Hydrocele

[AngrySailor302]

I have been in the Navy for almost 6 years, stationed on a submarine based out of Groton, CT for the better part of the past 3 years. (USS Annapolis SSN-760)

Up until the the point where I reached my present command, I would have rated my time in the Navy as overall positive, since I reported to my present command, I would have to say that the little benefits the Navy provides, with the lingering threat of reduced retirement pay included, is not worth the stress and excessive hours required.

The following is a summary of my last week and a half of frustration, pain, and the run-around I have been given while trying to obtain medical help.

Last week, while riding bike home, a woman ran a stop sign and in the process of trying to minimize the impact, I hit the frame of the bike hard.

The pain wasn't more than I would have expected , and subsided by the time I got home.

The next day, I discovered that my right testicle had swollen slightly. I figured it was simply a bruise from the prior day's accident.

Over the course of last weekend, the swelling increased, but was not painful to the touch.

On Monday (05May08) I saw the Ship's Medical Department Representive, he asked what happened, examined me, and told me that the testicle was either infected, damaged, or had cancer.

I then had an appointment made for an ultrasound check, to rule out cancer and major injury.

I showed up for the appointment a half hour early, and was seen almost half hour late, in typical Navy fashion.

I was told that I have a large hydrocele on my right testicle , and that would require surgery to fix.

I went back to the boat to go see Doc (the nickname for the MDR also known as a Corpsman.)

He wasn't in, he went out to go for a run. It took me 2 hours to find his cell phone number, only to have him not answer.

It was about an hour later when he finally came back to the boat and saw me. I told him what I was told, and he said that I needed to make some calls to the Squadron Medical Liasion.

I made several calls, I was told to keep calling back to schedule a urologist consultation to see what kind of help I need (discussion and research has yielded the fact that I need surgery to fix this.)

During the course of the running around that I have had to do, the hydrocele had become swollen to the point where I has constantly in pain, ranging from burning to sharp stabbing pain running up and down my right side.

Now I have a very swollen and painful hydrocele (by definition, hydroceles are not supposed to hurt, only to be a discomfort.)

The medical department on my ship and squadron have been brushing me off repeatedly.

I have been told to stand by and to make calls to get my appointment set. None of the calls have been any productive.

I have had to run around a lot to try to get the help I need, only to be screwed with by Tricare and Navy Medical.

The best solution that has been provided was to give me Percocet, which is not helping with the pain unless I stay completely still.


Also, I have to deal with the side effects of Percocet (mood swings, dizzy/tired spells, difficulty focusing) and try to get help is not working out so well.

I have already been to the emergency room, my pain was not taken seriously by the attending doctor. ("Hydroceles should not be painful, so I do not understand why you are in pain.") The medical representative from my boat came with me and played down the fact that I am in a lot of pain from this, and the cure is to give me more painkillers.

Right now, I am beside myself in pain, my command has pretty much pushed me aside, if I am at home trying to get bedrest, I can't possibly hassle the command as much.

The squadron medical representative was supposed to have scheduled me a visit with a urologist on Tuesday, nope, I got pushed aside and had to have my wife drive my drugged up *** around for hours today to try to get an appointment to get this corrected.

Even the Doc on my ship realizes that I am in a lot of pain and need surgery to fix this.

The secretaries at the Urologist were not at all sympathetic to the fact that I need help and soon, and "could not get me in until next week."

I told them that my pain medications run out tomorrow, which the last one will be around noon tomorrow. Solution: more pain pills, which only work for about 3-4 hours when resting, 1-3 when active, which means even with the pills, I am still in a fair amount of pain. Again, hyroceles should not be painful.
Even with the Percocet, I still feel a burning pain most of the time, sometimes a pulsating pain.

My command seems to not want to deal with me right now, there is no sense of urgency with this matter, the MDR has time to go for a run during the middle of the day, but not to help me with this. I have had to make most of the calls myself, and have gotten a real bad runaround on this.

