Graphic Thread - warning - of course this happens on a 'Sunday'

[episodic]

Update 2:
Looks like they 'probably' found what was wrong, and hopefully not serious. Still have to have a sadly expensive scan to figure out what is wrong. Fun thing is if they had done the scan while I was in the ER, it wouldn't have cost me any extra. Don't know how any person of average means has anything at all chronically wrong with them. I've already spent probably over $300 in two days just to get a 'possible' diagnosis, with the prospects of the scan cost me another grand out of pocket. That on top of the almost $450 a month insurance I already pay.



UPDATE:
Here is my rant. I just spent $150.00 copay because blood was dripping out of me. So I go to the ER. The doctor on call for my doc even said, yea, if the bleeding keeps going come in. The bleeding started without going to the bathroom.

So I go. Sit there explain everything. They take blood and the doc presses my back, groin, stomach asks about pain, etc (I have none). The look at my privates, etc. They draw blood. They get a urine sample. They give me an IV of normal saline.

They come back a little later telling me, no infection, go home and see your doc tomorrow. I kid you not a sheet for Tylenol was in the packet explaining the side effects and that I should take it if pain was experienced.

I call the doctor back, express my displeasure (as politely as I could) in knowing 'exactly' what I knew when I came in. The doc said it might be due to physical activity, etc, mentioned I was a little dehydrated (I had taken a long nap before I decided to go and hadn't drank water since noon or so, I'm more dehydrated on an average work day as I can't go to the bathroom when I want to at my job). I retorted that 'slight' dehydration would not cause blood dripping from my privates. They should said sorry that you are dissatisfied. They said if I were somewhere at a 'large medical facility' - they might would have more options, etc.


THIS IS WHY GUYS have a rep for not wanting to go to an ER - huge waste of time/money lots of times /rantoff

I'm scared to know if I get bills other than my copay - I don't use my health insurance enough to fully understand it. I can think of a million other things I needed to spend 150.00 on.

-----------------------------

Is an ER trip warranted?

Here is everything I know that may be of help in keeping me from freaking out, because googling these symptoms gives me the big "C" as a possibility everytime.

So here goes:

Since time change, I've been cycling more. I was doing 200 miles a month or so, but I've upped it to where I'd average 400 this month, so I've ridden 'more' this month so far.

Thursday, I raced - hard and fast with alot of guys - kicked my butt. Cramped that night, but other wise fine. I'm talking 23+ mph for 20 miles.

Friday, I rested.

Saturday, I rode 45 miles at a converstational pace - 15-16 mph.

Sunday, today - I rode 40 miles at a relaxing pace as well.

here is the graphic part, you've been warned:

At the beginning of the ride, I had a small sharp pain in my 'taint' that I otherwise would have forgot about, as it quickly subsided as I adjusted myself, and I thought I had just 'pinched' myself down there with my shorts not being adjusted or something.

Nothing remarkable about the ride, other than I needed to go the the bathroom pretty bad by the time I got home. Nothing that warranted a pit stop - but just a need to come in and go.

So I went.

Blood came out - it was clotted. (I took pics for the doctor whenever I get to seem him). It was only at the start of the stream. One clot was 'long' and stringy. The other was 'short' with a little blood around them.
Of course that freaked me out.

I've been reading up on this. I live in an isolated area with no quick care clinics on weekends, only an emergency room at a local hospital.

I waited a while, drank alot of water, and the same thing happened again - not as 'much' but pretty much the same thing in the same way.

It did not 'hurt' - but it 'stung' a little when the clot passed. I am in 'no pain' to speak of. It was more a 'surprise' that something came out if you can understand that.

I've read that these things can be caused from everything from cancer of the bladder to some 'runners' get it after hard runs. I found some mention of cyclists sometimes getting it too.

So ER or not? What should I demand of my doc tomorrow?

Sigh.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Have you looked up this phenomenon on cycle-specific forums? I know with high mileage, problems can arise with numbness in the taint area and I'd imagine it's feasible to get some damage causing blood in the urine. I'm not saying you shouldn't see a doctor, but I am saying you should be more careful with your mileage in the future. Like with running, you can get overtraining injuries if you go for too long too frequently. The injuries just involve your manhood parts and make it a bit more worrisome. I definitely wouldn't call cancer or even urinary tract infection. I'd call it excessive cycling.

