Swelling after hydrocelectomy

I'm surprised the even tried just draining it to begin with since the fluid return rate is so high. I never had a drain inserted my hydrocele wasn't very big to begin with so I couldn't make a comment on that. However as far as the swelling goes I iced it none stop and yes tight underwear helps. After the surgery my nUT was huge for a few weeks (like an avacado) it did reduce a lot in size but even 2 years after surgery it remains the size of an egg (it's not fluid it's tissue that remains).

Thanks.

Draining it twice (aspirating) was more a scheduling & pain relief decision on my part until wrapping my mind around having surgery. The doc said it would refill, so a bit of being a guenia pig seeing how fast it refilled.

Research says there are communicating & non-communicating hydroceles, the former there is a passageway to the abdomen.

With gravity, what stops the scrotum sans 'hydrocele sac' from filling up all the same?

In my mind, a needle jab to remove that 'swelling' is not painful. Squeezing out every last drop (like a lemon) is where the pain comes from with contact to the teste.

The sack around the testicle is either removed or basically turned inside out so your body absorbs the fluid much quicker which prevents the scrotum from filling up again. I had two of the surgeries about 4 months apart can't say I'm pleased with the outcome while the hydrocele is gone my testicle still remains the size of an egg (it's not fluid).

Yes, you need to be wearing sports shorts of some sort - I wore strechable skid pants that function like compression socks and just made sure that the jewels were part of that compression. Also, be aware of how much you are moving around and how upright you're sitting (you want to be as horizontal and immobile as possible, as this will REALLY affect how well your tissues drain). Consider this time a good opportunity to lay on the couch and catch up on your favorite tv shows/movie-athon. Grab yourself a dinner bell and call for room service as much as you can!!

I didn't go the route of having a drain... Just did the surgery and followed what the doctor ordered (what I said previously)... Personally I'd think that the drain may be asking for trouble, considering infections - ya kinda don't want an uninterrupted avenue to the 'visceral' side of your skin for very long... The drain would act like a vector for pathogens and bacteria.

Thanks, that makes sense.... the sac is relatively imperiable, whereas tissue & muscles are much more absorptive.

Have you done the flashlight inspection to verify it is the testicle and not fluid?  Pre & post-Op, it seems the same, whenever that "space" is filled, feels a lot more like a rock than a squishy "water balloon" that is plyable & can "move" around.

The flashlight, which you've probably read about, shows you what is fluid and what is "material"/tissue/teste quite redily.

Thanks for this thread btw, it's much better than most of the available medical literature that really doesn't do a good job explaining what to expect.

(This is REALLY REALLY long but stay with me, I have a very interesting story, DEF WORTH THE READ)

Hi I'd like to start this off and say I'm a steelers fan haha hopefully we can beat you guys on Sunday. In the span of three years I have had three surgeries on my ball.

Surgery 1

For about a year at that point I had been noticing an increase in size of my right testicle. I spent a LOT of my time researching what this could be (as I'm sure one of you reading is doing right now), because of course I didn't want to show my mom or a doctor. As it kept growing and growing I started thinking it was testicular cancer, but then I read something that said there would be pain to the touch if it were cancer so I basically crossed that off my list because I could literally squeeze my ball as hard as I could with no pain whatsoever. You guys are all saying your ball was smaller than it is for you guys now but I don't think that could have been possible for me because my testical was for sure close to the size of a potato. (Also I read that you said that you wish you never had gotten it done but if you didn't it would have kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger, so the procedure was the right option) I couldn't even get my fingers to touch when I would put my hand around it. So I showed my mom, which was not the big deal I had thought it to be and she quickly scheduled a doctors appointment. I saw the doctor and he quickly diagnosed it as a hydrocele, surgery was set and I was ready. I needed this surgery, no doubt, but I thought it would be done quickly and there would be not much if any scaring, I just wanted to make sure that when a girl was getting with me it would be RELAXING for me.

So I got it done, the pain when I was in the car on the way home directly after the surgery was unbearable it was like someone was squeezing my ball as hard as they could but I could now feel my ball haha. But after I got home and chilled and took pills that were stronger and the pain went away mostly.

One after the first surgery the stitches were unraveling and coming apart. Oh and I got the procedure done on a Friday so the doctor, at earliest could only see me on monday. There was light red water that kept coming out and it smelled awful. My wound was starting to open all the way and my ball was deadass almost coming out. I got to Monday and saw him imedialty and stitched it back up with stronger stitching (Which meant I had to see him again to take them out which realllllly hurt). I thought that I had gone through the worst but little did I know what I was up for.

SURGERY #2

A see him a few weeks later and he didnt like the result he told me that I would have to undergo another this time "small surgery". So here I was again thinking "ok he just has to do a little bit a couple other little and I will be over this experience" because this was not easy for me. On surgery day i put some numbing cream on the spot, because my doc told me that this would be a small/quick thing and I would not need anesthesia, I could have an in-office procedure. I go in sit on this surgical chair that opens your legs and puts your head back, exept my head thing did not go back so if I didn't have my eyes closed I could see everything that was going on. He injected the area with novicane and the area got numb. The tools he used consisted of scissors, another sharp object and yes, a little blow torch type of thing to weld the skin together. He starts working and it was fine although I was feeling like I was on the verge of passing out because with a bit of an open In my eye I could see thing that No one wants to see. Near the end of the surgery while he was cutting something I start to feel a tingling, I think it's nothing at first but then I feel a cut. I was literally speechless which is the wrong solution to this problem as before I could talk TORCHED MY SCROTUM, WITH ME FEELING EVERYTHING. This time i screampt and he stopped, but then put a lot of extra novicane and finished. I couldn't listen to the sound of scissors or be around a lighter for a long time after that because it took me back to the pain and it was veryyyy painful. Of course there was more to this, I did not get my fair share of genital surgery yet!

