Nearly 3 month journey and current progress...probably Prostatitis

Very glad to have found these forums from the states and appreciate all of the stories from everyone suffering from these hideous prostate issues. I thought I'd share my experiences as an always fit 36 year old and treatments up to today and what has helped me to feel much better and (hopefully) put me on the path to a full recovery.

Late in July, I was on my way back from a long road trip across the United States from Chicago to California and back. The trip, a little more than 2 weeks with a lot of stops along the way (South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Arizona), was great....all the way until the last day of driving. For most of the drive, I was happy to let my 15 year old dog sit on my lap as he loves to curl up and sleep on me during long drives.

I noticed on the way home that I was feeling an urge to urinate more often than I usually needed to and I thought it was a little weird. This feeling persisted once the trip was over and got moderately worse over the next few weeks into August. I also noticed that when ejaculating, there was a focal pain near the tip of my penis. I visited a local immediate care as I suspected a UTI. They did the testing and all came back negative. I asked for a prescription just to be sure and they wrote me a script for something (can't recall what now) and I took it.

Things got better, at least from what I remember they did, for a short time, but came raging back even worse. I developed pain the testicles and the urge to urinate became not just a nuisance, but debilitating. I finally found my way to an emergency room and after an ultrasound of my testicles and a physical examination (poorly done by the way, didn't even check the prostate) was diagnosed with epidydymitis. I was written a script for Doxy for 10 days and given 600mg Ibuprofen to help with inflammation.

After a week my symptoms were improved and I felt well again. I decided to engage again in sexual contact with my girlfriend. The next day was hell on Earth. Severe focal penile pain and frequent urination. After 12 hours, the pain subsided and I had visible blood in my urine. I visited the Urologist and was ordered for a CT of my pelvis and abdomen to look for a kidney stone. I felt remarkably better for the next 4 or 5 days and went back to test my ejaculation (alone this time) and noticed blood in my semen but no pain when it happened. In the meantime, my CT came back and showed an enlarged spleen and moderately distended bladder. My urologist (who I now think is a complete idiot) wrote these off as simply a virus and said "you'll be fine, you'll heal in time" and "don't worry about it".

I disagreed. After what was clearly an infection in my prostate and painful flare up, I sought out a primary care physician. My primary care physician immediately took my symptoms and prescribed a 30 day course of bactrim (of which I am almost 9 days into) and referred me to another urologist. The urologist did a proper exam and upon DRE noticed a boggy and inflammed prostate. He recommended remaining on the bactrim and also prescribed an alpha blocker (which I haven't taken yet as my frequence urination symptoms are gone).

What I did after my emergency room visit was not thought out, just a reaction to feeling terrible, but in the long run I think may have been a big benefit as I feel 90% better than I did on that day and have not had a relapse of my symptoms for more than 2 weeks (outside of muscle pain from anxiety).

I immediately stopped drinking iced coffee in the morning. Not for any reason other than I didn't feel up to going to Dunkin to buy it. I stopped eating fast food (which I didn't really eat much anyways) for the same reason. I didn't feel like eating much at all, so went back to basics and more healthy stuff as I was sick (eggs, turmeric, gluten free bread, yogurt, probiotic, nuts and berries, etc....) And with the bactrim I need to drink a lot of water, so doing that as well.

In my past life I used to love having a diet coke everyday from McDonalds. So good. That's gone now as well. So I changed dietary things out of necessity. That's helped, a lot. I was a person who fasted throughout the day, but have started eating in the morning and the evening and it's really helped my digestion. I definitely recommend that.

Also, my mom is really into alternative medicine and has a rife machine she swears by. I'm fortunate to live about an hour and a half from my folks and she demanded I come to their house and hooked me up on that thing for a day and a half for inflammation. Whether those things work or not, it definitely cleared me out. I think that helped. While I was there I was also downing cranberry juice like it was my job.

I was originally prescriped Cipro by my primary care, but refused it because of its severe side effects and asked for the bactrim instead. He put me on a 30 day course. I think this is really important in the early stages of something like this. Most of us know how difficult the prostate is to treat with antiobiotics because of the molecular biology of the gland and the fact that the infections are often biofilm infections that are notoriously difficult to eradicate. I think had I been given a strong antibiotic right off the bat for a long enough period of time, this infection would have been beaten back much earlier. I have a very different (and more negative) view of the healthcare system now than I did before any of this occurred. Really advocate for yourself and push to find the root cause rather than just treating the symptoms of what you're experiencing.

I have read that many have not found relief with ejaculation. I have had the opposite experience. The first time I noticed there was blood in my semen it was very red, and clearly very fresh. After my first week on bactrim, I felt well enough to test out the old pipes again and saw that the red blood had become much more brown. I've continued to ejaculate for the past 3 days and each day it becomes less brown and more of a yellowish color. I'm hoping to continue to clear out some of the waste from the infection and get back to a normal situation. I will say that after the first ejaculation, I definitely felt burning in my urethra afterwards and would recommend that you allow yourself plenty of time in the bathroom to allow small amounts of fluid to pass over time after doing so to clear all of that acidic waste out.

The last 3 days have been great so far, and I'm hoping that the next 3 or so weeks of antiobiotics and permanent changes to my diet and fluid intake are going to pay off with long term relief. To me the worst part about this whole process is how difficult it is on your psyche. The anxiety and helplessness I've felt have been profound and the stress it brings on have only added flank pain, muscle aches, headaches, and other things to an already difficult situation. My mind flies from lymphoma to another difficult disease frequently, but when I can get my head right, I notice that I do feel much better. Focusing on breathing is one that that has definitely helped.

After my course of antibiotics, I am looking to start taking a prostate supplement and was wondering what, if any, experience people have had with them. I've seen a lot about saw palmetto and was going to head in that direction, but would love to know what has helped others.

I pray that everyone here finds relief from these damn prostate issues and eventually health and happiness as well. I'm happy to add you to my daily prayers if you'd like. Keep your heads up and I'll keep this updated!

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