Your Opinon On My Situation

[Mad Dog]

I was elated to find this resource. The relief it brought was inmeasurable.

My story....
About 2.5 yrs ago I started experincing a dull ache in my groin 6 weeks after gall bladder surgery. I had a urologist examine me. He didn't find anything and suggested that my testicles were banging around and that I should wear tighter underwear and take ibuprofen. Eventually the pain went away. A few months later the pain returned so I made an appointment with a different urologist. After his examine (urine sample detected blood) he thought I had prostatitis and put me on antibiotics for a month. While I took the medication the pain subsided. After I completed the meds the pain came back. It was a non specific pain in the groin area the epiditimus on both testicles was tender. He then preformed a cystoscope (lots of fun) and he reported that everything seemed normal. He prescribed a different anitibiotic and stated that he thougt it was an stubborn infection and it might take some time to clear up. So as I was on the anitbiotic the except for the tender epiditimus I felt good. Last October I went back in and he found that might right testicle had shrunk and sure enough it had. As a result he ordered an ultrasound. It found some micro-calcifications and what the radiologist termed as an infarction in the right teste. So we continued with a different antibiotic because he thought it was an infection. Again the same thing felt okay on the meds.

Went back 3 weeks ago and he ordered another ultrasound to compare it to the eariler one. In my follow up appointment, the second ultrasound found that the infarction had grown. He was worried about the growth, so he has scheduled the outpatient surgery for next Friday to go in and have a look see. I had my AFP and BHCG test but the results aren't back.

So I've been freaking out. What are the chances that it's not TC?

[iksteh]

There is still a chance it's not TC - from the sound of things neither of the ultrasounds have found a solid mass - which is what TC shows up as.

"Infarction" isn't cancer - it's when cells are dying off - often due to an obstructed blood supply. This can happen to any organ, the most common infarction is probably "myocardial infarction", otherwise known as a heart attack. Another is stroke (brain infarction). I'm not a doctor but I speculate that since people can survive heart attacks and strokes, there is a reasonable chance that if they can resolve the obstruction, you could well keep the testicle. As I said - I'm just taking a wild guess and i don't know enough about this to rely upon.

Your history of surgery kind of fits with this - if some arteries were damaged or blocked by any kinds of blood clots this seems feasible.

If the ultrasounds had shown TC, I believe you would have been in for an orchiectomy almost immediately and it wouldn't be "investigative surgery" so you should *try* to relax until after your operation and you have some better answers from your doc.

iksteh