deaninkl

Step away if you don’t like stories of blood and stupidity. For older male riders worth reading if you have had any water troubles….

A few years ago I started noticing a reduction of flow when passing water, occasional lower abdominal pain (a dull ache) that would come and go.. and, the tell tail aging signs of needing to get up to pee a few times each night…. Instead of seeing a doctor, I put it down to aging (gracefully), put up with the pain and discomfort and buried my head, stupidly in the sand, I didn’t even tell my wife…

My Friday night drinking buddies noticed how many times I’d need to go to the men’s room after a few beers, but it was mostly just a subject of jokes, and although I knew I needed to get it looked at.. and, they encouraged that.. I didn’t, for various reasons; work travel, job insecurity, questionable insurance cover… but mostly I was simply avoiding the issue. I learned to live with the symptoms. It felt like I constantly needed to pee.

About two years ago it started to affect me in other ways, after a long ride on my bike, I’d have blood in my pee, it wouldn’t last long, but it was there. I started to need a toilet every hour and would plan trips out based on convenient pee stops. My cycling was affected, ride frequency became less, so I put on weight, not a lot, but already being big and using cycling as exercise it exasperated the situation.

A friend’s partner is a surgeon who specializes in urology issues and recognized my symptoms when my friend noticed my need for a toilet so often and started asking questions. So I agreed to visit a specialist after a short home leave…

Fate intervened and I was taken ill while on leave and had to visit the emergency room of a nearby hospital, I was effectively blocked, I couldn’t pee at all and the pain was excruciating…

After and X-ray and CT scan it was discovered I had a clump of stones in my bladder and a seriously large prostate. The two combining to block my urine tract. A catheter was fitted and pressure instantly relieved… after consultations with a Uraologist I had a 2 hour operation to remove the stones and shave some mass off my prostate. The surgery was successful, and 4 weeks into the recovery I am seeing big improvements.

So.. the reason I write this here, is a warning to anybody else with these symptoms to get it checked out. I was a fool. And seeing the great improvements since the operation I really regret not doing it sooner, I have missed many bike days due to this issue.

I hope in a month or so to be able to get back on a bike, and make up for lost time. But at 59, you can’t afford to lose time like that.

Drink a lot of water and get checked out properly when things you put down to age start affecting your daily life, you may well find that doctors can sort you out with minimal invasion. I left it to long and endured a 2 hour surgery, 6 days of a catheter and the healing that requires. Learn from my foolishness.

eja_ bottecchia

KraneXL

I knew what it was the minute I read the title. Kidney stones can happen to anyone, but prostate starts to backup around 50. Although some man are a lot more prone than others, genetics always prevails. Lifestyle -- exercise and diet -- are also a big part of it. Thanks for posting, and glad to hear you're doing better.

canklecat

Yikes. That sounds really uncomfortable. Glad you got medical attention and are feeling a bit better.

cb400bill

Thread moved to 50+ Pills and Ills.

Tamiya

donheff

I was unknowingly headed in the same direction as the OP. I had all the standard symptoms but no pain. After breaking my hip an X-ray showed a glowing mass were my around the prostate area. An orthopedist looking at that and some lit up areas on my undamged hip said it looks like you have prostate cancer that has metastasized to the hip. Scared the shi** out of me. The urologist immediately recognized the glowing mass as a bladder stone - on the scope it looked like some kind of giant alien artifact. I ended up having the stone removed and a TURP like the OP (roto-rooting the prostate) to imporove flow and avoid recurrence of the stones. It worked well for me - only one trip to the john per night. And I was quickly back on the bike.

missinglink

It was surprising to me that bladder stones could get so large without us realizing they're present. I've had three - two small enough to pass (uncomfortably), and one large enough (doc said jawbreaker size) that had to be broken up with a laser.
Mine were analyzed, and called oxalate stones. The docs suspected that the amount of iced tea I drank play a large part. Switching to green iced tea, as opposed to the standard black tea, was encouraged though. It's considered a diuretic I was told. I was also prescribed a med similar to Flomax that I take daily. It's been ~10 years now with no additional problems.

My family doc gave me some advice if I ever suspect another one. That drinking lemonade would help to break down a stone and aid passage.

Biker395 

Some orthopedist. It's worrisome enough when unexpected masses are discovered in your body ... a good doc who doesn't KNOW what it is will tell you that and see that it is investigated further. But to opine that it is cancer, and Stage IV at that ... I dunno. That's just not OK.