The Examination: Nothing wrong!?

Hi,

Chronic orchialgia is not something that anyone really wants to live with. I had your problem around the same time. I had to live with it for 10 years and suffer 4 surgeries until I got relief. Try a pain management specialist!

> Shirokuma

Hi,

so what exactly did you do to fix it? Your last surgery?

The pain is not as bad as it used to be, so I can at least live with it now. Sometimes I almost don't even feel it when I'm busy focusing on something else. Still, it would be very nice to get it fixed once and for all.

Hi,

At this point I was in Ontario Canada and still in Uni. When it began had ultrasounds that showed nothing so I had what basically amounted to a right sided scrotal exploratory I was told I had a congenital abnormality that would cause spontaneous torsion, thus an orchiopexy (tying down) was performed on the right. At my follow up appointment I was told I should have the same surgery on the left and I consented (usually they would have been done at the same time. But consent would have been required.) So those two surgeries took several months to complete. This "cured" the pain for about a year, I went in again to get an assessment, I had additional ultrasounds which still showed nothing. So again I was looking at surgery and I was pretty frustrated at this point and I asked about removing the right testicle and the doctor said no and wanted to try to save it because of my age. The nurses at the hospital assumed it was going to be removed and were shocked when I said no. This time the surgery was much more invasive with a cut from the belt to the base of the penis, basically the whole inguinal region was opened. I was told there was a cyst found and the orchiopexy was redone. That last surgery was May of 2000 in June of 2000 I left for Japan. For the next 7 years I had repeated on and off pains of the nature I had before, I would go to a hospital and get ultrasounds nothing would show and I would get antibiotics (assumption of epididimitis an infection). My wife has endometriosis so she had strong pain killers always in the house which I used for a while as well. We were able to have a child. In June of 2007 though I had a kind of crisis with the pain where the meds would not touch it. I went to a urologist and again got the antibiotics and the runaround for two weeks at which point I was unable to function. I needed shots to take only the edge off the pain. Which made it difficult to do anything else. At that point I was referred to a different urologist who after talking to my wife and the other urologist and considering my 10 years of treatments agreed to perform a right sided orchiectomy the same day (testicular removal) Now because of the orchiopexies he was worried about my structures so he went through the scrotum and the cords were not removed completely (something that sometimes still gives me pain but not nearly as bad as it was). When I woke up after surgery I was immediately pain free and on no drugs for pain. Like a switch I was free. I was later told that the testicle was fine and had no abnormalities (not the one that the doctor in Canada said I had which cost me 3 trips to surgery)

My point is that the scar tissue is permanent and causes problems as well as what was written up as nerve damage in my case.

I was worried about the long term effects of the pain meds on my liver and kidneys (alcohol and pain meds do not mix) as I was younger at the time. Also the pain was bad enough to effect my sex life.

I suggest you see a pain specialist as they are the ones who seem to have the best results without wanting to cut something, urologists are surgeons remember and they like to cut.

Hope you end up ok.

> Shirokuma

Thank you for the long reply.

You really seem to have gone through alot, but I'm not sure if my pain is quite as bad as yours was. It has been about a month now with minimal pain, and I have basically been able to function as normal.

I really hope the pain will just "miraculously disappear", as I am also going to Japan soon for a longer period, but if the pain doesn't go away I will remember what you have told me, and go see a doctor/ pain specialist again.

If you come to Japan with a pre-existing condition with private health insurance they will not usually cover it. I had that issue as well and that is part of the reason I did not get treatment for so long.

Dealing with the pain in Japan will be really frustrating because they will always start at the beginning every time as well as the language barrier plus the meds will usually be half the strength you need (unless you are a smaller than Western average body type) If you are bigger (like take a American "L" size that is huge for the Japanese) they will try to blame it on your body shape as well.

Take care and any questions about Japan you can contact me

Hey Shirokuma, I was curious to what your actual diagnosis was from the doctors?  Was it orchialgia?  And if it was, what were some of the sypmtoms that you had when you were faced with this condtion?  I was diagnosed by the doctor with orchialgia last week......but I am not sure that his diagnosis was correct for a couple of different reasons?  Any information you can think of would be very beneficial.  Thanks bro.

KJ

Sorry,

Just noticed your post now.

I never got a real answer. The Japanese surgeon who did the right orchiectomy blamed my pain on nerve damage cause by the previous surgeries I had. Problem is that I still have pain because he did not take all the cords and nerves (inguinal orchiectomy) and just did the simple kind taking only the testicle through the scrotum. Which means I have a lot of scare tissue all over the area now. Lack of feeling as well as pain on pressure.

I never actually got the word "orchialgia" out of a doctor. Different word for it in Japanese and in Canada it was chronic epididimitis.

Pain in the testicle on and off for more than 90 days is the usual condition.

The actual diagnostic test is to get the nerve block to see if that takes away the pain. I did not do that and went straight to surgery as I was too far gone at that point and I did not have other options.

Always look for other options before cutting.