UPDATE - Issue 30 - Summer 2007
Phil Goswell's prostatitis story
I've always kept myself very fit, so when my back started to hurt I put it down to my age. I was 48 and thought too much running and cycling had finally caught up with me.
Eventually my wife, Trish, persuaded me to make an appointment with my doctor.
I told him how I felt drained, had occasional lower back pain travelling down to my groin and sometimes had stabbing pains in my testicles.
Phil Goswell and his wife Trisha and daughter Ellie.
He suggested I should rest, take some painkillers and come back if it got any worse. I felt a fraud.
The pains subsided, so I pushed it to the back of my mind. I would get niggles every few months but I tried to hide them from Trish. If they happened at work, I'd go upstairs to my office above my vehicle repair garage in Sandhurst, so nobody would notice. After a couple of hours, the pain would go, leaving me utterly washed out.
Then a couple of months before Christmas last year, the pain got so bad that I could hardly walk and there were times I had to leave work early.
After one attack I just went to bed. When I woke up I felt fine but Trish insisted I had to stay at home.
After a while I was so bored I decided to paint the bathroom ceiling. Then I needed the loo. Five minutes later, I needed to go again. Then again and again.
Next I felt a burning sensation and before I knew what was happening I realised I had wet myself. I was frightened, embarrassed and in agony. Half an hour later it happened again.
When Trish came home from work I told her what had happened, feeling like a naughty schoolboy. I couldn't hold back the tears. I was sure I had cancer.
Trish rang the surgery and the doctor said he'd see me straight away.After examining me he said my prostate was enlarged. I was horrified. I thought only old men suffered from prostate problems, not fit, healthy men like me.
He prescribed strong painkillers and antibiotics and took a sample of blood to send away for testing.
The days passed and the attacks lessened. Trish had the patience of a saint. Lovemaking had become impossible and that was putting a strain on our marriage. Sometimes, we didn't talk at all. When we did, the conversation seemed always to come back to my problem. I was desperate for answers.
My GP called me back for the results of the blood test. 'It's not cancer,' he said. 'It's chronic prostatitis.' I was hugely relieved.
He explained that it was an inflammation of the prostate gland that mostly affects men between the ages of 30 and 50 although men of any age can develop it.
The good news was that it wasn't life threatening and doesn't lead to prostate cancer. It could be treated with antibiotics and pain killers.
The bad news was that it would continue to flare up throughout my life.
But now I know what I'm up against, I can deal with it. I got quite a bit of information on prostatitis from Prostate Research Campaign UK. I was horrified to discover from them how common prostate problems are, and how little research is being done into prostatitis.
I knew they were raising funds to sponsor research so I've decided to cycle from Lands End to John O'Groats this summer to help.
We've also recently discovered to our joy, and against all the odds, Trish is pregnant. As semen is manufactured in the prostate, and mine has obviously suffered some damage, we are overjoyed, as is Ellie our 10 year old daughter. She is ecstatic at the idea of having a little brother or sister.
Reproduced by courtesy of Take a Break.
New treatment for prostatitis
Prostatitis is a condition most men rarely discuss because of its embarrassing symptoms. Sufferers often have urinary frequency, genital pain and cannot sit without increasing their pain. Sexual activity usually makes the pain worse.
Prostatitis is the only one of the big three prostate diseases - prostate cancer and BPH are the others - that strikes men at their sexual peak. It is poorly understood and often unsuccessfully treated.
A new treatment for prostatitis has been developed at Stanford University Urology Department. Rather than treating it as a disease of the prostate gland, the Stanford treatment focuses on relaxing chronic tension and releasing spasm in the pelvic muscles.
The Stanford treatment pioneers a self-administered physical therapy done inside and outside the pelvic floor. It identifies over 60 trigger points inside and outside the pelvis that can refer pelvic pain and symptoms. The protocol simultaneously trains patients in a specific method to relax the pelvic floor and to modify the tendency to tighten the pelvis under stress. The researchers report a high level of symptom relief, when the muscles of the pelvis become soft and relaxed through a self-administered physical therapy. More details can be found at: www.pelvicpainhelp.com/.