Wednesday, March 11th, 2015

Last night I slept well until I woke up at 2am and slept fitfully after that even when I got up at 5am and took another sleeping pill.  I finally got up at 9am.

On the TV news there seemed to be a discussion about the high peso against the dollar.  They showed drilling for oil so it might be that the current low price of oil is causing the weakness in the peso.  They also appeared to interview a man who exports products to the US and he didn’t seem happy.

I did a little google research and the procedure I had yesterday was a cystoscopy with a cystoscope.

A cystoscope is a thin tube with a camera and light on the end. During a cystoscopy, this tube is inserted through your urethra and into your bladder so the doctor can see inside. Your urethra is the tube that carries urine out of your bladder.

How the Test Is Performed

Cystoscopy is performed with a cystoscope -- a special tube with a small camera on the end (endoscope). There are two types of cystoscopes:

• Standard, rigid cystoscope
• Flexible cystoscope

The way the cystoscope is inserted varies, but the test is the same. Which cystoscope your health care provider uses depends on the purpose of the exam.
The procedure usually takes 5 - 20 minutes. The urethra is cleansed. A numbing medicine is applied to the skin lining the inside of the urethra, without using any needles. The scope is then inserted through the urethra into the bladder.
Water or salt water (saline) flows through the cystoscope to fill the bladder. As this occurs, you will be asked to describe the feeling. Your answer will reveal information about your condition.
As fluid fills the bladder, it stretches the bladder wall. This lets your health care provider see the entire bladder wall. You will feel the need to urinate when the bladder is full. However, the bladder must stay full until the exam is finished.
If any tissue looks abnormal, a small sample can be taken (biopsy) through the cystoscope and sent to a lab to be tested.

How the Test Will Feel

You may feel slight discomfort when the cystoscope is passed through the urethra into the bladder. You will feel an uncomfortable, strong need to urinate when your bladder is full.

You may feel a quick pinch if a biopsy is taken. After the cystoscope is removed, the urethra may be sore. You may have blood in the urine and a burning sensation during urination for a day or two.

Normal Results

The bladder wall should look smooth. The bladder should be of normal size, shape, and position. There should be no blockages, growths, or stones.

As I understand it the only known abnormality I have is an enlarged prostate.

Today is an unusually warm day here at the finca.  It’s a good thing we don’t have to move around much.

Teresa showed me one of those “silica gel desicant” packages and asked me what it said on the package.  I told her it says “Dangerous, do not eat” and she told me she thought it was sugar and put it in her juice.  I read a little more on the internet and mainly the side effects are:

·       Dry eyes

·       An irritated, dry feeling in your throat

·       Aggravated, dry mucous membranes and nasal cavity

·       An upset stomach or stomach discomfort

With a little luck it all fell to the bottom of the glass and didn’t dissolve in the juice.

Teresa asked me for the results of my last blood test.  We both went through all my medical records but couldn’t find it.  I saw that the blood draw was on Wednesday, February 18^th but according to my notes we never picked them up.  I remember Teresa going to Nueva eps on February 23^rd when they couldn’t find me in their system.  She insists she/we picked up the test results but we can’t find them and I have no mention of that in my blog.  Finally she found it – no date on the paper except the date of my blood draw – February 18^th - but my PSA was a high 4.67.  She keeps showing me some important medical paper and telling me to save it.  I try to tell her that if we keep everything in the plastic envelope we use for that purpose than everything is saved.

I understand that Monday we will go to Nueva eps in Envigado to get another appointment for me to see the Urologist.

Tonight on Master Chef they were at a children’s kiddie park.  The chefs divided into 2 teams and each had to cook for 40 children.

I took my sleeping pills at 10:40 and we went to bed at 11pm.

T-shirt of the day: Under a starry sky.