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!

Snibble · #2 05-21-2003, 10:37 PM

Good luck with your surgery... hopefully you'll get your "mojo" back

unkl300d · #3 05-21-2003, 10:43 PM

Benz-LGB, Thanks for having the balls to share this anecdote
with us. This type of info is important because listening to your body as one does to your car, ought to motivate one to action if
something seems out of balance.

I am surprised that a doctor, living in an environment of defensive medicine, did not do , or order, more tests!!

Stuff like this has to be caught at the bud, not later.

Phew, celebrate good health!

Denis

420benz · #4 05-21-2003, 11:00 PM

Best of luck to you and your famly.Hope all goes well with your surgery.

PC Dave · #5 05-21-2003, 11:00 PM

Godspeed, I'll say a prayer that this is wrapped up quickly and without recurrence. Thank God you caught it early.

suginami · #6 05-21-2003, 11:03 PM

Good luck man. I hope you get the good news you deserve.

BenzOnline · #7 05-21-2003, 11:21 PM

wow good luck man all the best!

anthonyb · #8 05-21-2003, 11:48 PM

Good luck, and I hope your surgery grabs 100% of that tumor!

-anthony

JCE · #9 05-22-2003, 12:24 AM

Good luck with everything - you are so right about a second (and even a third) opinion, and listening to your body. Growing older is a new experience for everyone: there isn't really a good road map for what feels 'normal', it is easy to just write off any gradual changes as 'just aging'. I hope you get the best of treatment, and have a speedy recovery.

Mr. BILL · #10 05-22-2003, 12:37 AM

Best thoughts and wishes to you for a full and speedy recovery. It's been proven that a positive attitude and prayer can work wonders. We're all behind you!

Godspeed

Lebenz · #11 05-22-2003, 01:16 AM

First, I have to ask if this is an elaborate ruse to get out of a case you don’t want to deal with???

If it is not the case, and I suspect that it isn't, pat yourself on the back for your persistence and aggressive behavior! Reading notes such as yours would or should send a chill down anyone’s spine, because your notes clearly show that a moderate change in feeling or desire can reflect a serious – shoot -- call it what is – a life threatening problem. But you obviously didn’t ignore the problem!

Onto treatment. There are a lot of folks that have tumors removed. Some family members and other folks I work with have had surgery on part of their brain. They generally did fine to better than ever. As you know, just as you pursued the source of your malady, you and your family will want to spend sometime looking at what will happen after surgery. There is a process you will go through. The more you learn & know about it, the less you will feel anxious by the coming weeks.

The good news is that there will be many gorgeous young nurses in your near future, who, when your family is away, will have to, ahem, check on your progress in a number of ways... They will check on you individually, and in groups. But, alas, too soon you will come out of this all too brief all-hands-on “recovery” period, and you will be subject to months of hard pounding “rehab” therapy by more gorgeous women therapists, who will use a more muscular rather than coddling nature to their work. They will prod and probe you, and probably make you beg for mercy again and again and again, to help insure you make fast and steadily mounting progress.

And then......and then......way before you know it, and certainly before you want it, you’ll be back at work. That’s when the real fun will begin. At work, will be all those female cohorts who will have heard of how your problem begin, and will see your sexy scar, and they will, -- simply out of a sense of wanting to help you continue to mount the challenge -- offer them selves up to further verify that your recovery reaches its full potency. Even better, in your area of work, will be your adversaries, who will be sure you are up for the challenge from the first moment you are back! That lunch time “pick-me up” will take on a whole new meaning. Those after work “high balls” will be in ways you only imagined before! And what about all the sex party, er, I mean ex parte communications! If that isn’t enough, think about the Starbucks baristas wanting to cream, ah, that is, put cream in your coffee. Or was it foam??? and perhaps a bit of nutmeg...

And best of all, after it’s all over you’ll probably do something nice for you 420...

So you see, it is not so bad. Really. You’ll be fine.

Best wishes

hill · #12 05-22-2003, 02:27 AM

Even though I do not speak for all of the pinko-leftists-Bush-bashing-commies. I think it is safe to say we all wish you well.

Good luck and Godspeed

The Warden · #13 05-22-2003, 02:36 AM

Good luck! Just remember that this IS beatable!!

Especially because it sounds like you caught it early.

Quote:

Originally posted by unkl300d
I am surprised that a doctor, living in an environment of defensive medicine, did not do , or order, more tests!!

Unfortunately, it doesn't surprise me in the slightest. I've got a problem with my back and hips that had persisted for about 3 years before a doctor finally diagnosed the problem (two inflamed lumbar discs)...and I think that that was the 5th doctor that I had gone to. I just wish I had pursued it more early on...originally, I had thought it was minor, and there are still people who think I'm faking it...

pentoman · #14 05-22-2003, 09:27 AM

Good luck to yourself, Johnson, and the boys.

DieselHead · #15 05-22-2003, 09:03 PM

So sorry to hear about this. I'm glad you were able to catch this early. My dad caught his prostate cancer early and it eventually became a non-issue (after surgery). Best of luck to you.

Alex