I have already been to the emergency room, and the attending Doctor, looked at the summary of the wet read rolled her eyes when I told her (the doctor)that I was in a lot of pain. She told me that I need to see a specialist, and that I should not have come to the Emergency Room for a non life-threatening Emergency.

My wife has already suggested that we try a different emergency room, I just might have to try that.

Right now, my command is simply trying to brush me off by sending me home and selectively answering calls I make.

If I am not at work, I can't complain to everyone, and people can't see how hard it is to move around.

I could have been seen by a specialist and had this taken care of sooner, if my command would help me instead of having me find out what numbers to call and have my wife drive me around to each place to try to get an appointment with a specialist.

Tuesday, when I had the Ultrasound done, my Corpsman did not return to the boat and actively try to help me until approx 1430, when people here in Groton start to shut down. I was back from the Ultrasound approx 1000.

The Squadron Liaison was supposed to have gotten me an appointment on Tuesday, and then called me up to let me know when it is.

That never happened.

At this point the only person who is actively trying to help me is my wife, and the entire runaround, lack of help, and seeing me in such pain is taking it's toll on her.

I took another pain pill about an hour ago.
The burning pain is still there.
As soon as I get better, I am going to find out how I can submit papers to change commands.
And then carry them out.

Right now I am trying to figure out what oversight agency would be able to help me and how to get in contact with them.

Here is the ship's number, for those of you out there that might be able to help me.

USS Annapolis (SSN-760)
[moderator note: contact information has been removed]
I can provide phone numbers to those who request.

I have already tried the chain of command to get help. I have had to do the lion's share of the work myself.

All my chief has been able to do for me is talk to the corpsman, which does no good.
The Engineer and XO and CO know about my problem, but further than that, no help rendered, other than having to take me off of the duty rotation.

The most I have gotten with this has been a runaround of phone numbers and ridicule, ranging from simple minded immature humor about my condition, to offers of back alley surgery.

I was even told by the COB that I was not a priority.

The swelling has taken a nasty turn for the worse, and the Percocet is not helping anymore with the pain, so my wife is going to drag me to a different emergency room.

I have had a lot of problems with this command, mainly dealing with hazing and other immature behaviour. When complaints of said hazing were made, the level of hazing would get worse for a bit, and then die down.

I will make another post when I get back from the ER.

I have returned from the Emergency Room.
The swelling has doubled since Monday.

Since I have a consultation with a urologist on Monday, the Emergency Room doctor (different location) did not want to take action until I see the urologist.

They did a more thorough ultrasound than was done on Tuesday. They confirmed that the hydrocele has made a major increase in size on the right testicle, and the scrotum itself was starting to swell up.

They did give me more pain pills, which now gives me enough to last until mid-day Monday. Otherwise, I would have run out tomorrow afternoon.

My wife has been keeping track of the swelling each day now, taking photos with our digital camera in the morning and throughout the day to keep track of the changes.

A tape measure is used to provide reference points.

The overall trend is getting larger and more discolored as time goes on.

The MDR was upset with me when I called him to tell him that my wife took me to the ER. The fact that the swelling has gotten this large and discolored, not to mention the fact that the Percocet pills given only help for a couple of hours, when I can only take them every 4-6 hours.

All this time wasted suffering needlessly, simply because of the fact that the medical department on my ship did not want to schedule my appointments in a timely fashion, only at the last minute did I get the contact information to make the appointments myself.

I had even offered to make the appointments myself on Monday, but I was told by Doc that it was his job to take care of it.

Oh, and a final insult and injury to injury.

People at my command have been making jokes about my condition and one sailor even went so far and to slap my crotch while I was waiting to see Doc.

All we have for a medical department on my ship is one person, HM1 Columbe, with the cooks as his emergency medical assistance team assistants.

I kept asking him about when my appointment was going to be, on last Tuesday, he told me that he would have the Urologist appointment made for sometime Thursday or Friday.

It wasn't until mid day Thursday that I found that he had not made the appointment.

His advice was to go into the Urologist office and "look sad", and maybe I would get help.

So, I get to sit around home this weekend and suffer.

