One year after
Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 4:06 am
So, it's been a year now since the urologist over at Stanford did my bilateral orchiectomy for the severe orchalgia I was experiencing. 
Thank you so much, Dr. C!!!
This came about from the medications I take for my cluster headaches completely wiping out my natural testosterone production. Endocrinologist recognized that the level of opiates I was on left no hope of keeping my T levels normal, but at the same time there was no way they wanted to touch the opiate levels as that allowed me to be a functional person.
I started with patches for HRT, and found I was allergic to them, they left horrible rings that took months to go away anywhere I had put them on. They next tried me on gel and I broke out in hives the first day I put that om my body.
The endocrinologist wanted me to go to injections, the pharmacist suggested before going straight to full injections that we try doing a test to see if I might show an allergic reaction, considering I had reactions to the other two forms of T delivery. The endocrinologist thought this was ridiculous, after all, this is now as pure as we can get for T, but ok, we'll try a little under the skin on my arm like a TB skin test and I'd come back in a couple days.
My arm was completely red, swollen, and itching.
I spent six months with an allergist slowly building up to the final dosing level so that I could get over the allergy. Within another six to nine months after being on the full dose, my testicles started to ache, slowly getting worse day by day. The first urologist I went to dismissed it, deciding instead to concentrate on my older incontinence issue (which I've had lifelong). When a doctor tells me the pain is "insignificant" even though I say it is worse than my cluster headaches, I fire the doctor immediately.:withstupi
I went through my GP who ordered a battery of tests. All negative. Off to another urologist. This guy at least didn't ignore my claims of pain to concentrate on the lifelong problem that I already have come to terms with. After all the tests and time? Nothing. He finally deduces the pain might be in my testicles compared to radiating up from prostate (DUH!!!) and offers a short acting lidocaine injection into cords as experiment--if it helps, we know where issue is and can maybe go forward. I'm willing to do anything; I walk like I'm 90+ the pain is so bad. Do the shots and, boom!, pain is gone.
I broke down into tears over it all.
Moved from there to pain management doctor who tried twice with nerve block surgeries to stop the pain from testicles. Lasted about a month and a half before it came back. Was left with option of implanting a neurostimulator to try and control it, which urologist wanted to do, but pain management doc suggested looking into orchiectomy. Urologist refused to think about orchie, I asked to get moved on to another opinion, he suggested UCSF or Stanford.
UCSF wasn't available for months, Stanford was available in two weeks. With the pain like it was, you know where I went! Met Dr. C., he discussed either orchie, different HRT method, or looking deeper into neurostimulator.
So, before I went orchiectomy, I asked endo about the different HRT: no dice, it was too unpredictable and would be unable to tell how much I would get on a regular basis.
The neurostimulator? They would have to implant it on one side to connect to the testicle on that side, but then they would need to tunnel across belly to other with electrodes to get to other testicle to help control pain there. Every 3-4 years would need to have a slit cut open and battery in it replaced, pain management doctor didn't think it was best option. This was considering my age, family status, etc. His opinion as to what he would do if in my shoes? Orchiectomy.
Considering I had a lot of respect for pain management doctor, I called doctor at Stanford and asked to go ahead with orchiectomy. Originally it was supposed to be one side to see how well it helped with the pain and then in six months or so he would do the other. When I went in for pre-op appointments, I found out he had changed it to bilateral. Fine with me!
A few days later I went in. It was done under general, the doctor came out and told my wife after that it only took 30 minutes, there was no bleeding anywhere or any complications, went perfectly. Woke up a eunuch.
The pain has never been back, at any level, and I'm glad. I never thought anything could be worse than my cluster headaches for pain, but the orchalgia put the headaches to shame.
Thanks, Dr. C!!!
Thank you so much, Dr. C!!!
This came about from the medications I take for my cluster headaches completely wiping out my natural testosterone production. Endocrinologist recognized that the level of opiates I was on left no hope of keeping my T levels normal, but at the same time there was no way they wanted to touch the opiate levels as that allowed me to be a functional person.
I started with patches for HRT, and found I was allergic to them, they left horrible rings that took months to go away anywhere I had put them on. They next tried me on gel and I broke out in hives the first day I put that om my body.
The endocrinologist wanted me to go to injections, the pharmacist suggested before going straight to full injections that we try doing a test to see if I might show an allergic reaction, considering I had reactions to the other two forms of T delivery. The endocrinologist thought this was ridiculous, after all, this is now as pure as we can get for T, but ok, we'll try a little under the skin on my arm like a TB skin test and I'd come back in a couple days.My arm was completely red, swollen, and itching.
I spent six months with an allergist slowly building up to the final dosing level so that I could get over the allergy. Within another six to nine months after being on the full dose, my testicles started to ache, slowly getting worse day by day. The first urologist I went to dismissed it, deciding instead to concentrate on my older incontinence issue (which I've had lifelong). When a doctor tells me the pain is "insignificant" even though I say it is worse than my cluster headaches, I fire the doctor immediately.:withstupi
I went through my GP who ordered a battery of tests. All negative. Off to another urologist. This guy at least didn't ignore my claims of pain to concentrate on the lifelong problem that I already have come to terms with. After all the tests and time? Nothing. He finally deduces the pain might be in my testicles compared to radiating up from prostate (DUH!!!) and offers a short acting lidocaine injection into cords as experiment--if it helps, we know where issue is and can maybe go forward. I'm willing to do anything; I walk like I'm 90+ the pain is so bad. Do the shots and, boom!, pain is gone.
I broke down into tears over it all.
Moved from there to pain management doctor who tried twice with nerve block surgeries to stop the pain from testicles. Lasted about a month and a half before it came back. Was left with option of implanting a neurostimulator to try and control it, which urologist wanted to do, but pain management doc suggested looking into orchiectomy. Urologist refused to think about orchie, I asked to get moved on to another opinion, he suggested UCSF or Stanford.
UCSF wasn't available for months, Stanford was available in two weeks. With the pain like it was, you know where I went! Met Dr. C., he discussed either orchie, different HRT method, or looking deeper into neurostimulator.
So, before I went orchiectomy, I asked endo about the different HRT: no dice, it was too unpredictable and would be unable to tell how much I would get on a regular basis.The neurostimulator? They would have to implant it on one side to connect to the testicle on that side, but then they would need to tunnel across belly to other with electrodes to get to other testicle to help control pain there. Every 3-4 years would need to have a slit cut open and battery in it replaced, pain management doctor didn't think it was best option. This was considering my age, family status, etc. His opinion as to what he would do if in my shoes? Orchiectomy.
Considering I had a lot of respect for pain management doctor, I called doctor at Stanford and asked to go ahead with orchiectomy. Originally it was supposed to be one side to see how well it helped with the pain and then in six months or so he would do the other. When I went in for pre-op appointments, I found out he had changed it to bilateral. Fine with me!
A few days later I went in. It was done under general, the doctor came out and told my wife after that it only took 30 minutes, there was no bleeding anywhere or any complications, went perfectly. Woke up a eunuch.
The pain has never been back, at any level, and I'm glad. I never thought anything could be worse than my cluster headaches for pain, but the orchalgia put the headaches to shame.
Thanks, Dr. C!!!
