We have worked together with one of our readers to put together this story on his recent experiences.
“I had been increasingly suffering from this problem, so my GP referred me to a Urologist.
“To the Urologist it was all terribly simple. I had an enlarged prostate gland, (confirmed by an ultrasound,) and, as a result, the tube carrying the urine from my bladder to my penis which passed through my prostate gland had become increasingly constricted over the years, meaning I had to strain more and more to urinate. The effect of all this straining was that my bladder had become more and more muscular, and, as a result, it’s capacity had become very much reduced, so that it became full much quicker, and when it got full it woke me up.
“The solution was also terribly simple. I needed to have a TURP operation on my prostate gland, so that my urine could pass as easily from my bladder to my penis as it had done when I was younger, and the effect of this over time would be that my bladder would become more and more relaxed resulting in it’s capacity gradually getting greater and greater. And, in the meantime, there was medication that could lessen the the likelihood of a full bladder waking me up.
“So I went ahead believing all this.
“The Urologist charged me $600 for his nurse to spend less than an hour conducting tests on me which he said he needed to confirm his diagnosis, and then $3,200 for him to carry out the TURP operation which I believe took him less than an hour, (plus I was up for nearly $4,000 for 2 days in hospital,) AND, to all intents and purpose, nothing has changed from how I was before I saw him. In particular, I have to strain just as much to urinate, there are no signs that the capacity of my bladder is increasing, and I am waking up just as often during the night. AND the medication he prescribed for me referred to above seemed to make things worse, not better. AND, last but not least, for the rest of my life, it appears, my sex life will be affected detrimentally by the fact that I am not going to be able to experience the pleasure that comes from ejaculating – one of the effects of the operation is that any semen that’s produced ends up in the bladder rather than coming out of the penis, something that wasn’t mentioned by the Urologist.
“And all emails to the Urologist about any of this have been ignored. He has an ordinary email address on his website, but in our experience never even acknowledges anything sent to him.
“For those suffering any medical problems, one of your important aims should be to try to avoid falling into the hands of surgeons who appear to have no real interest in helping you – just in getting generous fees, (like $3,200 for less than an hour’s work,) for carrying out procedures on you, when these procedures don’t help, either because they were unnecessary or inappropriate to start with, or were carried out negligently. Unfortunately it would appear clear that this is something I’ve failed to do in this instance.