[AngrySailor302]

Over the course of the past week, the Hydrocele has almost tripled in size. My wife has been taking photos of the testicle each morning with a tape measure nearby to use for size compairison.

The pain has been so bad i have had to go to the ER twice.
I have been doped up on Percocet for the past few days, and I still feel pain.

My wife has noticed the right testicle has shrunken up some as well.

I am in a lot of pain right now, and am not getting the help I need.

I would be more than happy to provide contact numbers for my ship, for those wanting to help me.

Thanks

James

[Textsize]

It doesn't sound like you have a HYdrocele. Your bike accident is what caused it. You brusied
your testi really bad.. and needs the attention of a sane non-government paid Doctor. You might
need to "pay-out-of-pocket" to get real help. Good luck.

[AngrySailor302]

I cannot afford to pay out of pocket. The Navy does not pay me enough to cover medical expenses and be able to care for my wife and son.

The urologist I am seeing is a civilian, as there is no Navy Urologist at the Navy Hospital on base.
(There are many OB/GYNs there though, my wife has all of her OB/GYN work done there.)

The problem is that the urologist I am seeing (Dr. Richard Fraser) is not all that caring.
My last appointment was very upsetting. During the wait, I was in so much pain that I was crying in the waiting area. The receptionists peered out to see what the deal was and said/did nothing. My wife started crying because I started to talk about killing myself because of the pain. One of the receptionists came out in quick order to give her a tissue and ask if there was anything that she could do to help my wife, completely disregarding my condition.

The appointment was less than 5 minutes long.

He did not even do a complete examination. He squeezed the right testicle, and that was all. He did not check the epididymus (which is very swollen and painful. The hydrocele swelling was primarily around the right epididymus. I may be wrong, but it feels like there are broken sections and rough areas, along with hard crusty lumps along the testicle and epdidymus.)

My wife had to grab hold of him to keep him from seeing a female patient early, and to get him to call for a CAT scan.

I had the CAT scan last week, according to it, there is no swelling and all is fine, which is contrary to photographs and video taken just minutes prior to the CAT scan.
I feel that the CAT scan and or the read is flawed for the following reasons:

1.) I was not given the required dose of contrast solution. I had the 1st and 2nd as required, but I never got the 3rd dose.

2.) The CAT scan was very late. It was set for 3pm, it was after 530pm when I finally got into the scan room.

3.) The hospital that took the CAT scan, especially the radiology department is geared towards women's health care. (The Backus Hospital website's urology page has only a few sentences on it, compared to pages and pages of OB/GYN stuff, with 3 contact numbers and 2 departments, compared to ZERO contact numbers of urology.) And the person taking my CAT scan told me that it was rare to see a man in the CAT scan room, leading me to think that the person that read the scan was not a specialist in the male reproductive system. To top it off, the radiology page is just bubbling with data on women's healthcare, with little mention of men's health.

Right now my problem is not with getting the Navy to get care done, it is the civilians that are letting me down.

The big part of the problem is the lack of urologists in the area. (5 Urolgists in one office compared to almost 3 dozen OB/GYNs in a dozen and a half offices in the same area, not to mention the vast women's wings at the local hospitals and clinics, and the OB/GYN support at the base hospital.

I am still in a great amount of pain, and I am out of painkillers. I have to stay in bed to keep the pain in control.

I cannot even pick up my son (about 25 lbs.) without feeling a painful burning in my right testicle and surrounding groin area.

My wife is upset because no matter the position, having sexual relations, one of the best ways to blow off stress, causes me too much pain.

I am still having blackouts and panic attacks from the medications that the ER Doc from the 7th of May (Dr. Catherine Glazer) gave me, and how she treated me, coupled with the pain I am now in is keeping me in a depressed and suicidal state (I talk of it often when I "black-out" and have tried several times, again, during "Black outs" One of the black outs I had found me wandering around outside for about 2 hours, starting around 11:30pm. When I finally snapped out of the black out, it took me almost a half hour to find my way home.)

I know I will need a psychiatric evaluation when I finally get the help I need.

