Do NOT open if you are squeamish. (Health issue)

I began drinking hard liquor in my middle teens. I was in my middle 20's when I had my last drink. It was HARD HARD HARD to quit. When I was trying to quit (about the last 5 years that I was drinking) I could go days or even weeks without, and then I'd fall off the wagon. I do not know what psychological or physiological factors were involved, but I definitely had a drinking problem. About 25 years after I quit I decided to try an experiment: I drank a glass of wine. I liked the taste, but not the slightly woozy feeling. I had no urge to have another. I like the taste of beer and in the past 15 years (since that glass of wine) I've probably had 15 beers. Never more than one, and while I like the taste, I definitely do not like the feeling. If a friend is having a really good dark beer, I'll ask for a sip. Love the taste. But even half a glass is too much. Sometimes I drink non-alcoholic beer. I like it, but it does not compare to the best real beers. Recently a friend was drinking a local version of Guinness, and I had a swig. Wonderful!

Also in my teens, I smoked pot. And yes, I did inhale. For a few years I used a lot of it. Then I decided to quit because it muddles the mind. It was, like the alcohol, VERY hard to quit. Have not had a puff in 55 or 56 years, and though I'm curious, I have no particular interest in trying it again. Unlike alcohol, I think I could become accustomed to it again. So I stay away from it. Fortunately, though it's "legal" here (by state law, not federal) it is not obvious where to get it, and I'm not going to search it out.

I think it likely that, like ETC(SS), if morphine were legal and safely available, I might never leave the house again. I want it to stay illegal so I can go to Canada and hike, instead of lying at home drugged. But I definitely do want it for any medical procedure that involves as much pain as a paper cut. For reasons mentioned above in the discussion on medical use, I am not worried about becoming addicted if I get it during painful medical procedures.

 

The clinic didn't open until 8. I called, and they want to get my records from the ER and consult the urology nurse before they decide how urgent it is that I see the urologist, and give me an appointment. The scheduler did tell me that an ER follow-up is likely to get a quick appointment. She made no promises but said I should be able to expect to hear back from her before noon.

 

They finally got back to me about my follow-up with a urologist. I have an appointment for Friday morning. Apparently they don't consider it very urgent. Since I have had no bleeding since the morning after the evening incident, that's probably reasonable. I'd have liked to get in sooner to find out what's going on, but as long as there's no more bleeding, I cannot honestly argue that it's urgent.

 

I had the follow-up today. They took blood for a PSA, did a rectal exam, and did a cystoscopy. The latter is very painful, but it's over with. They've scheduled an x-ray and CT scan in two weeks.

I have an enlarged medial lobe of the prostate. I have a history of benign enlarged prostate, and there are blood vessels on the surface of the medial lobe, so the most likely cause of the bleeding, pending other tests, is that one of those vessels broke. It could happen again, though he thinks the likelihood of a second occurrence is no greater than the first. He recommended, and I accepted, doing another TURP. My third! For the non-medically inclined, that's where they cut out part of the prostate by means of a tube up the dick. I'll be unconscious for the operation, but afterwords the pain when urinating for the next few days is excruciating.

He felt there was no big hurry, and if it happens again it's not life-threatening. He said I cannot bleed out from it. The biggest risk would be if I could not pee due to clots, or if it gets infected, either of which would mean a trip to the ER. So the surgery is scheduled for January, after my snowshoeing trip. Then they'll biopsy the excised tissue to be sure it's not cancer.

 

Bladder cancer won't be ruled out until the biopsy following the operation on January 6, but he thinks it is most likely just the medial lobe of the prostate, given my prostate history. (Early onset benign prostatic hyperplasia.)