Orchiectomy scheduled. Please help!!!

[Lottoball]

Hi everybody,

At the moment I'm very concerned because my urologist, who's also a surgeon, ordered an orchiectomy for next thursday.

My story:
I've a spinal cord injury, which has a bad influence on your urinary system. Exactly a year ago I was (after having ultrasound) diagnosed with inflammation of my left testicle, caused by a urinary tract infection. The testicle was swollen, but I didn't feel any pain because of the spinal cord injury.

I got antibiotics but after two weeks my general practioner stopped the medication. However, after some weeks the swelling was even bigger and the UTI was still there, so I got more antibiotics.

To make a long story short: in October I had a second ultrasound which confirmed the diagnosis of inflammation. Bloodmarkers were good. The swelling was still there, but my urologist told me not to worry.

Last week I had a third ultrasound, which was the same as the two before. The swelling isn't bigger, but because it's still there, my urologist suddenly advised orchiectomy. He recommended this after talking with a colleague and a doctor from an university-hospital, who told him there's a possibility of testicular cancer.

My urologist performs the surgery, although there's a fair chance (he says) that it'll be an inflammation. The testicle isn't hard (not as hard as a testicle with a tumor), he claims, and the swelling didn't increase. "If it's TC, i'll think I give up my job!", he told me. My bloodmarkers were tested again and are normal.

Neverthless I'm very worried. What do you think? Does anyone know a story about diagnosing TC after 3 ultrasounds and one year?
What about the normal bloodtests. Is this a good sign?

And what if it's TC? Then I'll have it probably for one year, it'll be spread and I suppose my chances to surive are very low. That's what I'm thinking and worrying about all the time.

Any advice is welcome! Please react!!!!!

[Lottoball]

Hi,

My urologist talked to a doc from an university hospital, who is specialized in TC. However, this man didn't see the reports or ultrasounds.

My urologist doesn't want to perform scans right now, because he thinks there's a good chance it will be inflammation.

I don't know what exactly they saw on the last ultrasound, but the pattern didn't differ much from the first two, my urologist told me. De docs who made the US, talked about a diffuse pattern, but had no reason to send me right away to the emergency room.

My urologist said that the swelling didn't increase. In his whole carreer he never reported a case in which there was TC in a testicle that stayed the same for about a year. "If you have TC, the testicle would have grown bigger and bigger", he said. But neverthless he wants to rule out the possibility that's testicular cancer and he doesn't have doubts about removing the testicle.

A rare case, indeed, but how to deal with it??????

[Lottoball]

Rover, thanks for your comments.

The opinion is: TC or not, the testicle has to be removed, because it's ill anyway! And it could have a bad influence on the other, healthy one.
But I'm worried the outcome will be TC, because the university-doctor said he knew other cases, which developed the same way.

Who has experience with this?

[dadmo]

Lottoball:
As rover mentioned one form of tc won't produce blood markers so having clean markers won't tell the whole story. I happen to agree with removing the bad testicle if it's been infected so long that it's useless why leave it in? I understand your panic but I think I would trust the doctor's on this one and not assume cancer.

[Scott]

If three ultrasounds haven't discovered a solid mass, I don't suspect it's testicular cancer. If it were me, I'd get a second opinion from another urologist before getting an orchiectomy.

[Lottoball]

Hi,

I don't know what the saw on the ultrasounds, but after the last one the radiologist had no reason to take action immediately.

However, my urologist told me there's some slight suspicion it will be TC. The pattern on the US seemed a bit diffuse.

[dadmo]

If they have any suspesion about tc the testicle will have to come out. WIth no blood markers the type of tc to be concerned with is seminoma, which tends to occur in men over 30. If you don't mind answering how old are you?

[Lottoball]

I´m 38 years old.

But apart from the swelling, I´m feeling quite well. You should think that, if I´ve TC since April last year, I would have more health problems, like feeling tired or so. And the swelling is the same for almost 11 months and didn´t grow. The pattern on the ultrasounds didn´t change either.