Saturday, January 12, 2008
I have been living with frequent urination and scrotal pain for almost six months. It started with what my doctor thinks may have been an acute bacterial prostatitus in early July. I was in so much lower back and lower abdominal pain I went to the emergency room, where the did a CAT scan for kidney stones. The pain subsided, and I was put on Cipro. I had frequent nighttime urination and left side scrotal pain so I was put through 2 to 3 week courses of Cipro and Bactrin and one other antibiotic for the next 4 months. They did a prostate expression culture and came back with a staph infection. They also did a TURP, a flexible sygmoscopy, a lower GI Cat Scan with contrast, all came up with nothing out of the ordinary. Then over the winter break, my left scrotum swelled up to 3-4X normal size. They did an Ultrasound and found a hydrocele and possible hernia. With more Cipro and ibuprohen, the hydrocele is much smaller, but I still get sharp pains at the based of my abdomen on the left side, and the testicle is sore. I also still have frequent day and night urination. Is there something they may be missing. Stress seems to make it worse.
Hello StillHurting,
It can be very difficult to remain positive when you have pain in such a sensitive area, and when treated does not seem to be going away. While online sites are not a replacement for seeing your own physician, there is alot of information here that I can send links for that might give you ideas about what to ask your doctor. Only you and your doctor know the best way to manage your condition and what will work for you.
First, even though you probably already know this stuff, it never hurts to look at the overview of the prostate, and enlarged prostate and cancer conditions. You can find that database here. While there, you can check your symptoms in the symptoms checker. You might be having symptoms you thought were related that are not, and you might be having symptoms you did not know were related to the current condition. Next, you can check the medicines you are being prescribed here in the drugs database. You can read formularies, check side effects and interactions. Then, you can read in the treatments database about the current treatment protocols for prostate issues.
Dr Jay Motola is a urologist and resident expert here. You can read about him here and read his shareposts here .
Dr Marc Greenstein is also a urologist and resident expert here and you can read about him here and his shareposts here.
Now you mentioned prostatitis as a possibility. You can read about that here. There is also epididymitis which you can read about here.
Finally, there is the community on Health Central. If you having a challenging day and want to vent, just post a message and we'll be here to let you know you are not alone. If you are having some success with a particular treatment, let us know about that too! There is a chance your experiences might help someone else who is at a loss for what to do.
Take care and stay in touch! Let us know how you are doing!
Vicki M