As if this was not enough: As you may have read elsewhere, Karen and I hosted a little Russian orphan from just outside of Moscow a month or so ago. As it turns out, both of us, first myself and then Karen,came down with Hepatitis A, extremely rare in the United States- With some degree of certainty from Kirill ( See also: Outbreak in Russia )
While I was severely ill for over 27 days, I was hospitalized for six hours, at best. Karen has been hospitalized over eight times here in town and twice at Stanford Medical Center.
Currently they are ruling-out a liver transplant. Details to follow.
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Technically, It's 'Acute Unilateral Epididymitis' at this stage. In retrospect, hindsight always being clearer, it emerged on a Friday Night when I noticed a little more bleeding than normal ( Being the proud owner of a 'Remarkable Neurogenic Bladder' I've been 'self-cathing' for over five years. At least three times per year I see some - generally less than 1 -2 CC's- occult bleeding- As well as a 'background' Urinary Infection ). This time it was bright and about 2- 3 CC's.
I made a mental note to check the next day.
Saturday evening however, I had not only bright occult blood, But 'puss' and some additional 'bodily fluids'- Presumably Semen and Seminal Fluid- Not to mention some right testicular pain.
[ Note: Once again we are dealing with Mr. Murphy's Laws and Axiums ]
I called my Urologist's office and was referred to His Nurse Practicioner On-Call. Her diagnosis was rapid and concise, articulate and erudite- based on that, I made an appointment to see ( And here is where we begin to go astray ) her on Monday. My Doctor was off, presumably out-of-town.
Instead of seeing her, I ended up with a 'pool' of Nurse Practioner's maintained by the Association.
Based on the conversation that followed, we can assume they were all fresh out of Nursing School and
with limited Clinical experience.
Case in point: They wanted to do a routine culture based on a urine specimen.
Whoa, You say! What's wrong with that?
There are two other sources of fluid anterior to the bladder along the lower urinary tract. In my case, the sphincter controling urinary flow is all but permanently locked in the closed position. There is no flow, but for the catheter itself, from the lower urinary tract, to the bladder.
The primary source of the infection was clearly below the bladder.
The position of the young Nurse Practicioner was that there was no way to isolate these fluids.
I even offered to show them how. They would have none of it. It simply was not possible.
Research indicates that there is a large percentage of patients who require two, possibly three courses of antibiotic treatment ( once they are found to have Epididymitis ) with surgery in few cases. This posture be one reason why.
The other reason may be that the Testicals and the Epiditymis are, literally, at the bottom of the food chain in terms of blood-chemistry or- In this case, the transmission of Antibiotics.
Interestingly enough, even in the case of a fifty-eight year old male, the pain-threshold is inversely proportional .....
It's sort of like getting hit in the groin with a baseball bat. The thing is- If you get hit in the groin with a baseball bat the pain stops quicker .....
Seventeen days later, Three days after the intial course of treatment, The pain was back. Another round of Levaquin 250 MG .....
