@vtredwolf typo: "loudest voices" not "letter choices". Sorry, fat thumbs.

@vtredwolf
They gave me a QR code to watch videos. The codes didn’t even work!! I had to google what to do for it. Where I am I couldn’t find it locally. Pain in the ass actually not we all know where that pain comes from.
Yes, like I had stated I had all the tests and from that it was determined I didn’t have long before I went into full bladder failure. The odd thing was I didn’t suffer from the standard symptoms at all. I didn’t have a frequency or urgency problem ever!! A lot of pain and very weak stream. I had done the urocuff and it took me 103 seconds to complete, the nurse was shocked! Volume was 277ml so it wasn’t that I had this crazy huge bladder it’s normal. And the other part is, where I did have the above mentioned problems but my prostate was not even big according to my research. I was at 59grams seems like they don’t consider technically large until you hit 85grams. Must have been my prostate maybe developed a denser tissue to cause such a big issue. My biopsy of the tissue was totally normal. I have no clue what happened. I will say, I enjoy seeing a strong stream again. Things we take for granted?!
One more problem I have with the medical field is they make it sound that a low PSA level you are not at risk for cancer. I had a PSA of 2.3 so I went months believing I really had no chance of cancer. I found out at my men’s group about a month ago that is not necessarily the case. A gentleman there had a PSA of 1.2 and he has prostate cancer confirmed. It just means that we as men have to pull our heads of of our asses and make sure we are going in for our check ups and being honest about anything that may have changed. I personally have been way too guilty of never going to the dr. Up until last year when I started having bad knee issues and ended up having knee surgery. I would not even consider it, unless there was something of immediate concern I didn’t even entertain it. Life can be hard enough without major medical issues and I’m learning that going in for my check ups can help prevent a life altering scenario.
I have been a lone wolf all my life, break a finger grab a popsicle stick and tape it on. If I could reasonably fix whatever it was I did. Joined a men’s mental health support group and learning (slowly) that’s it’s okay to speak up when things get hard. Up until that point I led my life as it’s my problem and I have to be the one to fix it!! Didn’t feel safe about talking about things with anyone. Now going on almost 12 months of group I will share pretty much anything. And doing things on your own will only lead you down a dark road. It’s okay to speak what you feel, if we do and someone may have another perspective that isn’t going to solve anything necessarily but for me a comment made even if there’s only a small part that I can relate to helps. It gets you thinking about what is real, how much is amplified from whatever it may be.
Just as with the fear of prostate problems and whether or not someone will speak up and seek help is the same thing. We get this preconceived narrative and that determines our next step. Open dialog and be completely honest how things went for you and we could help a lot of men out there.
The worst part about all of this for me was constantly going in and exposing myself to at times who knows how many people. For me I started to loose my modesty after the 3rd visit during the cystoscopy. At that point it becomes I need to do what they ask if I want to heal. I joked with my therapist that I’ve had more hands on my nether regions in the last 6 months than the last 30 years combined. 🤷