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Chronic Testicular Pain
Tomorrow marks the first day of my fourth month of severe pain in my testicles, and if this continues, I seriously don't want to wake up anymore. I just can't take this pain much longer.
In order to give you an idea, on a scale of 1 to 10, most days my pain is a 6, 7, or 8. I have very few days at a 1 or 2, I have a LOT of days that are 8 to 10. I'm tired of being dependent on a pain pill just to make it through the day, and I don't want to get addicted, so I MUST find a solution!
On October 6th, I got up off the couch to make breakfast, and was brought to my knees with an INTENSE pain like I had just been kicked in the groin. I went back to the couch and remained there, waiting for the pain to go away. It didn't. About four hours later, my wife read to me something she found on Google: torsion. When I heard that I only had about six hours until I might lose a testicle, I RUSHED to the E.R. They performed an ultrasound but didn't find torsion to be the issue. They put me on antibiotics and said I had a cyst that would reabsorb into the body.
About two weeks later, the pain was again so bad that I went to the E.R. Again, and ultrasound, but they found nothing unusual. I followed up with my doctor, who thought maybe it was epiditymitus, and prescribed a sulfa.
My next visit was to a urologist, who put me on Cipro, hoping it was an infection. He also ordered a third, more extensive, ultrasound. This urologist was busy when I went in for the results, so I saw a different urologist who checked my prostate, asked me a plethora of questions, and said the ultrasound was normal. He put me on a month of Cipro, and ordered a CT scan.
After the CT scan, I went back to that second urologist who said everything looked good. He consulted with the other urologists and nobody could figure out what was causing it. He said he would refer me to the pain clinic, and they would be in touch. Three weeks later, I finally found out that the pain clinic isn't taking any new patients, because they're full. So I'm back to square one.
While at the urologist, I asked him about removing my testicles, and he said that he doesn't recommend it because in many cases, even after removing them, the pain continues (I guess in the nerves that are still there? dunno).
In the meantime, several doctors have ordered ibuprofen, ketoprofen, and naproxen regimens. I'm currently on naproxen. I have also been told to wear tighter underwear, which does seem to help (before I wore boxer briefs). I have an ice pack that I wear anywhere from 10 to 20 hours per day. It was difficult at first, but now I hardly notice the ice.
There are no stones, no infections, no constriction of blood, no injury, no inflammation.
I'm married and faithful, and I have no reason to believe she has been unfaithful. I remain sexually active and have not noticed any kind of change during periods of activity vs. periods of inactivity (i.e. sex doesn't seem to matter).
Two or three times, I have had a pain in the base of my penis while urinating. It wasn't a burning, just a dull "squeezing" pain.
I was born and raised vegetarian, although I'm a far cry from a health fanatic. In fact, I'm quite overweight (6'1", almost 300 pounds). I have also recently been in the E.R. for high blood pressure, after which I cut all the snacking and junk out of my diet. I lost 20 pounds in December and am continuing to lose weight due to my change in diet (more veggies, more fruit, less fat, less salt, lots of whole grains, etc.)
I take HCTZ and lisinopril for my blood pressure, but this started well after the pain.
I take Prozac for depression. This has been for a couple years, but was recently doubled because the pain has caused some pretty bad depression.
I take daily vitamins, flax seed oil, etc.
I don't drink (been sober for almost seven years), I don't smoke, and I don't do drugs.
I'm 35 years old.
Please help. Today is my third day in a row of categorizing the pain at ten. I have a wonderful wife and four lovely children and I would hate to abandon them, but this pain is making me very selfish and I just don't see how I can bear it anymore. I either want to stop hurting, or stop waking up. I'm not normally like this, but the pain is just SO overwhelming.
I've never posted anything like this before, but I realize that when I'm thinking suicidal thoughts, it's very important to seek help. I'll be seeing my regular doctor tomorrow, but I'm not sure what help he'll be. The last time I saw him, he said that non-narcotics aren't strong enough, and narcotics are too addictive for me to continue. I need a SOLUTION.
Hope I've given you enough information.
Thanks!
In order to give you an idea, on a scale of 1 to 10, most days my pain is a 6, 7, or 8. I have very few days at a 1 or 2, I have a LOT of days that are 8 to 10. I'm tired of being dependent on a pain pill just to make it through the day, and I don't want to get addicted, so I MUST find a solution!
On October 6th, I got up off the couch to make breakfast, and was brought to my knees with an INTENSE pain like I had just been kicked in the groin. I went back to the couch and remained there, waiting for the pain to go away. It didn't. About four hours later, my wife read to me something she found on Google: torsion. When I heard that I only had about six hours until I might lose a testicle, I RUSHED to the E.R. They performed an ultrasound but didn't find torsion to be the issue. They put me on antibiotics and said I had a cyst that would reabsorb into the body.
