It’s a guy thing V

About 4 weeks after my last entry on my on-going PSA story and after completing my course of antibiotics (12/05/13, the Thursday after Thanksgiving), I got my PSA retested.  My PSA tested at 2.95 which is slightly lower than the 3.0 value from my previous test.

IMO, something IS going on with my prostate.  However, I haven’t experienced any gross symptoms from it (problems beginning to urinate, maintaining a stream, emptying my bladder, etc.).  I suppose this means that my prostate hasn’t swollen or if it has, then my prostate has swollen only a small amount.

My doctor seemed satisfied that the course of antibiotic stopped or slowed the prostate issue enough that he wanted to wait another 6 months and then retest my PSA levels.  This health story is interwoven with another health issue related to my Crohn’s Disease that I’ll discuss in my next entry.

Let me take a moment to recommend that you should begin getting your PSA tested before the recommended age of 40.  The idea is not to worry about the absolute value of the PSA test result, but to instead monitor the direction and speed of change.

The vast majority of the time, prostate cancer grows very slowly and is not aggressive.  Watchful waiting is a legitimate method of dealing these.  However, sometimes it can be very aggressive and if you have a family history of prostate cancer, you should begin monitoring your prostate as soon as is practical.  You should also speak with your doctor and discuss your options.

Running with Crohn’s: Intestinal Bleeding

I apologize for not posting more topics over the last several months.  I’ve had a variety of critical family issues pop-up and I’ve been working hard to resolve them.  Some of the issues involve my Crohn’s disease.  So I’ll post several entries detailing them.  I also have some to share on the other crises in my life.

Occasionally, when I eat certain foods, I suffer from intestinal bleeding.  When it happens, it causes pain but I’m not always certain that I am bleeding.  Sometimes I can see blood in my stool.  Usually the blood is dull red.  Other times, my stool just looks black or has black streaks.  The color indicates how much the blood has been digested.  Bright red blood in the stool means the bleeding occurred lower in the digestive tract.  Black stool or streaks in the stool means the bleeding occurred higher up in the digestive tract.  Dull red stools or streaks in the stool indicate the bleeding occurred somewhere between those points.

Foods that cause me to bleed include foods with bulk fiber.  Of special note are foods like coconut, popcorn, string beans, corn on the cob, etc.  I’ve never had problems with blockage from coconut and popcorn but string beans and corn on the cob have also caused blockages.

This problem afflicts me only rarely, but it requires me to watch my diet and not eat foods that I really like.

My latest bought of problems occurred on 11/27/13 (the Wednesday before Thanksgiving).  I ate a package of chestnuts and did not ensure all of the nuts had the inner peel taken off.  The chestnut itself possesses lots of fiber but the inner peel can be abrasive and exacerbate the ulcers created by the Crohn's Disease process.  Eating the chestnuts caused me to bleed a little and also suffer a variety of other issues.  I’ll discuss those issues more in a later post.