Success Story (so far)

I was dealing with a Hydrocele and had a hard time finding some success stories. So here is a positive one for those of you looking for a little hope! I am a 27 year old male who is relatively healthy, eats a well balanced diet, exercises 3-5 times per week, and has a decent sex life (one partner). 

I first noticed my hydrocele about 1.5 years ago. As most probably do, I assumed the worst (cancer, tumor, worse, etc.). Made a an appointment with my general physician who agreed it was likely a hydrocele, but recommend I see a Urologist and get an ultra sound to confirm.  It was concurred that it was indeed a minor hydrocele (about the size of two golf balls). The first Urologist told me that he wouldn't recommend surgery since he considered it minor. His suggestion was to live with it until/if it got bigger and anymore uncomfortable. I thought this was an odd response and as someone supposedly in his "prime", I didn't want an enlarged testicle to carry around for the rest of my life.  So I decided to seek a 2nd opinion, this time for a very well respected Urologist at USC (I live in the LA area). 

This urologist suggested I do the outpatient surgery before it got worse and the procedure was relatively easy and I should be good as new.  My testicular area was definitely still not normal, but the doctor convinced me it was just swelling and that it should reduce by my next visit. Swelling is normal, but about 5-6 months after this surgery I realized it wasn't just swelling, it had basically looked like the hydrocele had never left or was in fact, even slightly bigger. I started panicking as I read more horror stories online.  

My urologist confirmed the hydrocele had returned. He recommended that I have the surgery again, but this time stay over night with drainage tube to prevent immediate fluid build up. I was hesitant after the failed first surgery, but he told me it was extremely rare for hyrdoceles to return once, yet alone twice. 

I had the inpatient surgery and stayed the night with the drainage tube. I went home and kept the drainage tube for 2 more days. I went in for the follow up appointment and they removed the drainage tube. 

I am now almost 5 months removed from the 2nd procedure and I think it's safe to say my balls are looking pretty good! My testicle where the hyrdocele was is a little firmer (chalk it up to scar tissue) and sack is a little looser due to the stretching, but is returning to normal. I have minor discomfort depending on how physically active I am, but i upgraded my underwear to provide extra support and started exercising regularly with spandex to keep everything in place. 

I am not sure went wrong the first time, but I admit that I may have over excreted myself and not given myself enough time to recover. 2 weeks after my first surgery, I started weightlifting and exercising, which may have had something to do with the hydrocele returning (even though my doctor cleared me to do this). The 2nd time, i was EXTRA careful to not overexert myself. I didn't lift weights for a full 5 weeks after, I took a whole week off of work (first time I only took 2 days), I refrained from basic house chores for a while and limited my bending and weight bearing chores. That, and the drainage tube were the two main things that were different from the first surgery to the second. 

I post this to give some of you hope. As a young man, I was very stressed with this situation and it definitely weighed on my day to day psyche and now that it is behind me, I feel much better. Even though all of the research I did about the surgery that said you could resume normal duties 1-2 weeks after, I strongly disagree. Take the time on the front end to heal and recover. Not worth it to have to go through the physical and mental stress a second time. I strongly feel that this negatively impacted my first recovery. 

Hope this helps someone out there. If you have follow up questions, feel free to comment here. Thanks and good luck! You can be healed!

1 like, 10 replies