Update on Scrotum Pain Situation
Yeah, like the title of this post didn't make you either skip right over it or zero in, depending on what kind of person you are...So, I have some new developments on this front to report and a quasi-correction of sorts. Okay, and an apology.
First, it turns out that that doctor did not rule out a hernia, he merely couldn't confirm it. Why? He couldn't find the bulge/bump/lump that I located. He palpated the area from both prone and standing positions and couldn't find it. Fair enough. My husband assured me that the doctor was very thorough. Fine. So, I checked last night to see if I could still find it and nope! It is gone. So, I guess I shouldn't have casted aspersions on the doctor's diagnostic skills. It was likely gone when he was poking down there.
The good news is that the pain has also largely diminished since the bulge/bump/lump has disappeared. This is great comfort not just to Prince Charming but to me. I can't stand seeing him in pain like that. Makes me want to beat people up, actually.
We have purchased him a new jock, the purpose of which is to fight gravity's pull on the region when the issue reemerges as a problem. The jock is kind of like a bra, holding something up and secure instead of the usual force field of protection.
My prince has an appointment with our regular doctor tomorrow. And, don't laugh, but I have written the doctor a two-page note detailing my observations. He wasn't able to see Prince Charming when the symptoms were presenting, you see, and now both the pain and the bulge are absent. I don't want him to merely brush off the matter as resolved, but want him to investigate the cause. Simply, that is, because anything that knocks my husband on his ass like that can't be benign. The matter may have resolved itself for now, but I expect it will reoccur. And, in the event that it does, I don't want to have to wait another 2 damn days before a medical professional can witness the symptoms. Because, as we have just seen, the thing can pop back in in two days!
So, meddlesome? Maybe. But I love my husband too much to let this go another 8 or 9 months before investigating the root cause. I expect the doctor will read my note and laugh. But, let's face it: I am better positioned than Prince Charming to get a good look at the region. I am also pretty knowledgeable about what is normal down there. (Writing that sentence totally made me laugh, imagining your face as you read it.) So, I hope he doesn't throw it out the window.
You can see where he might choose to disregard my notes. Maybe I'm just some hypochondriac micro-managing wife. Maybe I'm just afraid of my husband's mortality. My husband can speak for himself and describe his own pain. But, and I emphasized this in my letter to the doctor, my husband is unlikely to admit that the pain was sufficiently horrible that he couldn't just ignore it and go on. This was no ordinary pain. And, symptoms having passed and the doctor not knowing my husband like I do, the doctor is unlikely to fully appreciate the severity of the problem.
So, I'm still standing by my diagnosis of inguinal hernia. For one thing, it presents in the right region, with the bulge in exactly the right place. For another thing, they do that there one minute, gone the next disappearing act. For further evidence to explain the right-scrotal pain, I put forth the obvious bulge-applying-pressure-to-the-spermatic-cords hypothesis. It all just seems to fit. Of course, I got my medical degree from Google, so I could easily be wrong.
But, I'm hopeful that the doctor will perform an ultrasound or something to investigate. And, I'm totally going to laugh if my diagnosis turns out to be right.
Of course, I hope it is something much less severe...
Labels: I love my husband