About two weeks later, the pain was again so bad that I went to the E.R. Again, and ultrasound, but they found nothing unusual. I followed up with my doctor, who thought maybe it was epiditymitus, and prescribed a sulfa.
My next visit was to a urologist, who put me on Cipro, hoping it was an infection. He also ordered a third, more extensive, ultrasound. This urologist was busy when I went in for the results, so I saw a different urologist who checked my prostate, asked me a plethora of questions, and said the ultrasound was normal. He put me on a month of Cipro, and ordered a CT scan.
After the CT scan, I went back to that second urologist who said everything looked good. He consulted with the other urologists and nobody could figure out what was causing it. He said he would refer me to the pain clinic, and they would be in touch. Three weeks later, I finally found out that the pain clinic isn't taking any new patients, because they're full. So I'm back to square one.
While at the urologist, I asked him about removing my testicles, and he said that he doesn't recommend it because in many cases, even after removing them, the pain continues (I guess in the nerves that are still there? dunno).
In the meantime, several doctors have ordered ibuprofen, ketoprofen, and naproxen regimens. I'm currently on naproxen. I have also been told to wear tighter underwear, which does seem to help (before I wore boxer briefs). I have an ice pack that I wear anywhere from 10 to 20 hours per day. It was difficult at first, but now I hardly notice the ice.
There are no stones, no infections, no constriction of blood, no injury, no inflammation.
I'm married and faithful, and I have no reason to believe she has been unfaithful. I remain sexually active and have not noticed any kind of change during periods of activity vs. periods of inactivity (i.e. sex doesn't seem to matter).
Two or three times, I have had a pain in the base of my penis while urinating. It wasn't a burning, just a dull "squeezing" pain.
I was born and raised vegetarian, although I'm a far cry from a health fanatic. In fact, I'm quite overweight (6'1", almost 300 pounds). I have also recently been in the E.R. for high blood pressure, after which I cut all the snacking and junk out of my diet. I lost 20 pounds in December and am continuing to lose weight due to my change in diet (more veggies, more fruit, less fat, less salt, lots of whole grains, etc.)
I take HCTZ and lisinopril for my blood pressure, but this started well after the pain.
I take Prozac for depression. This has been for a couple years, but was recently doubled because the pain has caused some pretty bad depression.
I take daily vitamins, flax seed oil, etc.
I don't drink (been sober for almost seven years), I don't smoke, and I don't do drugs.
I'm 35 years old.
Please help. Today is my third day in a row of categorizing the pain at ten. I have a wonderful wife and four lovely children and I would hate to abandon them, but this pain is making me very selfish and I just don't see how I can bear it anymore. I either want to stop hurting, or stop waking up. I'm not normally like this, but the pain is just SO overwhelming.
I've never posted anything like this before, but I realize that when I'm thinking suicidal thoughts, it's very important to seek help. I'll be seeing my regular doctor tomorrow, but I'm not sure what help he'll be. The last time I saw him, he said that non-narcotics aren't strong enough, and narcotics are too addictive for me to continue. I need a SOLUTION.
Hope I've given you enough information.
Thanks!
"I don't do drugs" - you do, you take Prozac. I believe it's the reason for your problems. I'm extremely surprised that no urologist told you that, they must have been some idiots. I took Zoloft (sertraline, pfizer, what a crap), which is extremely similar to Prozac (fluoxetine), for 10 days (!), and it caused a tremendous pain in my testicles. I stopped taking it, now, 4 months later, I still feel little pain. SSRI causes sexual side effects in almost 100% of the cases, however testicular pain is not listed in the official patient brochures. How are you doing now? Do you still take Prozac?
No, and yes.
I went through hell trying to get off of those opiates.
Then they gave me pot. That was a lot of fun, but it didn't help much, and was destroying my marriage.
The thing that helped most: ice. I wore ice in my pants all day long. Every day. For about two years.
Then, one day, it just stopped. I can't explain it. The pain just went away. If I strain my back (lifting something heavy, etc.), then my testicles will be KILLING me the next day. I watch my back, and I'm trying to lose weight, and the pain is usually not there.
I went through hell trying to get off of those opiates.
Then they gave me pot. That was a lot of fun, but it didn't help much, and was destroying my marriage.
The thing that helped most: ice. I wore ice in my pants all day long. Every day. For about two years.
Then, one day, it just stopped. I can't explain it. The pain just went away. If I strain my back (lifting something heavy, etc.), then my testicles will be KILLING me the next day. I watch my back, and I'm trying to lose weight, and the pain is usually not there.
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