IN BETWEEN SURGERYS- important to read

Everything seemed to be good... except for one problem. There was a thick pebble (and a smaller one but it was very small) looking ball of scar tissue on my scrotum where the stitching and stuff was. Attached to the big pebble looking scar was scar tissue that tethered onto my testicle, making it feel weird when I moved my scrotum but maily pulling my scrotum in and making a sort of frownyface on my ball. I thought it would dissipate over time but it didn't. So a year later I see a different doctor because after my TRAUMATIZING experinece I didn't trust the guy as no one would. The guys says that I should wait at least another year but that if I really wanted the surgery I could get it now. I decided to listen to him even though it was a very obvious and embarrassing thing on my body that, trust me, girls would see And had seen. (Not tryna brag but 1 week after the second surgery I got neck from a girl with a disgusting scab and stitching on my ball, I tried to cover up the whole time but i think she saw, trust me not bragging this sort of stuff ties into the story). So now I had to turn off the lights all the time and feel self conscious while with a girl, which is terrible cuz they can tell your unconfident. Anyways I moved to a different town my mom got a new job (medical job). I still hadn't had sex but soon after I did, I noticed a pain when thrusting and discovered that I had a tight frenulum. I told my mom this and she asked around her practice for recommendation of urologists and found the best In the north jersey area for me. I go in, he says it's a tight frenulum for sure and then I ask about my ball and he says he thinks he can fix it.

SURGERY #3

So I go into the hospital get put to sleep and get the surgery done and I've got to say it was a lot better than my prior experiences. The pain was minimal, never really hurt at all and the stitches stayed in tact. It was healing well and everything. But last night (I got this surgery done one week ago) I noticed a tethering again and my dick was hurting so I go and see the doctor. He says there is nothing he can do, but because this time it was a very thin tethering it didn't pull my foreskin in so it want that big of a deal to me. He then looked at my dick and said it is fine but then went back to my ball and brushed off part of the scab on my ball. He told me it was ok to do that after the skin formed together already along with being able to pull out the stitches because they were the ones that fall out anyways. He assures me that it's all looking better than he anticipated and he is happy withy he result. So I go home brush off the scab and pull out the stitching. I look at mu ball and I'm not impressed, I felt super light headed. There is now a pretty thick scar going across my ball that looks awful. After everything I went through even with this great doctor this is the final result. So I was sitting down looking at how to get rid of scars or like if they go down soon after the scab is away and it somehow led me to this discussion. Man I wish I had discovered this earlier I really needed to tell people about my story (as you can see). Anyways I'm not happy with my result as many of you guys and just wanted to share my story.. maybe making someone feel better about there journey.

Please reply

Holy crap dude that sounds even more unpleasant than my experience I had 3 surgeries too. About 3 (June 2014)years ago my left night started swelling I thought I had cancer too i lost my right one when I was 13 because The doc never did an ultrasound when I went in for testicle pain and sent me away because he said I had epidytimitis but I had torsion and the blood flow got cut off. In any event doc said it was hydrocele said it would be minor surgery and everything would be good. We'll it wasn't the testicle was still pretty big when I saw him 3 months later so I had another ultrasound he said some fluid came back so i had another surgery. When I awoke from it he said I had no fluid the testicle was just large I said well it wasn't before the first surgery so what happened and he had no answer. A few months later I got a second opinion that blew me off and said it was scar tissue so I gave up for a about 18 months. I met my deductible in 2016 so in November I said F it and went back to original documents he did another ultrasound(testicle was large egg size) he said I definitely have a small hydrocele so again I had another surgery(i also had a fake ball put in to kind of even things out) I awoke from the 3rd surgery and AGAIN he said when he opened me up he found a large testicle no hydrocele. Now 2 months later it's bigger than operation number 2 but he said he did nothing to it so why is it larger STILL? Right now it's golf ball sized and im pretty mad I see him on Wednesday and I may be escorted out of the place if he can't give me some kind of answer why. Oh and GO PATS, gonna be a good game Ben,Bell and Brown are a nasty trio. Oh and how big is yours now did it return to normal size?

Mine too is around golf ball size but I guess I just never thought of it as bad at all because before it was bigger than my hand hahaha idk I don't think it's much of a problem the real prob is all the scar tissue inside my scrotum at this point. Anyways I don't think having a slightly big ball is much of a worry, I mean but idk how big ur other ball is.

Did doc say fluid had returned? I'm about 8 weeks post 3rd op and my testicle itself is about golf ball sized, there is no fluid it's just that much bigger and there is nothing that can be done. I'm seeing my doctor on Wednesday and im going to give him an earful as I was told everything would be back to normal after the 1st operation and 3 later I'm back to where I started with no options left.

Does it feel like fluid has returned? You said your scrotum feels hard but what does the actual testicle feel like? I don't have any pain either my testicle is jus to he size of a golf ball but it's not fluid it's just the actual testicle which is why I ask.

No, it doesn't feel like fluid has returned.  It feels more like someone commented earlier...like soft/hard tissue around the testicle. But I can feel the testicle when I massage the scrotum (trying to think I'm helping the swelling go down).

Yeah same boat I'm in, the testicle itself feels much larger.