u/EmptySea6174

Just had orchiectomy surgery on the morning of July 1st as I’m about 3-ish days into recovery. Ive been walking around outside / inside past couple days and cleaned around the house today. I just have some soreness in the scrotum but its tolerable. Also, I havent taken any of my pain meds today. Got invited to go celebrate the holiday and have a couple drinks but it’s like an hr away.

Just wondering if anyone had similar recovery and started drinking soon after this surgery or maybe any advice if I should go or not? Thanks!

Hello, this is my first ever post on reddit and just happens to be about having testicular cancer but hopefully this might help someone out later and if not, thanks for taking the time to read.

I'm a 27-year-old white guy, 5'10 and around 165lbs with an average build and pretty average health. In late-April 2026, I noticed a painless lump during a shower and decided to make a call to my physician the following morning for a physical exam. During my physical, the doctor said he didn't notice a lump but thankfully he insisted upon having an ultrasound done since they don't play around when a male or female feels something strange on their parts.

In late-May 2026, I had the ultrasound performed and the same day the radiologist reported a 9mm maximum diameter mass on my left testicle which had its own blood flow and considered to be neoplasm (a.k.a tumorous) until proven otherwise. I was taken back a little after this report but after doing some research the mass is relatively small and apparently, I caught it quite early so thats good news. After the ultrasound results, my physician ordered tumor marker tests, a chest X-ray and an appointment with a local urologist. The tumor marker tests and the chest x-ray came back normal, which was good to hear as well.

In early-June 2026, the local urologist performed another physical and actually happened to feel the lump this time but stated they don't have the resources to perform the surgery needed which is a "Radical Inguinal Orchiectomy" so they just referred me to a better provider that could perform the surgery. A week later... I met with the new provider's Urologic Oncologist, who ultimately told me the left testicle needs to come out and said chances are its 97% cancerous but can't confirm until after the surgery since they need to send my left nut to the pathology lab. He said pre-surgery biopsy can increase the risk of spreading the cancerous germ cells to the other testicle, through the spermatic cord or through the main blood vessel shared between the scrotum and other organs. Also, since I am engaged, and plan to have children, he recommended me to sperm bank as a "just in-case" situation.

On June 29th, 2026... I had my sperm bank appointment which was slightly awkward but went well. They essentially perform an analysis on your sperm to check for volume, count, motility and how many vials were frozen and ready to use.

On June 30th, 2026... I had a few appointments that were for pre-operative purposes. The first appointment was with a nurse practitioner who just went over basic material before the surgery such as where to go, what time it's happening, parking, allergies to drugs, etc. The second appointment was some basic blood work the doctor wanted to check before surgery such as Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time (APTT), Prothrombin Time (PT/INR), Completed Blood Count and Complete Metabolic Panel. This just required a simple blood draw, and all came back normal. The third appointment was for an Electrocardiogram (EKG) that just checked my hearts activity and to make sure I didn't have any underlying heart conditions. This was really easy and just applied a few patches on my body and had me lay still for a couple minutes. The fourth appointment was a CT Abdomen/Pelvis Scan with IV Contrast where they injected some iodine into my body so they can review the scan with my organs highlighted to check if the cancer had spread. The iodine made my arm, chest and stomach feel slightly warm but wasn't bad at all. I recommend drinking some water afterwards. This test eventually came back normal which was great news.

On July 1st, 2026, I had the surgery and that went pretty well. I was checked in at 6:30am and went into operation around 8:00am and later I was home around 11:00am. It was a fairly easy and quick process. I did wake up in some discomfort, but the nurse happened to give me an Oxy which helped. I slept for most of the day due to the anesthesia and drugs and the first meal I had tasted great.

Now, as I'm writing this, I'm a couple days post operation awaiting the pathology report which the doctor said should take a week or so. I have a 4in incision on the left side of my groin and small amount of swelling. The pain isn't bad at all just slightly increases when getting up or sitting down for a minute. For pain management, they prescribed me some Tylenol, Ibuprofen, stool softener and some oxycodone. I've been taking Metamucil, eating fibrous foods and took a laxative to counteract the constipation effect from the anesthesia and drugs which I actually had the urge to go yesterday and wasn't all that strained while on the toilet. Thankfully I'm off work for the next week so that will give me enough time to heal and get back to normal.

So, that's my story as of right now, currently waiting for the pathology report and recovering from the surgery. I'm very hopeful that (if cancerous) its Stage 1 and just needed surgery and surveillance but will update this post when as soon as I find out.

Thanks!