TURN YOUR HEAD AND COUGH


My wife and I started the new year with new medical insurance and a new plan. We're under an HMO now, as opposed to our previous PPO.

One of the parts of an HMO is the requirement for a referral to specialist doctors, which includes urologists. So today's appointment, referred to as a physical, is a necessary step to getting back to seeing a urologist on a regular basis. With the types of issues over the last decade plus I've seen urologists more frequently than any other type of practitioner. By far.

My previous primary urologist is not on the new plan, but the other one - the doctor who diagnosed and surgically removed my left vas deferens a year ago - is on the new plan. So I'm hoping today is a relatively straightforward strip-and-search which lets me move on.

I'm not sure, to be honest, how much stripping will be involved. Despite my frequent laments regarding my reproductive and urinary systems which requires specialists, today's appointment is with a group medical practice. Even the primary care physician I selected won't be the one seeing me, it's another doctor in the same practice. And these newer medical groups don't take the time or take the steps that an older medical practitioner would. Meaning that they probably don't do much in the way of a true physical evaluation. My last Primary Care Physician, who I haven't seen since well before COVID, was an old school doc who took his time and checked everything out. And I mean everything.

The last group medical exam I had the doctor didn't have me drop my drawers until doing the prostate check, which is an uncomfortable 10 seconds of a finger up your ass, leaving you with the embarrassing task of wiping the gel off. No genital exam of any kind, which is really my problem center.

(My current issues are residual pain in the left inguinal area, far improved from before the surgery, but still present after the post-surgical twinges and spams settled down. Also, on the right side of my groin nobody has conclusively decided if it's a varicocele - varicose veins in your scrotum - or a calcifying right-side vas deferens. Then there are my very stubborn kidney stones. And lastly, a spasming pinpoint of pain to the immediate left of my dick. Not the fun sort, either.)

Off-sides penalty!
(Another effect of the surgeries is from an aesthetic standpoint, which I don't think I've mentioned until now. My penis, which has been pretty well centerline to the trunk of my body, is now right of center, almost to the point where the left side of my dick is centerline to the trunk. Functionally it doesn't make a difference, but is an odd side-effect of the series of surgeries. Not sure why the scar tissue would push it offsides, but it has. Nothing to be done about it, but just another issue with my crotch.) 

I'm a little apprehensive about the hernia test. With the pain and scar tissue  already present the left side may be pretty sensitive to hernia-check pressure.

So we'll see how the new doctor conducts his practice. At the very least I'll have my referral to my urologist, a guy I already know and trust.

Stay tuned.

(Addendum: The doctor came in and had clearly seen my charts. He starts with "Okay, we're not doing your physical today. We need to review a bunch of stuff." And we were off to the races, going through my medical history and my various ailments. The weird thing is that all-in-all I'm pretty healthy, it's mechanical stuff that's causing problems, not illness. I stayed dressed the entire time, but have a physical in March - which I gather will be a "real" physical, not a blood review. And I have referrals to the docs I need to see....)



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