Last year my dad started experiencing difficulty urinating. Like most men would, he kept quiet about it until one day his urine was completely blocked and would not come out. When the discomfort became unbearable, he drove himself to the hospital.

They inserted a catheter to relieve him and found that his prostate was enlarged, putting pressure on and causing a blockage on his urethra. They resolved to do a procedure called a prostate shave or trans-urethral resection of the prostate (TURP).

The procedure went well but about a week after he was discharged he started feeling pain when urinating and went back to the doctor. His prostate had enlarged again. We thought he had cancer at this point, everything pointed to that.

They inserted a catheter again and prescribed medication. Months went by and he was fine. Last month he was meant to go in for a check up but was told not to come because the hospital where he sees his urologist is now a Covid-19 hospital.

He is in the worst pain right now as we try to find other solutions. We're consulting with another doctor and waiting for his files to be sent over. Ayikho into ebuhlungu like hearing your parent crying because they're in pain and pain medication is doing nothing for them.

I say all of this to encourage men to get checked out as often as possible and not wait until the situation is dire before going to the doctor. It's better to get help than to be in excruciating pain just because you were too ashamed to tell a doctor your symptoms.