Prostatitis - A Thread to Vent

Hello everyone,

It has been a while since I've posted here because well... I have been out there just living since many of the symptoms I was experiencing subsided many years ago (migraines/headaches, anxiety, silent reflux, etc.) That being said, just coming here for some encouragement/support/TMS validation on my recent story!

During Halloween weekend, I experienced having to frequently urinate non-stop with some burning after I peed. I would say historically I've always been a worrier about peeing because I commute a lot to see friends and have a 1 hourish commute to work every day (something I realized may be causing me subconscious anger).

However, initially it freaked me out a bit because I've never experienced this before and then it continued to get worse the next say where I just constantly felt the urge that I needed to pee even if I just went 10-15 minutes ago. I went to a local urgent care and they did a urine test and STD test and everything was clear and no sign of UTI or infection.

Fast-forward to the next week where I still am having the urge to pee with the EXCEPTION of when I was playing in my kickball league's finals (note: added this to my "evidence sheet") where I felt fine for several hours throughout the night.

So I go to my PCP to get it checked out and he says he "thinks" it could be prostatitis. He does a prostate exam and looking at his follow-up notes he mentions that prostate is tender but not enlarged and no nodules/lumps/growths present (more evidence).

He gives me an antibiotic to take for 4-6 weeks (Levofloxacin) which he didn't explain to me, and it came with a paper from the pharmacy about serious side effects - thus adding to my fear a bit. I ultimately messaged him back and said hey sorry, I'm not taking this, is there an antibiotic that is less severe and not a "floxy," and he prescribes Bactrim. The next couple days after he prescribes this I start experiences my groin area "feeling tired" and not really painful but almost feeling overworked and like it is pushing on my bladder even though I didn't need to pee. I decide screw this and I go walk 6 miles with these symptoms and didn't urinate for over 2.5-3 hrs (more evidence). I also decided to say "f you" symptoms and still go to dinner with friends later that night where we shared so many laughs and had such a great time. I came home and woke up the next day and felt great and minimal to no symptoms and had a relaxing day (another thing to add to my evidence sheet).

After that, it's been about 2 weeks where I've been taking Bactrim with a probiotic and symptoms have been on and off and all this time I am like 90% certain my symptoms are just TMS because symptoms/side effects of Bactrim will move around to my groin area, sometimes back to initial symptoms, sometimes an achey lower back, one day it was bad indigestion/reflux, aches in my legs or feet or abdominal. (Side note- am someone who is prone to headache/sinus issues and constant throat clearing and during this new "symptom" I have not experienced a single one of those symptoms in weeks since this happened...more evidence).

2 days ago I found out I got a promotion that I have really wanted for a long time and it came out of the blue (yay!). After I received the news, I was soooo excited and immediately got a bad headache out of nowhere and started coughing/gagging. I said screw this, I'm going to go outside and go for a walk while I'm on a high. As I'm doing this, all of a sudden a new symptom starts, a feeling that my thighs, front and back and hamstrings are overworked and strained, but not painful I would say. As these symptoms started occurring as well as the headache, all the other symptoms of frequent need to urinate have gone away (my brain has changed it's focus). However, I still have been walking outside 4-5 miles everyday despite this and when I walk there is no pain, but when I sit/lay down and extend my leg, there's some discomfort. THEN, whenever these symptoms subside, the need to urinate starts to come back.

To close out this long story (if you made it this far, thank you for reading), I messaged my doctor today and said hey, I've started experiencing some side effects of the antibiotics including insomnia, joint/muscle pain and redness on my chest and the prostatitis symptoms are starting to subside and I think I'd like to stop taking an antibiotic since I don't have a bacterial infection. He agreed to stop taking Bactrim but wanted me to take a different antibiotic because he said it typically takes 4-6 weeks to get rid of an infection and sometimes a urine test won't catch prostate bacterial infection, to which I said "how can we confirm there is no bacterial infection, because I don't want to take an antibiotic, if I don't need to."

I am 90% convinced the symptoms are TMS and I know I need to let go of the fear that stopping the antibiotics is going to make it worse or "what if it's bacterial" but just wanted to vent here and see if anyone had any insight or thoughts as you read this! I also ordered Alan Gordan's "The Way Out" book as a reminder that it's just fear and go live my life again.