 

[Vasp]

IMO blood in urine is not at all a good sign.

small kidney stones- may be

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Like SC said.

You should buy what some of us call a nut saver seat. They are worth every penny. They make them for women to granted i don't think there is a nickname for it.

Oh, the price is not outrageous. If you bike alot though, you need them. They are quite common. Any bike shop will have them.

 

[episodic]

Like SC said.

You should buy what some of us call a nut saver seat. They are worth every penny. They make them for women to granted i don't think there is a nickname for it.

Oh, the price is not outrageous. If you bike alot though, you need them. They are quite common. Any bike shop will have them.

It could be about the bike, or it could be 'cancer' or anything in between. I'm in a pretty pissed state now that I go to a regional medical center with blood coming from ya know - and they basically say, yep - see your doc tomorrow. Medical care today is a joke. I'm ready to drop my employee health insurance and just have a good time with the extra money.

I'm worried as my dad was healthy and in shape and died of cancer at 42. I'm 37 and they just go yep, no infection - yea sometimes it is excercise, sometimes it is something more serious. Nope we are not going to try to figure it out. Everything I read says you should catch things early, go to a doctor immediately - what good does it flipping do that when you go noone ever investigates anything. I read about stuff they have all the time. Should they have not ultrasounded me for stones? Should they have not done blood work that shows prostate cancer markers? Should they not have done a cystoscopy? I mean I'm bleeding there with or without urination, and they just press my back ask if it hurts and tell me that I don't have an infection and send me home.


I even protested, and the reply was we could admit you - but we won't do anything but bed ya down for the night.
Yea, I'm mad.

 

[mechBgon]

I'm not a doctor, but if that happened to me, I'd start with the assumption that I might've just damaged the urethra at the time I felt the pain you mentioned. Seems like something that a hospital could inspect with an optical probe (I don't know the technical name for such a thingie).

What could cause the damage... I could only speculate that perhaps a small kidney stone got in the wrong place at the right time?

 

[episodic]

I'm not a doctor, but if that happened to me, I'd start with the assumption that I might've just damaged the urethra at the time I felt the pain you mentioned. Seems like something that a hospital could inspect with an optical probe (I don't know the technical name for such a thingie).

What could cause the damage... I could only speculate that perhaps a small kidney stone got in the wrong place at the right time?

Cystoscope. Yea, thats why I went, I wanted the full shebang. It is near midnight, and I'm still bleeding little bits here and there. I won't be able to sleep till I get this figured out.

 

[Dallascisco]

First off all, like other have said get a better bike seat. On long rides that is alot of pressure on a sensitive area of the body that has alot of blood vessels. It's possible you busted a capillary, which would explain the blood but lack of pain. Capillaries are only 1 cell thick and break\regenerate all the time.

The only other times I would know of that blood would be in the urine would be some types of STD, urinary tract infection, to much iron in the blood, kidney infection. All of these would have some type of pain, discomfort, or other visible indicator. My wife is a former paramed so I'll ask her.

In my opinion, blood in the urine is nothing to be fucked with as it has the potential to be a bad thing. I do understand your frustration in dealing with the medical system. I've had similar problems and like you only go if I absolutely had too. When i was sick as a dog last year with a bout of food poisoning I didn't even go.

 

[episodic]

Hey would love input from anyone as I'm sitting here about to bite my fingernails off waiting.

Saw a urologist this morning. He did a prostate exam, tested me again for infections, did a screening that shows how much urine I have left in my bladder after I urinate, and then talked to me.

Im presenting totally painless bleeding from there, even some when not going to the bathroom. It is still happening now. He canceled some of his appts for tomorrow for a cystoscopy. The "C" word was discussed. Supposedly they were to call me back with a catscan time (they haven't yet).

I know from reading online you hope it is an infection (I have none).
Then you hope it is prostate enlarging (mine isn't)
Then you hope you have stones of some sort (I don't have any pain, that sort of makes that a lower chance)
Then you start looking at weird stuff and cancer.

I found this jewel online in a urology PDF- not quoting word for word but here goes

When gross hematuria without pain is present, bladder cancer is indicated unless otherwise ruled out.

The doc seemed nervous and serious, something I don't get from docs ever.

Sigh. I just want to sleep till then.

