A Satisfied Patient

I was sure that the groans of ecstasy must be piercing the exam room door and echoing off the waiting room walls.

My patient’s vocalizations persisted for the entire three minutes it took for more than a quart of urine to gush into the bag after I’d inserted a catheter.

I emptied the bag and told him to come back in two days, so that we could see if he still had problems after the effects of the atropine he’d had for his eye surgery* that morning had worn off. He was a bit unsteady on his feet, and I knew I’d have to walk him to his family in the waiting room.

Kurt Stange
Cleveland, Ohio

*Kurt Stange is a family physician whose patient was suffering from acute urinary retention–an inability to empty the bladder. This condition resulted most likely from a combination of two factors: the drugs he’d received during eye surgery, and an enlarged prostate.