My Bladder Problem, and How I Found Out About My Tumors!
In order for you to understand how and why I found out I had a problem; you have to know something about a private part of my life. This is embarrassing to say as a male, but I sit to pee. The reason is due to a geometry equation. Here’s the deal: I am fat – no, I am obese. I wear my pants and underwear over my belly fat, that hangs lower than my waist.
When I unzip my pants or shorts, the hole it opens, is on a diagonal from my roll of fat, to my pelvis. This creates a triangle. Consequently, my ‘member’ cannot reach the hole adequately enough to urinate without getting some on me or my clothes. As they say, “I’m a grower, not a show-er.”
In order to pee standing up, I have to lower everything below my genital area, which means everything drops to the floor / my ankles. This is bad while in a public urinal. And even if I were in a toilet stall, this still means my clothing touches the dirty floor, which is also undesirable. So, this is the only reason I chose long ago, to sit to pee. This knowledge of me will come into play later on.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to the story.
On the night of July 10th, 2023, but really, close to 1 AM on July 11th, I went to pee. I had drunk a lot of water that day, Monday – so much so, that my urine was basically clear and not yellow. After finishing up and wiping my penis, I notice the toilet paper was pink where it was wet. Then I look into the toilet bowl. It’s bright red! I think “Did I just pee blood?” By the way, my last food intake was around 10 PM, but I was still awake due to my biorhythms’ sleep schedule.
I quickly return to my computer and search the internet for possible reasons why one would pee blood. Most of the information I found said to check in with my doctor. The results ranged from “it could be nothing” to “you’re going to die tomorrow!” Hah. I do not really recommend googling your symptoms because it might make you feel bad, or have “health anxiety.”
Okay, so maybe I should contact my PCP (primary care provider) in the morning – this could be serious. So I went back to what I was doing, probably watching YouTube videos.
However, about 15 minutes later, I had the urge to pee again. This time, as I look into the bowl, I see red and pink liquid, but I also see a clump of blood – a blood clot! Mind you, I have no pain at this time, but I find the stream was start and stop every few seconds. Again, I go to the internet, but this time I update it to include “blood clot” in the search. The results were more serious.
After mentally filtering out possible benign things such as: getting hit in the kidney, playing contact sport, running hard, etc., this issue was indeed scary. Since I have health insurance, I decided to visit a stand-alone emergency room that is less than a few miles away. The time is about 1:30 AM. I wake up my mother to inform her of my issues, and that I am calmly going to the stand-alone ER that is part of the South Texas Health System, or STHS for short.
At the ER, I could only give a small sample of urine, and the color was closer to rust than bright red. Having visible blood in the urine is bad, and I was given a regular CT scan (no contrast) within an hour. I arrived before 2 AM, and the scan was done around 3 AM.
All the while, I have the urge to urinate, and walk down the hall to the nearest restroom (about 20 yards) every 15 to 20 minutes. Each time, I only eliminate about a tablespoon’s worth, and the amount gets lower and lower each time I go. I advise my care givers, but they seem non fussed about it.
My mother surprises me at 5am by arriving in my room at the ER. Together we wait for my CT results. Sometime later, we find out that I have a clump of blood in my bladder, and that they found an 11 cm “mass” on my left kidney. What a bummer. They have no other info, but do refer me to a Urologist. He’s the best in my area, and has a 2-month waiting list for new patients, however, they advise me how to get an appointment within one week.
I remind the attending doctor that I am having trouble peeing, and that I only produce a few drops, but have a strong urge to “go.” Their response is to give me fluids through IV. I believe they thought my bladder was empty, and that the blood clump was giving me false sensations that I had to urinate. They were wrong. I was given a full bag, which eventually filled my bladder.
I was released by 11 AM, a whole 8 to 9 hours after going in. We took their advice and drove a dozen miles into the next city, McAllen, where the urologist’s office is located. My mother goes in while I stay in the vehicle, and we find out I have an appointment for the following Monday, 6 days later.