First off all, like other have said get a better bike seat. On long rides that is alot of pressure on a sensitive area of the body that has alot of blood vessels. It's possible you busted a capillary, which would explain the blood but lack of pain. Capillaries are only 1 cell thick and break\regenerate all the time.

The only other times I would know of that blood would be in the urine would be some types of STD, urinary tract infection, to much iron in the blood, kidney infection. All of these would have some type of pain, discomfort, or other visible indicator. My wife is a former paramed so I'll ask her.

In my opinion, blood in the urine is nothing to be fucked with as it has the potential to be a bad thing. I do understand your frustration in dealing with the medical system. I've had similar problems and like you only go if I absolutely had too. When i was sick as a dog last year with a bout of food poisoning I didn't even go.

 

[Blieb]

Update?

I used to ride a lot and had some pain from time to time (don't much feel like posting specifics about my junk), but never any blood.

 

[episodic]

Had cystoscope today. Have to have cat scan Thursday. My bladder looked normal he said. He thinks he found why I was bleeding, but still wants the scan of my abdomen to rule out stones and kidney growths. He found an area near my prostate that looked like a tear. He sampled it and cells from my bladder just in case.

Having a cystoscope ranks right up there with the worst things I've had to do. Right now I'm just beside myself that this is going to cost us over a thousand dollars when this is over with. Money was already tight. This makes me feel guilty for just not ignoring it and hoping it went away. Sigh.

 

[tedrodai]

Update 2:
Looks like they 'probably' found what was wrong, and hopefully not serious. Still have to have a sadly expensive scan to figure out what is wrong. Fun thing is if they had done the scan while I was in the ER, it wouldn't have cost me any extra. Don't know how any person of average means has anything at all chronically wrong with them. I've already spent probably over $300 in two days just to get a 'possible' diagnosis, with the prospects of the scan cost me another grand out of pocket. That on top of the almost $450 a month insurance I already pay.

Hope everything is going well for ya on the recovery front, and that it was indeed nothing serious.

I just wanted to provide a little bit of input on the ER's perspective though. I'm not trying to belittle you or your feelings or say whether they did a good job at your ER visit, but I'm married to a doctor and so I have a little insight as to what's going on. And so even though your experience may not have been pleasing, maybe you can understand where they are coming from at least.

Now the ER is just that...Emergency Room. They see everything from someone with a cold who doesn't want to go to a general practice doc (for whatever reason) to people having strokes and heart attacks to people in horrible accidents of some sort with bones broken all over the body, devestating burns, impaled/lacerated/missing body parts, etc etc. Their primary purpose in the ER is to keep people from dying if at all possible. They'll attempt to assign you a priority based on your symptoms (and I'm sure you've heard occasional stories of how that sometimes fails), and you may have to wait ages to see a doc because of that. However, an ER can be VERY busy, and if the doctor sees you and doesn't find signs of an immediate life-threatening problem, they're gonna shuffle you out the door ASAP so they can evalutate OTHER possible immediately life-threatening situations. Even in bad cases such as the "C" word, while they may be technically able to diagnose you on the spot, there is usually nothing they would be able to do right away that would increase your chance to survive and recover, while other patients may definitely or may possibly need assistance ASAP in order to survive (or save a limb, or any number of reasons they may prioritize someone).

People who make a trip to the ER usually despise the place, but it is not an easy thing to be an ER doc and make those decisions. Yet if they did not make decisions like that, they would be doing every patient a disservice. You might get lucky and get a more full treatment if the ER is not busy when you arrive, and the doctors aren't physically/mentally exhausted, ...and they aren't butholes lol... but I would personally consider that a bonus rather than expected level of care. I would expect them to treat me with respect, but you have no idea...some people come in for some silly things.

Of course, discussing problems of medical care (especially costs) is a can of worms which I'm trying not to open, and what I said in this post doesn't cover the whole spectrum but rather a simplified overview of the ER scene...but I hope it allows people to gain some perspective.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

UPDATE:
Here is my rant. I just spent $150.00 copay because blood was dripping out of me. So I go to the ER. The doctor on call for my doc even said, yea, if the bleeding keeps going come in. The bleeding started without going to the bathroom.

So I go. Sit there explain everything. They take blood and the doc presses my back, groin, stomach asks about pain, etc (I have none). The look at my privates, etc. They draw blood. They get a urine sample. They give me an IV of normal saline.

