Tuesday night I worked late. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but I my butt did hurt. For the past several weeks, I had trouble sitting for extended periods. That is a problem because I have a desk job. It sort of felt like I was constipated. And, it got worse the longer I sat.

Well, anyway, I got home that night about midnight. I puttered around the house for just a few minutes and then went to bed. Little did I realize that I would not be getting any regular sleep again for a long time.

I tossed and turned. I got up, and went back to bed. I noticed that my body temperature was increasing as I started to feel feverish. I normally get up every couple hours during the night anyway to urinate, but tonight, urination was starting to be a problem. My flow was really slow.

By the time morning rolled around, I felt downright ill. No way was I going to work, and this was going to be my first sick day in several years.

My general practitioner doctor has a practice in a bulding with a walkup clinic, so I drove there first thing after it opened. By this time I was in deep pain. I had a fever, I felt like crap, and I had trouble urinating. The diagnosis was an inflamed prostate. I got a prescription of Cipro for my enlarged prostate and went back home were I spent the next 3 days in bed, miserable as hell. By Saturday I was feeling a little better. I could urinate and I could get up and do stuff.

I still felt like hell, but at least I could go back to work.  This was fine until a week later.  It was Wednesday evening. I was not feeling well, but not as bad as before. I was having more and more trouble urinating. It was coming out in drops and dribbles. About 8pm I was standing over the toilet trying to urinate, but nothing was coming out. I was used to that, but I could feel that my bladder was full, and that hurt.  I knew I had urinary retention at that point.

My wife drove me to the emergency room. Fortunately, there was not much of a wait. I did not know what to expect, but the nurse was very professional and she inserted a catheter in me with no trouble. It was a BIG relief to finally empty my bladder.