Hi there. In the morning, I’m going to the local hospital for some exams. After a week of very mild testicular discomfort, I visited a urologist – whom I discontinued for various reasons, one of them being telling me off for choosing a different hospital to get an ultrasound. His verdict was that my testicle was torted mildly, and prescribed a Color Doppler scan, sperm and urine exams for bacterial infections. All of the exams were clear, indicating normal blood flow and clean fluids. After consulting my uncle -he is a general surgeon- he referred us to one of his colleagues. While my uncle is has not examined me, he too believes it was a mild torsion and I have to have an orchiopexy if it actually is.
Now, that’s both scary and exciting to me. I am 21 now and when I was 4, I had a very traumatic experience with surgery. I was taken to the clinic in a rush with severe belly pain. The only thing I remember is tears. I was crying all the time mainly because the doctors scared both me and my parents and were very barbaric overall, seeing that they had to handle a 4 year old (this is the clinic were the first urologist saw me, and of course I’m not having the surgery there!). I strongly remember the anesthesiologist yelling at me and asking me to shut up as he put the mask on me. A while ago, I was mortified of surgery but now I’m calmed somehow, mainly because I trust my uncle’s choice of a doctor and I’m an adult, so they won’t be able to ‘shut me up’ anyway. Still, I have so many questions and concerns! For one, the only thing that really picks my nerves is anesthesia. In the clinic, they said I would have some light sedation,a 30 min tops procedure and then I would go back home. In the hospital, the protocol requires them to keep me for at least a day (I guess for safety reasons) and since I will be having all kinds of exams (not sure what, I think it will be blood tests, ECG and other general stuff) I suspect general anesthesia will be used; it’s all that’s needed to bring the memories of rushing, not-that-friendly surgeons, and the gas mask back alive, and I also slightly fear that I won’t wake up. Is this how general anesthesia is always administered (meaning, via gas mask) or will they give me something before so I can start drifting off? Another thing that scares me is that my diagnosis is hanging in the air. Yet, I don’t have a solidified idea of what the heck is going on in my scrotum! Of course, the radiologist (head of the department) said that everything was clockwork and he actually didn’t understand what was so worrying. On the other hand, I’m afraid of waking up in the recovery room, surgeon above my head, telling me they had to remove the testicles because they found a tumor or something! As for that, my uncle comes into play again: every time we spoke through the course of this week, he has been assuring me that in case the torsion happened again, the pain would be unbearable and I would definately know it. Then again, as I said, he hasn’t examined me.
A very last detail is that my ‘self diagnosis’ seems positive, too. By self diagnosis, I mean that as of today I still produce semen normally. Also, I can’t feel any lumps.
I know that these concerns are mostly childish. Me myself, I’m not batshit scared, just very nervous of the outcome. So, I would be very greatful of your support! Experiences, opinions and ways to calm are all welcome!