Urologist, new doctor

Saturday 3/8/2008: 2:30pm CST

Hi friends and family,

After an ultasound of my 'privates, something shows some scarey stuff called at first a 'mass'. Uggg! I go to the basement of UAB West, the hospital in Bessemer for tests. This is a different experience for lack of other words.

You disrobe from the waist down and told to put a sheet around you and lie on the exam table. My only plus to add to this at the beginning is a very attractive young lady is my tech. She is very professional and I listen quietly to her instructions. I am given two towels, one to place over your lower abdomen with my stevenson lying under the towel. The other towel I place under my 'butt' and then here goes.

She is seated to my right and a warm flat instument is placed under the towels with her feeling for the targets. She is watching a computer monitor and slowly moves the sensor over and around each of my family jewels. Surprisingly, the instument is warm and it feels like she is using K-Y jell so it slides over the family jewels on each side and front and back.

She talked to me at the beginning about what she was going to do. I told her she was not the first lady doctor or nurse I had no secrets from. My Dr. Elizabeth Ennis and my lady MVP doctor, each gave me a thorough physical years ago, so a lady doctor or nurse in my pants is not a new experience. We laughed. It sure helped that both she and I kept some humor in this.

It took about 20 minutes for this ultrasound and some irregularity is observed, forwarding me to Dr. Christine, my urologist of record. There are two cyst, not masses in this sensitive area, and Dr. Christine found the sore spot that was really hurting me in the groin and into my back and legs.

He told me the good news, and that is to watch these two locations, treating one with anti-inflamatory drugs and the other with just pain medication. He said he saw nothing (right now) that needed surgery, but both spots needed to be watched over the next 2 months. He has me scheduled for another ultasound in May to see if any changes over this period.

It was a good visit but I must admit, he did hurt me in order to find just where I was hurting. Yesterday was meds for pain and a lot of rest after this doctor visit. He said I should be feeling better over the next few days to a week after following his instructions.

Keep me in your prayers as this is all new to me. It may be something I have had for years and just sitting there for me to hit with a new bicycle seat. Then again, it all may be new as older scans some years ago showed no problem. Not having a urologist of record, not having problems, does not give him an older baseline to base his diagnosis on. But the flip side of that, is most men in their 70's have had urologists for years. Now past problems or rare symptoms is really a good thing.

See ya later, so News will be at 11:00,

Jeff the Knutt