Hernia Type Pain Returned

I've been working now for almost two full months. There has been a lot of strain to my groin as a result, when compared to the zero activity relatively associated with being a stay at home dad. I'm not sure if it's the work activity or something else (who really knows when it comes to PVPS), but I've had a return of the hernia like pain in my left testicle. It starts out as racking pain, then turns into that uncomfortable hernia like pain. I had this checked out last year, which I think I blogged about, but the examination came back negative. The guy said that I'd need a CT scan or something of that nature to determine if there was a weakening of the inguinal canal on the left side.

But then the severe hernia type of pain just kind of stopped. If there was any pain on the left side, it was usually that racking pain, until about 1 week ago. It is so frustrating how things can be ticking along just fine and then "whammo", out of the blue, some weird pain starts down there.

Every once in a while, I actually think my body is completely healed from my PVPS, then I get a burning sensation, twinge or pain in my scrotum/inguinal area. It is very deflating to say the least as reality hits you upside the head.

In fact, I was in the kitchen the other day. I was putting the dinner plates on the table. I set 1 down, then another. I was about to set the third down when a sharp pain made it's presence known in my inguinal region. I turned to my wife, who was also in the kitchen, and expressed my frustration and wonder about it all. In this case, I wasn't lifting anything heavy, stooping, bending, etc. - I was just putting the plates on the table.

As a result of the hernia-scrotal pain on my left side, I've returned to wearing the old faithful athletic supporter. I wear it most days at work (just in case). It seems to help with this pain, as did the ibuprofen I took. But I can still feel that sensation down on my left side. Like it's about to trigger a full blown outbreak with a pain reading of about 7-8 on a pain scale of 1-10. So I'm careful and try not to do too much until this passes.

Who knows, it could just be part of my pain cycle which brings significant increases in pain related symptoms every couple of months. I guess we'll see.

Status of Pain After Two Workdays

Like I said in my previous post, I have a new job. It started last Monday, two days ago. As with any new job, they have to do a period of orientation first. For me, this orientation meant sitting in a chair for 8 hours listening to speaker after speaker talk about things like environment of care, infectious disease, and other hospital type of stuff. Pretty boring.

I was curious to see how my PVPS would respond to the continuous sitting. To my surprise, I was feeling any aches or sharp pains Monday or Tuesday. This is quite a big deal for me, because there was no way on Earth I could have sat for 8 hours at a time, in uncomfortable chairs without feeling the pain after about 20 minutes or so.

However, while I was sleeping last night, I was awakened suddenly. I was having a dream where I was experiencing tremendous pain in my left inguinal area. It took me a little while before it woke me up. Then I realized the pain wasn't just in my dream, it was real. I was experiencing real pain and it wasn't good. It began to fade away after 5 minutes, or perhaps I started to fade back to sleep, I'm not really sure which happened. But the pain kinda stunk. I always wondered that if I dreamed about pain, did that mean I was having it for real, outside the dream. Well, in this case the answer was yes.

I can't say that I'm bummed by the pain, although maybe just a bit. In contrast, I'm excited that I was able to sit for so long without having pain during the actual sitting. Today, I go back to work for a few hours, but I'll be on my feet for most of it (I hope anyway). Then tomorrow and Friday I actually do my departmental orientation, where I'll be up and at it.