Don't know what to think anymore

Hi

This is my 1st post in this forum.

I'm a 61 year old male.

I was diagnosed with BPH approx 7 years ago by my GP but I had been suffering from frequent urination symptoms for several years before that.

At first the GP prescribed Flomax but it didn't help and also caused the well known sexual side effects.

I think he prescribed Avodart back then too but I never gave it much of a chance.

[For some reason I had convinced myself that Avodart, like Flomax and the other alpha-blockers, was supposed to yield rapid symptomatic relief.

When it didn't do that and also gave me sexual side effects I stopped taking it after a few days.]

I then went about Googling every supplement known to man and tried to manage my symptoms using various potions with Saw Palmetto as the basic ingredient.

Sometimes this seemed to be helping just enough but eventually my symptoms worsened.

About 4 years ago my GP referred me to a urologist.

My symptoms included, by this point, having to wake up every hour or 1.5 hours to pee and I often had a sense of urgency to pee several times during the day.

Very often it was difficult to get urination started.

More often than not there wasn't very much urine that came out.

The uro did some tests and confirmed the diagnosis of BPH but told me that my prostate was not very much enlarged.

[Later on he told me that when I first came to see him my prostate measured 41cc (I believe).]

He prescribed Rapaflo, which had the same effect as the Flomax had earlier.

He also prescribed Avodart but I had the same experience again and never gave it a chance.

At some point I found another supplement that seemed to be helping and that lasted for about 3 months and then it stopped working.

After that, at my urging based on the TV ads I'd been seeing, I had him prescribe me the daily dose 5mg version of Cialis.

This seemed to help enormously right away but again it only lasted about 3 months and then stopped working.

Then he put me on alfuzosin and it too seemed very effective right away but stopped working after about 3 months.

Then I tried the Cialis again, along with some supplements, but it didn't seem to be helping.

I then started reading about how Avodart and drugs like it are the only substances, drug or supplement, that actually can shrink the size of the prostate and that it can take up to 6 months for it to bring symptomatic relief.

So we decided I should go back on Avodart and to give it a few months this time.

I continued to take the Cialis to mitigate the sexual side effects of the Avodart this time though.

At this point the uro told me that my prostate had not enlarged much more from the initial size of 41cc that he measure approx 3.5 years earlier, but he didn't actually measure it again.

The 6 months was up about 2 months ago and I went back to my uro completely frustrated, pretty much begging him for some sort of operation so I could get a decent night's sleep again.

He then referred me to a surgeon who was going to do a cystoscopy on me asap which turned out to be last Tuesday.

My understanding was that the cystoscopy would tell him what type(s) of surgery I would be a candidate for.

Since all of these BPH treatments had previously failed with me I was prepared for some sort of new non-BPH diagnosis.

What I wasn't prepared for was for him to tell me that he can see *nothing wrong* with my urinary tract or my bladder.

Supposedly a cystoscopy doesn't actually involve examining the prostate itself, which was news to me.

Whatever fluid they injected into me came back out of me the same way that it would with a healthy male.

Whatever the camera they stuck up in there showed them was perfectly normal as well.

But he stopped short of giving any new type of diagnosis and just sent me back to my uro who I won't be seeing until mid-July.

On the one hand I'm glad that he didn't find anything seriously wrong with me because I had prepared myself for something more serious than BPH.

But now I don't know what the hell to think about my symptoms anymore or how to go about seeking some sort of relief.

And if it's not BPH then wtf kind of doctors have I been seeing for the last 7 years?

I don't know if I should stop taking the Avodart or not.

If my symptoms are not being caused by an enlarged prostate, then the most probable cause is some sort of irritation from sort sort of food I'm eating, or that's the assumption I'm currently working under until I get to see my uro again.

After a little Googling I realized that many of the foods on my current diet are known to be bladder irritants.

But I've been fairly successful on this diet and I hate to just give up on it.

For years I've known that coffee (incl decaf) and caffeinated foods like many teas and chocolate were bad irritants for the bladder and I've been limiting my intake of these anyway.

But now I'm cutting them out entirely.

I've also known that black pepper is a big irritant but it's been the main spice I use on my otherwise bland vegetable dishes.

But I'm cutting it out now too.

Then I read that strawberries, which I've been eating a lot of lately are an irritant, so no more strawberries.

Ditto for raw onions.

Etc., etc., etc.

It's only been 4 or 5 days since I cut out all these foods and there's been no symptomatic relief yet.

Supposedly this might take around 10 days.

I'm totally confused and I really need to get a good night's sleep.

Any input from anybody reading this is welcomed.

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