They come back a little later telling me, no infection, go home and see your doc tomorrow. I kid you not a sheet for Tylenol was in the packet explaining the side effects and that I should take it if pain was experienced.

I call the doctor back, express my displeasure (as politely as I could) in knowing 'exactly' what I knew when I came in. The doc said it might be due to physical activity, etc, mentioned I was a little dehydrated (I had taken a long nap before I decided to go and hadn't drank water since noon or so, I'm more dehydrated on an average work day as I can't go to the bathroom when I want to at my job). I retorted that 'slight' dehydration would not cause blood dripping from my privates. They should said sorry that you are dissatisfied. They said if I were somewhere at a 'large medical facility' - they might would have more options, etc.


THIS IS WHY GUYS have a rep for not wanting to go to an ER - huge waste of time/money lots of times /rantoff

I'm scared to know if I get bills other than my copay - I don't use my health insurance enough to fully understand it. I can think of a million other things I needed to spend 150.00 on.

Sorry to say this, but I have no sympathy for your rant at all.

The role of the ER is not to find out what is wrong with you. The role of the ER is to find out what isn't wrong with you. That means ruling out UTI, pyelonephritis, sepsis, other infections, cancer, coagulopathies, kidney failure, other kinds of trauma, etc. If you're stable and you're not likely to die overnight, then you're stable enough to either be seen by a general medicine physician, or be sent home. Even if you have cancer, unless the cancer is going to cause a bowel perforation, stroke, or cardiac arrest within the next 24 hours, it's not their problem. If you present to the ER with something that doesn't superficially look immediately serious, then they will just bundle you off somewhere else and get mad at you doing it, because they're so busy looking after the likes of you they might miss and kill someone they could actually help with, like a 6-year old with bacterial meningitis or someone who's come in with a heart attack who needs anticoagulation and a stent placed within the next 60 minutes.

This is the reason why you never, ever go to the ER unless you think your condition is serious and needs emergency medical care, because the ER is not a free GP clinic, though some people think it is. The ER is a very expensive place to be, both in terms of money and time, and it is this way because they are prepared to deal with things that will kill people in the next few hours, not things that will make people mildly unwell, or even things that will kill people in the next few weeks or months.

This is a rather narrow view of the ER, but it is more accurate than the view that most people seem to have, which is that it is the place that can't turn you away so they have to treat your runny nose and cough.

 

[episodic]

Sorry to say this, but I have no sympathy for your rant at all.

The role of the ER is not to find out what is wrong with you. The role of the ER is to find out what isn't wrong with you. That means ruling out UTI, pyelonephritis, sepsis, other infections, cancer, coagulopathies, kidney failure, other kinds of trauma, etc. If you're stable and you're not likely to die overnight, then you're stable enough to either be seen by a general medicine physician, or be sent home. Even if you have cancer, unless the cancer is going to cause a bowel perforation, stroke, or cardiac arrest within the next 24 hours, it's not their problem. If you present to the ER with something that doesn't superficially look immediately serious, then they will just bundle you off somewhere else and get mad at you doing it, because they're so busy looking after the likes of you they might miss and kill someone they could actually help with, like a 6-year old with bacterial meningitis or someone who's come in with a heart attack who needs anticoagulation and a stent placed within the next 60 minutes.

This is the reason why you never, ever go to the ER unless you think your condition is serious and needs emergency medical care, because the ER is not a free GP clinic, though some people think it is. The ER is a very expensive place to be, both in terms of money and time, and it is this way because they are prepared to deal with things that will kill people in the next few hours, not things that will make people mildly unwell, or even things that will kill people in the next few weeks or months.

This is a rather narrow view of the ER, but it is more accurate than the view that most people seem to have, which is that it is the place that can't turn you away so they have to treat your runny nose and cough.

Sorry, I was told that the condition that I had at the time WAS an emergency by a doctor. Then I found out afterwards had the expensive test I needed just have been ordered while I was in the ER - I would not have had to pay for it separate the next week. This was a test that cost me a grand out of pocket, I was told they should have done while there. So, yea, I was not using it as GP clinic. I had at the time what was presenting as a very serious thing, that noone seemed to do anything about. Most of it boiled down to they could not get a hold of a specialist I needed (I believe). I will do anything "NOT" to go to an ER. I even stitched myself once (years ago).