OK...I received the following message back from my Uro a few days ago. I have a follow up consult with him on Friday 12/14, so a week from tomorrow. I plan on asking him some questions in person then, but my anxiety is really quite high right now, and I do believe this was reflected in the initial message I sent to him that prompted this response:
"Tell him that both previous tests were thorough and very reassuring.We do not routinely check cytology as accuracy is poor. I think he should repeat cysto in near future and will consider sending cytology.". He has given an order to schedule you for cystoscopy with retrograde pyelograms. If you have further questions about this study, please send another message or call the office."
OK....question for anyone that might feel like answering. Do you think this is a case where he would be willing to do this second Cysto, with the addition of the retrograde pyelograms simply to reassure me and my anxiety? Or do you think he honestly wants to recheck? His first sentence leads me to believe that he is just willing to do this to assuage my fears, and that he thinks it unnecessary.
Also, why add the RPG? This will surely make it more expensive, and I did have CT Urography done already. They cannot schedule any of this until after the New Year.
I am almost feeling like giving up on the whole thing. I haven't had recurrence of visible blood since 11/14. Though I did take ibuprofen for 4 straight days due to a bad cold and associated headaches, and on the 4th day, I got some small black/brown flecks in 2 separate urines. they were extremely small....like pieces of pepper. The first had maybe 3-4 flecks. The second only one. Not sure if these were mini-clots, or what, but the urine did not test positive for blood on my strips, which I have control tested to make sure they work. Maybe they were nothing. I stopped the ibuprofen that day, and have had no flecks in my urine since. And again, no visible blood since 11/14, when I stopped my Trintellix and Turmeric.
Is it possible that I could somehow have acquired a tendency to get hematuria from medications that can cause abnormal bleeding? I am grasping at straws here trying to comfort myself. I am scared. I am mad that I might have to pay $1,000s more for tests that will HOPEFULLY show nothing.
I want to just trust the first tests I had, but it's so hard to do so when symptoms recurred. I am rambling, and I guess I will just have to wait to ask my doctor all of these questions in person a week from tomorrow. My mind is racing, though, as my anxiety has totally taken over, especially since I did stop my Trintellix and am curently not taking any anti-depressants for the first time in years and years.