said I could give them a sample on my next visit. They then sent me upstairs to make an appointment at the lab for a pelvic ultrasound. I made my appointment for next Tuesday, then went back downstairs to let them know when it was so they could schedule my next visit to discuss the results. Luckily, by that time, the water had made its way through me, so I could at least get that part over with and not have to deal with it another time.
My visit with the doctor was fine, although he doesn’t seem to know exactly what’s wrong with me. My symptoms are apparently kind of odd and rare, especially in the combination that they appear - urgency when I sit, but not when I stand or lay down, and very rarely do I ever have to get up during the night. I’m glad that I remembered toward the end of my visit to tell him that I’ve tried Ditropan and Detrol LA and that they both caused urinary retention; and that I tried Oxytrol, and it did absolutely nothing. He said the urinary retention side effect was telling. Telling what, I don’t know. I don’t think he wants to guess (out loud) without seeing the results of the tests. He also refused to give me the Enablex prescription. Three strikes and I’m out, I guess. At least he knew enough to tell me that because of my reaction to the other meds, he was pretty sure that it wouldn’t help me. I guess it’s good that he didn’t give it to me then, because urinary retention is really sucky.
He talked about doing a cystoscopy on my next visit, but when I read up about it, it doesn’t really seem like that would be possible. It seems too involved a procedure to not warn me to have someone drive me or leave plenty of time for the procedure. I really hope that the ultrasound will be enough, especially because Leigh-Ann and I are registered for a Microsoft Across America Launch (for the release of Vista) the day after my appointment and WebMD said that the procedure might cause frequent urination for a day or two. Not what I want to deal with when I have to drive to the Venetian.
The doctor’s office was full of old guys again. Old guys and their wives. I guess more men bring their wives to doctor’s appointments than women bring their husbands. So, it was basically me, at least ten old guys, one older woman, and a youngish girl (early 20’s) and her boyfriend. They were fairly timely, I think. I was reading a good book, so it didn’t matter much. His nurse was really nice, and he tentatively came out to me. The first time he talked about his partner, he didn’t use a gender. When he saw I was comfortable with that, he quickly moved on to saying “he”. I know I shouldn’t assume, but I’d already assumed that the nice male nurse was gay anyway. I wonder if by the time he talked about his partner, he’d read my paperwork where I crossed out spouse and put partner. I’m a rebel, man. Anyway, he said that he thought I’d be very happy with the doctor and that the doctor was really good with urgency/frequency issues. I thought I’d be happier with him than the doctor I was going to see who was out-of-network.
As an aside, I overheard one of the other doctors talking about a patient that he’d seen at the hospital who had an infected scrotum. It sounded like the patient might perhaps be homeless. Frankly, the infected scrotum sounded really really nasty, especially since the guy ended up needing surgery. Blech. But anyway, the doctor sounded conscientious, especially when he said he’d gotten up at 3am for some reason, thought about the patient, called the hospital (surprising them with the call) and deciding to set the guy up for surgery because he wasn’t getting any better.
I thought I’d go to the lab afterwards to get my bloodwork done for the pain management doctor, but when I went to the only lab company that I know of in town (Quest), they told me that they were out of network for my insurance. I decided to call the insurance company to see if it would make a difference if I went to my primary care doctor to get the blood drawn, and then still had Quest do the diagnostics. That’s what happened for my pre-surgical labs last year and the insurance company covered 90% of the bill. But, the only time I call my insurance company for something fairly urgent...they’re naturally off for the holiday. I came home without getting my labwork done. I couldn’t risk a humungous bill. I looked up the in-network lab and they were about a block away from Quest. I’ve never heard of them - Laboratory Corporation of America. I don’t think I’ve even seen a sign for them anywhere. I guess I’ll try to go in in the next couple of days...or maybe go next Tuesday after my ultrasound. I think I’ve now had more doctor’s/lab visits in the past 18 months than in the rest of my life combined.
Funny, the time of this entry is in “The Wee Hours”. Hahaha.
Next entry: A Fascinating First Previous entry: Moooo-oooom, I Don't Want To Go To The Urologist Tomorrow
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Sorry about your bladder woe, but I’m glad you founs\d a nice gay doctor to help.
LabCorp is a legitimate company, in case you were wondering. They’re mostly in the eastern and southern states, and they do a lot of our more esoteric testing. When we moved back to the midwest, I applied for a job with LabCorp...good job, lots of responsibility, lousy pay.
Anyway...they’re legitimate and they do good work (at least here in the midwest).
Ev
on 01/17 at 07:01 AM -
"And wouldn’t you know it, when I go in complaining of urinary urgency, my bladder had absolutely no urgency when I needed it to.”
That is so typical! Like bringing your noisy car to the mechanic, but then it runs smoothly till you get back home. It’s a cosmic law. Btw, I had a cystoscopy at age 8. Can’t remember the effects afterward, though. (I just remember lots of Get Well Soon balloons, lol.)
ShellyD on 01/17 at 09:46 PM -
Ev, Leigh-Ann looked them up and we’ve gone to them a bunch of times without realizing it. We’ve had labwork done through HealthCheckUSA.com and they use LabCorp. We’ve liked them so much that we travel many many miles to go to the location where the lab peeps are super friendly. I guess we never noticed what the lab was called. But, they should change that lousy pay deal.
Shelly, I know! While I was sitting there drinking water and waiting, waiting, waiting, I was thinking that it was just like when I go to get my hair cut and my hair comes out really good that day. Yikes, a cystoscopy at 8? I guess since you haven’t needed once since, everything must’ve turned out okay. If I have to have one, I’m going to buy myself some balloons.
on 01/18 at 01:54 AM -
I hope they figure out what is going on. You know I wish I had something more witty to say
on 01/23 at 07:36 PM
