I am a 60 year old male. I had laparoscopic Inguinal Hernia repair with mesh left side June 2010. It failed and had open Inguinal Hernia repair with mesh on June 10th 2011. Surgery was in the morning by about 6 PM my scrotum was about the size of a Grapefruit and was black and extremely painful. Called the doctors hot line and was told that that was normal. By midnight was even more painful and was now 18 inches around. My Inguinal canal is swollen its whole length and quite painful. I waited to call the doctor again until first thing Monday morning. The doctor had me come in her first appointment in the afternoon. She looked at it and said I needed to go to the emergency room. By now my upper thighs, penis, lower back and abdomen were all black and blue. Someone said it looked like a truck tire had run over my midsection.
I went across the street to the ER at the hospital where the surgery had been preformed. My doctor had called ahead and they had me in a room in a few minutes. The attending physician came in and asked what was going on. I show him. He took one look and just said "remarkable, I will go get you admitted". After a CT scan, testicular ultrasound, Sonogram, blood test and urine analysis and 7 1/2 hours in the ER the doctor came back and said that the bleeding had stopped. I said what are you going to do about it and she said nothing it will go away on its own. I said why wouldn’t you just open the scrotum and drain the fluid to relieve the swelling and pain and her response was that she had spoken with my surgeon and another staff doctor and they all agreed that it should be left to reduce on its own.
I went back to my surgeon 3 days later who proceeds to tell me that it will reduce on its own in 6 weeks or so and that they simple wouldn’t open it up to drain it. She tells me I need to be on full bed rest for this time which since I am self employed is an impossibility. I cannot stand or even sit in a normal chair for more than a few minutes as the pain is so intense. She suggests that I get a surgical support. I found one at a specialty center at a local CVS no one else carried them but all they had was a large which was not biggest enough. The lady at CVS was great and called 8 different distributers until she found an extra large for me. After 5 weeks in her office the doctor drains off 90CC of liquid using a syringe most of which returns over night. The next day she drains off 60CC more most of which also returns over night.
She now tells me that she thinks they need to go in and drain my scrotum and she wants to have a urologist with her as she is not sure what to do. It’s five weeks in and even after the draining the thing is still 14” around. I tell her I am going to get a second opinion. I didn’t tell what I was really thinking.
I got the names of a couple of surgeons from my Urologist and made an appointment. When the surgeon looks at me she says well this thing should have been opened and drained and a drain put in it immediately after I went to the ER. She suggests surgery and performs it the following Thursday. Things go OK but the drain will not stay unclogged It is filling with clots so back to surgery the following Thursday to put in the biggest drain she can. She tells me that the blood clot in my scrotum had actually been encapsulated and that it would probably never have gone away on its own. She also tells me that because it was left unattended for so long the skin on my scrotum is now as thick as the sole of a shoe and it will takes weeks or months to return to normal. If the first surgeon had drained it right away my recovery probably would have been a few weeks now at 8 weeks I still have at least 6 to go.
That was 2 weeks ago and the scrotum is now less than 12 inches around and going down a tiny bit at a time. It is hard as a rock on the left side but has started to return to normal on the right. I have graduated down to the large scrotal support. The Inguinal canal is still quite hard and swollen but only the lower part maybe half the distance it was. I have much more confidence in my new surgeon and think I am finally on the right track. After 9 weeks of not being able to leave the house except to go to the doctor or hospital and not being able to drive I am going crazy. The doctor says that I can drive myself to the next appointment and that as I can tolerate the pain I can get up and do stuff and even leave the house.
Good luck with your recovery.
Good luck with your recovery.
I just had(1/11/12)a left side Inguinal Hernia open surgery with 4" vertical incision that grew into my scrotem witch resulted in some stretched skin,so now tht the henia is fix a couple of days after the fluid filled it right back up and my Doctor(Dr. Sumet who has said to invent the technique call double mesh)said it could take up to 6 months for the fluid to resede and 2-3 months for all the sweiling to go away.
I had the same questions after some of the pain subsided and I finally stopped goiing to the bathroom every ten minutes,but there was still so much sweling ,so I got another opinion before my 2week follow up by a doctor(DR. Jacoob) in the same practice bcuz my surgeon was out of town,so I ask should he do a xray or ultrasound because I thought I had broke threw or had another heria because like the other guy said I could move mine back up when i squeeze my thighs against it so I wanted to know why my testicle was so large and why I felt so much extra stuff in my scrotem sack ,but he said its all just sweling and the intestine has to be pulled away from the sperm sack and that makes it swell, he also said that my testicle might get smaller because of the mesh cutting some blood flow from my left testicle,but it wouldnt hurt it and it will be fine.I also asked him about my fever and he said its normal after surgery as long as it doesn"t go over 100*by mouth and 101* rectally.
Tip:Ice packs before bed for about 30 mins will speed up healing.
This link is My Doc showing his open surgery vids and some info about heria recovery.
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HOPE I HELPED