[nanoman7]

I am not a medical professional , however I have done a great deal of research and have had a great deal of medcial tesing for my condition which is somewhat related to your discriptions.

If all textbook medical conditions have been ruled out, take the following experience and use it as you desire.

12 years ago I was diagnosed with Vericose in my left testical and hydro and spermaticele's in both.

Surgery was done on both and all I beleive was done was some cutting fishig around inside and stiching.
I was old it would be a couple of weeks before the pain wouldgo away. the pain never went completely away but did subside to some degree. I layed in bed for two weeks with ice packs on my scotum the swelling went down and a I was left witha dull pain that stayed with me and got worse with movement or prolonged sitting. Because I had back issues the medication taken for the back in a way helped the scotal pain. This continued for 4 years and I had gone to 6 urolgists and nueolgists during this time complaining of this pain. I was told all is well in the uroligy dept and the pain was related to my back ( might have been). In 2001 I was in two auto accidents. In both cases I was rear ended. The first accident caused pain in my back and groin and I had things checked out and was told all was well. 8 months later the second accident I had applied both of my feet to the brake of the car even though I wasn't moving this was an automatic reaction. I experienced VERY severve back and groin pain. I had thing checked out and was told all was well, I did injure my back more but was told the groin was fine. I noticed a constant pain in my lower back and groin.
Real findings - My back discs from the S1 through to the C2 - this is the whole spine and both testicicals were a mess. I had Lumps in my testicles vericose veins in both more left then right and pea sized hyroceles( they say ) on my left testical.
They ruled out surgery as an option because the back was too much of a mess althoguh they are willing to go in and start fusing things for the hell of it. The groin surgery is ruled out because like you..they aren't supposed to cause pain.
Today - I still have the back issues, and the groin issues have gotten worse. Without heavy medication not even I can touch my scrotum. And it continues that surgery is not an option for with condition.
(let me add here that I am 58 years old and in basic good health other then..)
treatment -
Pain management large dosages of opioid medications application of something called BLT in PLO 2 x daily. this is a numbing cream that gets somewhat absorbed through the sking slightly and goes in about 1" it is benzocaine 20% Lidocaine 8% and tetracaine 4% mixed in a yellow cream. I apply it like appling peanut butter on a sandwich using a plastic spoon. I leave it on the back for 45- 60 Minutes and in my scrotum for 15 minutes. the tetracaine irratates the thin skin of the testicales so i have to be careful, it could cause chemical burns, with proper timing this is not a problem.
I helps very much and the effect lasts for 2-6 hours depending on my activity.
NOW the BIGGY - Doctors had injected lidocaine which helps for 30 minutes, then pontociane (tetracaine) lasts for 2 hours. Then I did research and found POLOCAINE it lasts for 8 hours. And they were injecting 3 -5 cc in each scotal sac twice a day. This was very helpful. However!!! Each treatment was being billed at the rate of $800.00 each. That means $1600 a day. AND the doctors were very uncomfortable with the level of danger using this medication.
So I had a uroligists and nuroligist train me on giving self injections.
I now inject upto 20 cc's per event in my scrotal sac and back, also I have found it helpful to inject target areas in my interior groin area, and hips. I do this as needed usally 2 times per day and sometimes 3. It is a perifial nerve block that stops the pain singnals.
I also continue the BLT - PLO.
This is a VERY radical treatment but without it I would be placed in controlled coma due to the fact that NOTHING else other General A would work for the pain.
I requested my testical's be removed and the killing of certain nerves as an option and the opinion of the doctors tell me it will not stop the pain if they did this. they are of the opinion that my pain is due to nerve damage and not due to the LUMPS which are now grape sized and have made freinds on both sides and a progression of vericous veins in the testicals and hydro and spermaticeles on both sides.
I have done 100 hours+ research on my condition and pain managment and have found something that helps me, I am sure this is not for everyone, however the cream is a very good start.
Any doctor could prescribe the cream, it is a compound medication. A phamacy that could advise the doctors on how to write the script would be NICK at - [moderator note: phone number has been removed] I get 500 grams at a time.

