After having my prostate sliced out by a doctor using a laser shoved up my flagpole, I then developed a bilateral hernia while sketching in Europe. I noticed the hernia when I woke up one morning in Herdecke Germany. I thought I had it because I had decided to try the coffee in the historic Air B&B. It had developed so fast that I feared I might have to cut the trip short as it expanded. I spent the morning reading online articles about hernias and became convinced that it wasn’t dangerous at the time. I am sure a laser beam had ripped the lining of my lower abdomen from the inside during the prostate operation. I figured lots of hiking around Europe would help the healing process. Perhaps I was wrong.
The doctor arranged a follow-up after the prostate removal operation with his assistant Rachel Apoo. I had consulted with one doctor about correcting the hernia, but his consultation was less than informative or reassuring. He planned to sew plastic mesh on the inside of my abdomen. My sister had a hernia, and she had the exact same operation he described twice and it failed both times with different doctors. She later went to Dr. Jonathan Yunis who used pig’s bladder to correct the hernia. It was this trusted doctor I eventually used to do the operation. It cost $11,000 out of pocket and Ambetter Insurance refused to help with the costs in any way since he was out of network. Health insurance is a scam.
I asked Apoo about the hernia correction surgery. She told me the operation had nothing to do with the hernia that developed shortly after leaving the operating table. That protected the doctor from any possible lawsuits. She also prescribed me a drug which would lengthen the amount of time between bathroom breaks. The whole reason I had the swollen prostate removed was so that I could sit for several hours and finish a sketch or painting before having to run off to a bathroom. In Germany I was peeing everywhere I sketched. I marked trees all along the route of the 75th Infantry Division as they liberated the Ruhr Pocket during WWII. The pills Apoo prescribed were turned down by my health insurance. On a second office visit she prescribed another pill which did the trick. It is called Oxybutynin ER. I ran out of the drug last week and now I have to pee every few hours or so. I get up several times at night as well. I am calling in a refill today. I tried calling in a refill yesterday, but the Walgreens robots put me on hold for an extremely long time and then a human hung up on me. I hope to have better luck today.