My experience:
Here’s my two cents for anyone going down this road.
I developed a hydrocele on the right side about a year after a kidney transplant and double nephrectomy. Had it aspirated twice, but was told it would just keep coming back unless I went for the hydrocelectomy. So I did. Surgery was last Friday, and I’m now four days post-op.
Short version: the first few days are… not fun.
Like a lot of people on Reddit have said, I’ll echo that the pain hits pretty hard once the meds wear off. For me, it was a mix of intense lower abdominal pain and right-side “you’ve got to be kidding me” discomfort. Best way I can describe it is the worst blue balls imaginable, combined with a sharp stitch in the lower right pelvis. Not a combo I’d recommend.
The MVP move for days 1–2: don’t move, ice constantly, and question your life choices just a little. Days 3–4, same general pain, but I could at least start walking around like a cautious 90-year-old. The biggest challenge remains getting out of a seated position and starting to walk around. It’s brutal so beware!
One thing I wish someone had warned me about: the lower abdominal pain. That caught me off guard and had me convinced something had gone wrong for the first few days. It hadn’t. It’s just part of the ride.
I found one simple video explaining the procedure that finally made it click, which helped calm me down a lot.
https://youtu.be/7RMMh6MJ9oA?si=z7xYzEq9F7wolqUy
I had no idea that basically the entire inside of your nut sack is stitched up. Those stitches make you feel all tacked up. I’m still not sure the reason for such intense and sharp lower abdominal pain.
I got the drain removed yesterday, which I had been irrationally dreading thanks to some… colorful Reddit descriptions. For the record, it was not like “getting shanked 30 times in the nuts.” They snipped a stitch and pulled it out. Done. Honestly, pretty minor.
That said, I did have a moment. The nurse casually mentioned no numbing agent, and when I asked for one, she hit me with a story about having her chemo port removed without anesthesia like she was giving a TED Talk on toughness. All I could think was, “That’s impressive, but I’d still like to not feel this, thanks.” She declined. Then did it anyway.
In hindsight, she was right. It didn’t really need numbing. Still would’ve liked the option, though.
At this point, I’m icing, moving slowly, and waiting to see how things settle. My hydrocele was a little smaller than a baseball, around 80–90 mL of fluid, so not tiny, not enormous, just… noticeable.
Too early to say if I’m thrilled I did the surgery, but I’ll update in a month or two. Hopefully this helps someone out there who’s doom-scrolling before their procedure like I was.