Good luck

Please ignore the mispelt words, i'm just to lazy to correct them..

[AngrySailor302]

We know what a lot of the problem is: I have a hernia that doe snot like to be seen when I lie down. When I walk around a lot, or try to pick things like a bag of cat food (20lbs.), for example, there is a pronounced bulge in the right side of my groin, right next to the crease where the thigh attaches.

Sometimes it becomes very large and visible without touching it, we even have photos of it, sometimes that side of my groin gets very tense and tender to the touch. When those muscles tighten up, my right testicle gets very cold, very fast.

The hydrocele is not as full as it once was, but the pocket is still there, and it HURTS. It leaves a lot of free movement of the right testicle to torsion on itself. I have been to the ER for torsion, all they did was untwist it manually and send me home, no scans done, nothing. The told they would have to get an ultrasound done that showed that circulation was lost before they would do surgery to correct, and that I would have to come in at least 3 times with an ultrasound proven torsion before they would do surgery. That and I would have to come in during normal business hours to get an ultrasound done. With pain and painkillers wreaking havoc with my sleep schedule, I am most active at night, and have most of my torsion episodes at night, when no medical help is availiable. My wife any I have become very familiar with the "opening a book" method of detorsioning. We have even had to pour hot water on my scrotum to get it to loosen up enough to allow us to untwist my right testicle.

Dr. Fraser did not seem the least bit concerned about that. He wanted proof of my having torsion, and he did not want to look at the photographs Nicholle and I took of my right testicle being twisted upon itself, sitting sideways.

I have had two ultrasounds done at two different locations. (Both under the same system, but the local hospital would not see me for a scrotal ultrasound for 2 weeks, so we had to go to a branch clinic an hour away, BTW we called the same hospital up under the pretenses of getting an ultrasound done on my wife, and they would have seen her on the same day.

Mention testicular work, and nobody wants to deal with you.

The urologist, THE QUACK, Dr. Richard Fraser of Thames Urology in New London, CT; the one that the Navy had me see for a month and a half, is not even a testicular expert. HE SPECIALIZES IN KIDNEY STONES! None of the 5 urologists there specialize in testicular care, other than removal due to cancer and vasectomy work.

There are more OB/GYNs in Groton, where I live at in the rotten state of CT, than there are Urologists in the surrounding 45 min drive from my house. The base hospital has OB/GYN services, you just need to kow who to talk to. My wife sees a Navy gynelcologist on base every year, but there are no urology services on base, despite the fact that males comprise about 98-99% of the active duty population of the base.

We got the numbers back from the ultrasounds done on the 9th of May and the 5th of June, and the results are not good. The first ultrasound, on the 9th of May, showed my right testicle at being 15.12cc the next on the 5th of June, showed it to be 10.54cc, a 4.58cc drop in size, or in other terms: my right testicle was 69.71% of it's size from a month before.

My left testicle remained about the same size in both. The right testicle did not begin it's drop in size until the hydrocele deflated, and provided room to twist. Between the twisting and the bulge, which I think may be somehow related as one seems to cause the other, my right testicle is no longer the larger of the two. Before the accident, it was noticeably larger and the ultrasounds proved it. After the torsion episodes, the right was noticably smaller, and the ultrasounds proved it. I kept bringing up the intermittent torsion and Dr. Fraser said it was all in my head and the loss of size is also in my head.

The Hydrocele is still there, and it swells up based on activity level, to the point where it seems like the right testicle is larger than the left again, but then when I spend a lot of time in bed, it goes back down again, and the pocket is very noticeable.

One thing I should mention is that I am vulnerable to pain surges because of this, ranging from burning to a crushing stabbing pain. Worst case scenario: I black out from the pain, or worse, the pain gets so bad, that I have a hard time breathing.

My problem is that there are so few urologists in the state, and even fewer that specialize in the care I need and the Navy does not want to pay for my care. Al they want me to do is to take my vicodin and stay in bed, and hopefully, magically, all will be well soon.

Screw the Navy.