How sex saved my eyesight...if not my life - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

BENZ-LGB · #1 05-21-2003, 10:18 PM

OK, OK...I knew that the "sex" part of the title would catch your attention. But this is not a cheap trick to get your attention, it is a true story.

CAVEAT: Those who are easily offended by frank, open discussions about personal subjects read no further. The rest of you plunge right along.....

Let me start at the beginning. About a year go I began feeling a certain lack of ooomph. I was feeling tired at work, I was feeling less competitive in court, I was feeling less aggressive while riding my bike and, to put it bluntly, I was feeling less horny than usual.

Well, I am no horn dog, but I am reasonably young, in general good physical shape and I've always had a zest for life. So my lack of...horniness and performance was quite disturbing. Coupled with a number of other symptoms, like lack of drive, lack of aggression (good aggression is part of what drives my professional life), unexplained loss of hair, etc., and I began to get very alarmed.

My regular doctor told me that the symptoms that I was experiencing were part of normal fatigue, too much stress at work, pressures of moderm life, getting older, etc. I didn't like his answer, but I figured, oh well, maybe he is right.

But the more that I exercised, and the better that I ate, and the more that I rested, the more that my symptoms continued to worsen. I finally went to a urologist and he checked my hormone levels, and behold, my testosterone levels were as low as my spirits.

To my surprise, however, he told me to come back in a couple of months, get a new testo test, and see how things were then. Now, if you went to your mechanic because your Benz was acting up, the engine was shuddering, oil was burning out of the exhaust, he brakes did not grab, the A/C was out, the power windows wouldn't roll....you would not let the mechanic get away with a: "hey that's normal for an old car, come back and see me again in 2 months." No, you would not!

Neither would I, so I went to an endocronologist. He ran some more hormone tests. A bit of medical talk is necessary at this point: testosterone is produced by the gonads, the testis. Testosterone production is controlled by the pituitary gland. The hypothalamus, the master gland, tells the pituitary gland to produce LH (a hormone), the LH travels souuth to tell the "boys" to start producing testo. The boys then get to work and when there is enough testo flowing in the blood, the hypo gets a signal to stop telling the pituitary gland to send LH south. Testo production then shuts down for the time being. This is an example of a negative fedback system.

In my case, the LH levels were low-to-normal. That means that the boys are fine and ready to produce testo, just as soon as they get the signal from above. A low-to-normal level of LH in the blood means that the pituitary is not working right, i.e. not sending a loud enough signal to the boys! (In other words, if my LH levels were high, that would have meant that the pituitary was trying to get the boys to make testo, but the boys weren't listening!).

Anyhow, the endo-doctor decided to do an MRI of my brain and check things out. Now comes the good news-bad news part.

First, the good news is: contrary to what some of my colleagues may think, I DO have a brain! I have the MRI picture to prove it.

Now for the bad news: I do have a tumor growing right next to my pituitary gland. It is not very big, yet, but it is about to surround the optic nerve AND it is encroaching on the right carotid artery (yes, that's the one that carries oxygen straight up to the brain!)

I have decided to share this with you for several reasons. First, I consider you guys and gals (yes, even those pinko-leftists-Bush-bashing-commies

) part of my extended family. I thrive in the support that I receive from you guys. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, however, I am posting this to alert you to the need to get second opinions, to listen to your body, to not let doctors give you the run-around, to take control of your life and your health.

I am also posting this to prove the point, if I had to prove such a point, that sex is good. Had I not been so concerned with the performance of johnson and the boys, I would have not pursued this issue so aggressively. And, if the tumor had been allowed to grow unchecked, I could have lost my eyesight...and my life. So let's hear it for sex!!!

I am going to see a local neurosurgeon tomorrow. Then I am going to a local university hospital (not the one with the good football team... the other one, the one that used to have a good basketball team!) for more tests and a second opinion (re: surgery).

I'll keep you guys posted. If you believe in prayer, then please pray for me and my family. If you don't believe in such things, then raise a glass of scotch (or your favorite beverage) and wish me good luck. The combined effort of thousands of Benz enthusiasts wishing me good luck can only be good!