It grabs your attention, doesn’t it?
No, I’m not going into details about my sex life. It’s no one’s business, except that it has produced two beautiful daughters of Denise’s and mine.
But earlier this month, something strange had happened.
I had an appointment with a urologist. Of course everyone has to wear face masks, and this has made lipreading an impossible task. What has eased communications between d/Deaf patients and their doctors/nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic is the presence of American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters.
Whenever one sees a doctor or a nurse, and they need ASL interpreters, they would almost always obtain an interpreter.
When I saw my urologist, an interpreter was readily available. At first, it didn’t matter to me that the interpreter was a female. But when I started talking with a female nurse, I found it a bit awkward at first, because I realized I was going to discuss private stuff with the doctor in the presence of a female interpreter whom I had never met before.
When the nurse had to leave the examination room for a brief phone call, Tanya the interpreter quickly told me that she was a third choice, adding that the first two interpreters were males. They called in sick, and Tanya arrived to serve as my interpreter.
As soon as the nurse finished asking me about my medical history, my doctor came. We greeted each other and talked about some private stuff for less than 30 minutes, but I won’t bring up any private details here, no matter how the reader might imagine what my urologist and I had discussed. It’s embarrassing for any man in his fifties (or older) to discuss his sex issues.
When I conversed with my urologist, Tanya was an excellent professional interpreter. I realized that Tanya must have learned about my whole sex life in so short a period of time. I told her that she already learned about my sex life in a “nutshell.” I don’t know if either the doctor or the nurse could appreciate the term ‘sex life in a “nutshell”’ because they’ve heard similar things from many other male patients, but my own experience with my urologist in the presence of a female ASL interpreter must have provided an odd, even interesting perspective for everyone involved, and yes, I mean you the reader.
Henry thank you for posting this. I have had experience with this, in as much as I dealt with my dad’s aging health.
While no one ever wants to talk about this, I think that most folks in our generation remember the Bob Dole commercial and now I applaud him and his entire family supporting him making it.
Back to pop. The last two years of my dad’s life, I pretty much took over his medication and when I could, got better decisions on meds. One such drug was Cialis. It was pretty clear my dad was not forthcoming to his urologist, and while his urologist may have at one time done an examination, he clearly never noticed The footlong scar down the centre of his chest. A glaring sign, dad was like most a recipient of open-heart surgery.
However, despite this scar, the urologist decided to prescribe (off label) Cialis (low dose) for BPH. Well, I know a lot about this, I happen to be a pharmacologist and some of my research included ED and BPH. Cialis does not work. It should never have been approved by the FDA, for BPH. They’re much better drugs out there that have been approved and tested for BPH. Flomax (Tamsulosin) is one of them, it targets receptors in the prostate and decreases the size allowing for greater elimination of urine, yada,yada, yada.
Besides my father being prescribed a low-dose of Cialis, he was prescribed the higher dose, for his sex life with mom.
Sometime after both drugs were prescribed, the low and high-dose, the pharmacy screwed it up, instead of giving my father 30 day supply of low-dose Cialis and six high-dose Cialis per month, they gave a one month supply of high-dose Cialis (30) per month. Basically my father took enough to be functionally five 80 year old porn stars.
By the time I figured out there was an error, dad had to be hospitalised for hallucinations and vertigo. No the drs didn’t figure it out, I did.
He spent two weeks in the hospital and then several more weeks in rehab. This for a wrong series of scripts and failure by a pharmacy to correctly fill his scripts.
Men whom have heart conditions, never should be prescribed Cialis for BPH. Men can be prescribed other medications which were developed for BPH. In addition, men with a history of heart disease, should not take Cialis for ED. If the Dr allows, Viagra is the preferred ED medicine. This is because of the clearance of Viagra (quick) verses the clearance of Cialis (3 days).
This brings me to the end. I’m happy you feel comfortable discussing this and sharing. Kindly –
Nice to read your story, Nina. You’re aware that older men have an increasing difficulty of urinating. I myself am taking Tamsulosin — it has eased my ability to urinate but it doesn’t help one aspect of my sex life. It has nothing to do with ED, but it has something to do with ejaculation. That’s more than what I could say about my sex life :-S
Hi Henry,
Your post was written on my birthday, so there’s probably some paranormal explanation for my getting an announcement of your work anniversary from Linked-in and finding my way to this – of all your blogs – first. Anyway, happy 7th year work anniversary at UB! Wow, have I been gone that long? Glad to see someone at your age and in your condition is still working. May the Force be with you! Hi to all there too, especially Dr. Chen. Enjoyed the levity of your sex life blog. You haven’t lost your sense of humor! …. yet
Thanks, Don. You might be interested in the UB community news article that just came out today. Its link is as follows: https://www.buffalo.edu/ubnow/stories/2022/04/coda.html.