#paindrain

From Instagram:

❤️

A thank you card for Dr. Gronski and her husband.

“Dr. Gronski, Last night, I was overcome with emotion partly because I’ve never received the accommodation and hospitality that you and Luke provided to me and partly because I can feel that my nine years of suffering will come to an end sooner than later. I will never forget this amazing experience. Please let me know what I can do to help get the word out about you. I am forever grateful, and I hope to one day be half the doctor and half the person you are. Please enjoy a meal with Luke–on me.

-Ryan Cazares, O.D. ”

When your doctor is such an incredible person, she and her husband take you hiking with their dogs and then to dinner! Thank you, Dr. Susie Gronski, for an incredible experience in Asheville. I am forever grateful and will never forget everything you have done to help me. I only hope someday to be half the physician and person you are!

God made us to be complex but simple creatures. What exactly does that mean? Sounds like an oxymoron.

Think about your body. Your heart beats to supply your organs with oxygen that your blood has carried from your lungs. Yet you breathe this air without having to think. “Hmm… I need air. Better breathe in. Now I need to get rid of this CO2. Better breathe out! Wait! Now I need oxygen!”

Your eyes blink to refresh the tears that cover your cornea to help you see clearly. Do you have to think about blinking each time you do so? “Man, my eyes burn, and I can’t see. I guess I should blink!”

Your hand pulls itself away quickly and drastically after touching a hot stove. Did you have to think about sending a message from your fingers through your complicated nervous system to your brain and then back to your fingers? “Hey, this shit is hot… better send a message to my brain!”

God made our bodies complex, but we have to put very little to no effort into making them function. It’s normal to take these functions for granted because, let’s face it: for the average human being, it is easy to be alive.

Now… think of another bodily function that we all definitely take for granted: Emptying the bladder.

Voiding is necessary to rid our body of toxins and wastes. But we never give much thought to it because it is easy, painless, and quickly over with.

That has not been the case for me for the past 9 years.

I have chronic pelvic pain syndrome.

Much like asthma can make a man worry about his once-easy breathing, chronic pelvic pain syndrome can make a man worry about his once-easy peeing!

Every day. Every time. For 9 years.

Basically, stress and anxiety cause me to tense up my pelvic and bladder muscles, making it very difficult to urinate… and very painful. Stress has made my external bladder sphincter and prostate one tight, dysfunctional mess.

But… I didn’t know what I had for years.

After many doctors, many medications, many therapies, and much probing (ouch!), I gave up hope and decided to live with my pain and hesistancy. I was going to live a life of helping others–I’m an eye doctor–because that’s what makes me happy and that’s what I feel is my purpose in life. Because what’s a little painful pee when some people can’t even see? People struggle with much worse conditions every day.

But, in 2017, I made a vow to myself to invest in my health. I can’t take care of others if I don’t first take care of myself. And I was finally in a position in my career to have the means to do whatever it takes.

My renewed interest in my personal health led me to Dr. Susie Gronski (http://drsusieg.com/) in Asheville, North Carolina. While everyone thought I was just on vacation, Dr. Gronski is the real reason I flew from my home in Louisiana all the way to North Carolina in June of 2017. I am in the middle of her 6-day training course to help get me started on my path to feeling great again.

This blog will tell the story of the onset of the “Pain Drain” in 2008…to the failed treatments and invasive procedures by 5 urologists…all the way to my quest to become pain-free with the help of Dr. Gronski.  The goal is not to get your pity, but to hopefully find even just one person whom my words can help. There isn’t much online about male pelvic pain, so I hope to become at least a resource to identify with.

It’s also very therapeutic for me to jot down my experiences.

After 9 years, I’m finally not afraid to speak about it anymore. Should you care to read my entries, please do so.

Thank you.

http://paindrain.tumblr.com

Pictures, from top to bottom: -Me holding a stuffed prostate and Dr. Susie Gronski holding a stuffed testicle -The pain drain, an original drawing by myself -Me and Dr. Gronski holding a stuffed bladder