worriedThe news is not good.
The abdominal and pelvic ultrasounds I had last week confirm that I have an enlarged prostate. This was confirmed today by a Hand Prostate Exam (HPE), and so the doctor ordered a Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) blood test. Since I had the HPE today, the PSA can't be done for a period of at least two weeks, as stimulation of the prostate that way can throw the results of a PSA off.
The doctor believes that I have Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) rather than prostate cancer, but only the PSA will give an indication, and then an appointment with a urologist will have to follow. So, my early part of 2010 is already booked. :(
The doctor emphasized that the prostate enlargement is *not*</i> due to the diabetes whatsoever, and occurs in men of my age. There are various treatments, as the link above notes, all of which sound rather unpleasant regardless of methodology, including the pills.
What bothered me the most was when the doctor checked through my file to see what the baseline PSA had been, he discovered that he had never done a prostate exam or had me take a PSA blood test (one has to pay around $30 for them here in Canada). I was quite shocked and all, to say the least, given that he should have been running the PSA blood tests on me once a year for the last four years (since I turned 50).
The only good news was the pelvic and abdominal ultrasounds found nothing else wrong with me, and that includes the kidneys. So I guess there is some good out of this after all, to balance out the bad news.
Anyway, not happy...and the crap just keeps on happening. *Le Sigh*
And that's been my afternoon in a nutshell.