Well guys, I had such a bad weekend, I had to swallow my pride and go back to the doctor today. I was just glad they could work me in a few hours after calling for an appointment so I didn't have to sit around, waiting and dreading it for so long...

Anyway, it was the same old song and dance. He only found slight inflammation in the epididymis and the prostate (but it sure felt really painful to me!) In his opinion though, it's not bad enough to really be concerned or even bad enough to see a urologist. At least that put my mind at ease that I'm not running over with infection again. Even so, he wants to go the traditional route first -- Cipro for about two weeks. That's the only one I haven't tried before, but I have to admit, it's hard to be very optimistic about it, especially after everything I've heard about it here and my own sordid history of reactions to antibiotics...

Other than that, he suggested cutting wheat out of my diet since chronic inflammatory problems are often allergy related. Gee, with all my other food allergies, that leaves about three foods left I actually *can* eat...

Anyway, the good news is that if none of this helps, he said he would give me a discount on some acupuncture treatments since I don't have any insurance. I told him about that protocol someone listed here a while back about a specific acupuncture treatment for this problem and he said he definitely wanted to read it... He also seemed agreeable to trying Elavil at some point, but I have to try one thing at a time (if I survive these antibiotics first...)

So other than that, I'm just supposed to keep wearing my supporter, taking daily hot soaks, walking a little bit each day, eating healthy foods, taking vitamins, etc. Blah, blah, blah...

At least maybe now I'll be able to sleep a little better at night, knowing that the pain isn't something serious that's going to kill me...