micdavi24 (imported) wrote: Thu Mar 20, 2014 3:44 pm I have a question for those of you who have been surgically castrated via a scrotal incision. I was done on Saturday afternoon in the Strathfield Private Hospital in Sydney by a fully qualified urologist and my question is, how long does it take till the swelling of the scrotum post op goes down and it starts to retract up against the base of the penis.

Dr. Arnkoff did my orchie as well and like others I was given the antibiotics and pain meds with similar instructions. How long it takes for things to heal is an individual thing which can be affected by age and other things like smoking which I did at the time. I had some issues with the incision healing completely and talked with Dr. A on the phone several times sending pictures to him as well. It took about a month for most of the swelling and discoloration to subside. The cords swelled quite a bit extending into my scrotum and almost feeling like my testes were still there. I think this is why the good Doctor is showing them to people to let them see that the testes are out. He asked me if I wanted to see mine and I told him no. He also said I would think they were still there for some time and I was unaware of what he was talking about until I experienced the swelling of the cords. Those took on the order of 4 months to finally start shrinking to any real noticeable size change. I suspect this along with the attendent swelling is why they recommend a 6 month wait on the scrotum removal if that is what you are going to do eventually.

Just looking at your post now. The problem with getting things done on Medicare is the waiting period especially for elective surgery. As you will be well aware from all the news and newspaper coverage, waiting periods for elective surgery here in Australia are blowing out considerably. You may want to read the post on Calcium Chloride injections and despite the pain caused, it is a worthwhile option. Inject and then wait about a week and present to the emergency department and you will quite possibly get done there and then. Just don't go over a weekend as then many of the specialists are not in.

I followed this route and was referred to a urologist who took one look at my scans and told me that they have to go. Since I have private health, I went this route and was done on Saturday last week. I went to the Bankstown hospital back in January and from them got the referral. Had I gone to a bigger hospital like Liverpool, I would probably have been done the same day. I know of one other guy here in Aus, who took this route and had his testes removed late last year. I will be honest, the injections are a rough ride, but worth it, but please read the thread from front to back, all 48 pages of it before you make your final decision.

You should be hesitant about putting your life in the hands of a cutter. Their motives and skills have to be suspect. Do it the right way, or not at all.

sherifffdb (imported) wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2014 1:17 pm You should be hesitant about putting your life in the hands of a cutter. Their motives and skills have to be suspect. Do it the right way, or not at all.

That is why once again I shared my experience as a warning to others. $3,000 may be a lot of money but what I gave up and the worry I suffered was greater than the cost.

Seems good to echo Corky's wisdom once more. Getting done by a doc is best. Expensive? Maybe but done right it's done once and safely. Consider how long you live after, and the expense per day is very little.

daifu-orchid (imported) wrote: Wed Apr 09, 2014 6:36 pm Seems good to echo Corky's wisdom once more. Getting done by a doc is best. Expensive? Maybe but done right it's done once and safely. Consider how long you live after, and the expense per day is very little.

I had mine done in a hospital by a qualified urologist and it cost me A$ 2838.00 as a private patient with private health insurance and it was worth every penny and if I had to do it over again, would go the same route. I have not factored in the Medicare rebate or my health insurance rebate yet, as I have only submitted the accounts today. I am now 4 weeks post op and have never felt better. Even my T replacement works better than it did before they were removed.

I had a follow up appointment with my urologist on Wednesday and he told me that the right testicle was to all intents and purposes dead and the left ont was about 75% dead.