Yesterday evening was a better day than Sunday. I had a constant ache on the left side of my scrotum. My left teste structure is once again crescent shaped and it seems like when that happens, it is hurting. It could always be crescent shaped, but this is a very exaggerated shape, almost banana-like. Interestingly, my right side didn't really hurt at all.
Well, I took it easy yesterday - or at least I thought I was. We had some rain the night before which makes it very easy to pull weeds. Simply reach down and pull them out with no straining whatsoever. But I found out that the innocent act of stooping and bending causes testicular pain. I promise, I had no idea that would hurt, but it did. Even without straining. So I stopped at the first sign of pain and came back indoors.
Later in the evening, I spoke to one of the support group wives about our insurance challenges. She was very insightful and gave us some great advice regarding how to appeal the denied claim. I can't express to her and her husband how thankful I am for their input and help. She strongly believes that God works in the lives of us humans, as I do. Perhaps I'll blog about that some time soon, because my faith is such a huge part of this and any other part of my life.
After speaking to her, my wife and I had a very nice conversation about this situation. Anyone close to our situation will tell you this has been hard on my wife. Not because she convinced me to get the vasectomy, but rather, she just hates to see me in pain and there's nothing she can do about it. She feels helpless. She's also concerned that this loss in activity is going to kill me. You see, I also have cardiomyopathy which means my heart is weaker than it should be. I've been taking a med for this for a few years now and my cardiac stress tests all look normal. But since I haven't been able to be active since last August, she's concerned that my heart isn't getting the exercise it should and thus might become weak again.
I do get short of breath with just a little bit of activity, but I keep telling myself that it's more of a function of being out of shape, rather than my heart acting up. I do get chest pains, but I'm not sure those are cardiac related.
Anyway, I think I've decided to get expert advice about my situation. There is a PVPS doctor in Houston, which is only about 5 hours away. I think I'll find out more about him and then have him check me out. I'm just not confident that my uro is experienced enough with my type of syndrome to be any more help.
I really think I need another ultra-sound of my scrotum to check out the change in anatomy and to address the crescent shaped testicle. I also want to discuss options to control the nerve pain, so I can get a little more active, for my heart health. I spoke to my wife and she supports me on this next step. But now, we have to get ready for Tennessee - we leave tomorrow and it's a 12 hour drive (yikes!). That's a lot of sitting!
There won't be much journaling in the next several days until we get back. I pray we have a comfortable and productive trip.
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