I thought I had a UTI but it turned out to be prostatitis. The first doc just had me produce a urine sample. She did a dip test right there in her office complex. She prescribed Septra, sent the urine to the lab and sent me home. Nothing grew in the urine sample so she told me I could discontinue the Septra.
Unfortunately for me, the symptoms persisted so I made another appointment with the first available doc. This guy said that he thinks it’s prostatitis but before launching ‘an all out war on bacteria’ he had me repeat the urine test, ordered a basic metabolic panel, CBC, and a PSA test. He told me that the PSA test would be the definitive test for prostatitis though. If I had it my PSA score would be really high compared to my 1.2 level taken 9 months ago.
The test results trickled in, urine had red and white blood cells in it but no bacteria. My white blood cell count was higher than normal, and my PSA was 17.4. If he hadn’t told me to expect it high I would have panicked. He ordered Cipro to be taken for 3 weeks and asked to see me again in a week. Oh, he also gave me Flomax because I had a weak stream.
At my next appointment I reported that I still felt like crap but that I thought it was the Cipro. He switched me to Bactrin and ordered another PSA test to see if it had decreased. I go back to see him in two weeks.
I just got the latest PSA test results online. My current PSA level is 12 something.
Maybe this explains all the false positives attributed to the test but actually due to a doctor’s failure to complete the differential diagnosis. Instead of going for the least likely cause, cancer start by looking for the most likely cause. AIso, docs need to learn all the possible causes for a high PSA score. I looked all this up. It is still possible I have prostatitis and cancer but the velocity is so high and got there so fast so fast that the dual diagnosis scenario is unlikely. That’s another reason I get tested once a year. It’s another reason I recommend all men get a baseline PSA score when they are young and healthy. The more information the doc has the better the diagnosis. I will post the PSA test results in two weeks.
I am not a doctor. My dad died from prostate cancer 29 years ago. Since then I have been reading and learning as much as I can about it.
Yes, I’m feeling better. All this without taking off anything but my coat.