I arrive back home around 12 noon, and I go to sleep, as I was really tired. I do not drink anything, and I do not eat. This is important. Close to 6 PM, however, I wake up with a huge urge to urinate, but I cannot get one drop to come out. I could tell my bladder was full – no, more than just full. Try as I might, I could not force anything out. I got scared. I felt that I needed some type of catheter to give me that release. I googled for temporary home catheters near me, to no avail. No one carries them. I do find home enema kits, but not catheters off the shelf. (You have to order them and wait for delivery)
I try to ‘go’ again, and try shaking my abdomen (fat and all) and contorting myself, to no avail. The urge has turned into pain. I tell my mother to quickly, but safely, take me back to the ER.
Upon arrival, I let them know what’s up, and that I need a catheter because I haven’t been able to urinate a drop since 3 AM. I am shedding tears as I cannot keep them in, and we are ushered into a room, my mom and I. The attending doctor is the same as when I left, and she remembers me, I find out later. About 7 minutes have passed by since I first talked to the front desk at the ER.
I am in pain – a lot of pain. On the scale of 1 through 10, I would label it a 6, and climbing. “What’s taking them so long?” I ask my mother. She doesn’t know, but I have to take matters into my own hands. I get off the bed, and open my door. The nurse’s station is right outside, and the attending doctor is sitting at a terminal. She sees me crying as I tell her “I am in great pain because I can’t pee. I. Need. A. Catheter. PLEASE!” I beg her. Her face has a shocked look, and that of concern, as she replies with “I will order you a catheter RIGHT NOW! Don’t worry. You can go back into your room. A nurse will be right with you.”
‘Barely?’ I think to myself. ‘You’re BARELY going to order me a catheter? It has been 7 minutes and you’re BARELY going to order me a catheter?’ Nobody listens to me. I inch back into my room, and my mother helps me lay on the ‘bed.’ A whole 2 minutes later, a male nurse walks in with a foley catheter kit. It is a size 18, with two access points; that’s what I’m calling them. (One for urine exit, another for liquid insertion) The average size given to adult men is 14 to 16 FR, but I find out later that it’s a size 18. No matter.
The nurse states “this may feel uncomfortable” as he starts the insertion process. The discomfort is minimal, and short lived, and my bladder starts to eliminate urine quickly. I start to feel better instantly! The flow stops about 2 minutes later, while the nurse is still there. He sees the level in the bag, and goes to the door and tells the doctor “… 800.” I could hear her response.
“Eight hundred?”
“Yes, 800 milliliters.” He informs her. My recollection is a little fuzzy, but I know I heard more than one person’s voice, maybe even 3 more, on top of the doctor and nurse, and they all say “800?” in shock, in quick succession.
An adult bladder can hold, on average, 500ml, but one gets the urge to go when it is about 200-300 ml. Mine had 800ml, not including the liquid that is still in the tube. (My guess is another 100ml)
As it turns out, a small clump of blood was blocking the exit from my bladder. It was blocking it since 3 AM! I told them THEN, and their response was to give me fluids, when they should have investigated the possibility of blockage and given me a foley catheter. But they did not. I whole-heartedly believe this was a mistake on their part. I feel like saying it was malpractice, but that’s a little harsh, isn’t it? Everyone is human, and humans make mistakes and bad choices. However, I have insurance, and I should have been given the utmost care. Alas, this was not the only time that medical people do not listen to the patient, or at least to me. I was given an IV butterfly needle, just below my inside elbow, but nothing was connected to it. No fluids. My blood pressure (BP) was about 178 over 99. Very high, but to me, very reasonable due to my ordeal.
Listen, the Titanic sank because a lot of little things happened in succession, which any number of them could have been handled, but not when they all happened at once. I feel that I was a victim of a lot of ‘little’ issues that alone, are nothing bad, really; but because they all happened to me in succession, had caused me to have a bad experience with our health system, or at least, my health care professionals.
Let’s call this strike one.