In A&E with 17 year old and worried we are being fobbed off

[NinnyNewName]

Displaying the symptoms of testicular torsion. Started Thursday. Pain level a 6/7. This morning was doubled over in bathroom (I was in room next door and heard him). Pain a 9.

Been rushed through A&E which we are grateful for.

But doctor said it's not that because 1) the pain isn't constant and 2) no nausea and vomitting and 3) they feel normal.

I'm not happy. From what I've read the pain comes and goes, there's not always sickness and they can feel normal.

Sometimes surgery is required to diagnose.

The stakes feel very high. If it goes on too long there's a risk to the testicles.

DH dropped us and is on the way.

But I am not happy anyone for any experience/what should I do?

@LadyLuna16 in the NHS guidelines it said it's better to have negative surgery, so no torsion found, than to delay surgery.

I know my son was incredibly distressed about the thought of surgery but really we were given no choice. From what I can remember his pain was constant, but not at a constant level, so it never went completely away but was sometimes worse and some times a bit easier.
It was all so quick that I got the impression that he had testicular pain and therefore it could be a torsion and the only way to tell was surgery.

Did they get to the bottom of what it was @LadyLuna16.

I tihnk it being the weekend and COVID hasn't helped us. I won't relax until we see the urologist on Monday.

My DS 12, had something very similar one Sunday morning - went to A&E and (I think because he is a child) was seen by the consultant urologist within a couple of hours who said that each testicle has an appendix (who knew?!) and that he suspected DS had appendicitis of the testicle - he had ruled out torsion at that point. He said it rarely showed up on a scan and exploratory surgery was the only option if they couldn't find anything else wrong.
DS had an ultrasound done - it showed a possible infection so we were given antibiotics and told if the pain got worse or persisted we must go straight back to A&E and that DS would need surgery immediately.
Thankfully the antibiotics cleared the infection up.
I hope your DS gets a scan done quickly and that it is nothing serious

Wow that's interesting @TickandSired

They tested DS' urine for UTI, prostate infection etc and all came back clear.

He was asked if he wanted to be seen as a paediatric patient or an adult. He chose the former.

I hope the scan on Monday aides diagnosis for your son. Have they given him adequate pain relief to take home?

My default instinct is to distrust doctors (hence my username), please speak up for your son if he feels not listened to.

[quote NinnyNewName]@Slingsanderrors at what happened to your son. He sounds like a such a brave chap. Was the pain very spread out at first?

DS came in the kitchen Thursday morning, where I was, and literally dropped to his knees in pain. Me, knowing not very much about bollocks just thought he'd pulled sth (he'd not long been up). Went away after 5 or so minutes.

This morning I was in DS2's room and DS1 was in the bathroom next door. I heard him bang something and heard him deep breathing. It was worse this morning. 9 out of 10 on the pains scale.

I imagine the nerves are in a state of flux. Apparently if they stay in the twisted state surgery needs to be done ASAP: if it's more than 24 hours there's only a 10% chance of keeping the testicle.

My worry is that the pain today was much worse than the pain on Thursday. Which to me says those nerves are trying hard to twist.

Also, as @Updownin says, we need a diagnosis (not convinced it's varicocele because from what I've read it very rarely causes this level of pain).

So I'm very worried and won't be leaving him alone before Monday's appointment.

What I don't know is, can they do something preventative, to get it out of the state of flux, so that it doesn't actually twist for good and need surgery. And what are the chances of it going away.[/quote]
My son went to A&E with his dad who was a GP. When I got there, he was sent to pee for a chlamydia test - the nurse told him to do mid stream urine. As a working sexual health nurse at the time (and yes, I’d already asked him If he’d had Unprotected sex!) I told him it needed to be a “first pass” specimen. After some faffIng by junior docs the Consultant Urologist was called in from the golf course.
It was a bit of a shambles. I think the consultant was Only called in because m6 ex was a GP.

Please push for him to be seen sooner, my son lost one testicle as a child because of a torsion, then two years ago he had the same issue in the remaining one, fortunately it was saved as they got him into surgery pretty quick.

Testicular appendix?
Torsion?
Testicular hernias?
This thread is terrifying! Do people actually know about this stuff and warn their sons what to look out for?

Could it be a prostate infection? DH had one years ago and it presented similarly. He needed a long, strong course of antibiotics. He had to have a private consultation to get his diagnostics though.

Have they checked for blue dot? It is an indicator of testicular appendage torsion. It can present as a more longer running come and go pain - is still very painful. It resolves itself.
My son had this aged about 12. He had been in pain all day but had been football training so we thought he had pulled something. When he got up the next day it wasn't as bad but got worse through the day. I phoned the doctor who saw us straight away and sent us to our local but major teaching hospital. He was examined on the ward and we were put in an ambulance with lights to the children's hospital.
By this time it had been about 36 hours since the pain had started and we were told it was too late to save the testicle but they had to operate. Because a specialist saw the blue dot he was saved unnecessary surgery and the pain went of its own accord.

You asked upthread if they can do anything to prevent full torsion. My DS had something similar age 16 and the Dr was quite dismissive. On my insistence he rang the hospital and we were asked to go in for a scan. We got there and a scan wasn't available so the consultants sent us home only to recall him a couple of hours later for surgery. They opened him up, found there wasn't an issue but put stitches in to prevent any torsion in future. Effectively stitched his testicle into place. So yes, I guess they can do something to prevent it happening. I often wonder if my ds had unnecessary surgery due to my insistence. If he'd had a scan perhaps he wouldn't have had an op. Mother's guilt either way.

Dont we have paracetamol and ibuprofen here. I wouldn't want him taking anything stronger because it's vital that we know if the pain has come back. We don't want to mask it. I do, mostly, trust doctors, but I am also capable of doing my own research and asking the right questions plus I have a huge amount of trust in my gut when it comes to my kids.

Slings that sounds horrific.

Haba I had no idea and neither did DH who has 2 testicles. I feel bad for not looking into it on Thursday when it first happeend. I just thought I ought to look it up this morning and so I searched for "sudden testicle pain in teenagers". Since then I've tried to educate myself as best I can and I've challenged the doctors accordingly.

I've already had a second opinion. The thing is he's not in pain now. And it looks normal now. And it feels normal now. And they did a pinch test and that was normal, now. This is the problem. It seems that the intermittent version is not taken as seriously.

Marmite apparently the urine test would have shown up a prostate (or bladder) infection.

@Leah2005 from what I've read a scan can give a false negative and is not a reliable way to diagnose. I wonder if that's becaues like with my DS and what you describe with yours it's intermittent so often presents as fine and is only an issue when it's temporarily tortioned.

So I don't have you have a single thing to feel guilty about. I think you absolutely did the right thing, knowing what I know about how serious it can be and how quickly they need to operate if it becomes fully tortioned.

I wouldn’t be happy with that. My son, who’s only 9, has had a torted hyatid of morgagni twice, which presents similarly to torsion - it’s what the pp were talking about regarding the blue dot. We were told by the paediatric consultant that if it’s over 6 hours, and it’s testicular torsion, the likelihood is he would lose a testicle.

Your poor son. Hope he can manage the pain until he is seen again x

@NinnyNewName

Wow that's interesting *@TickandSired*

They tested DS' urine for UTI, prostate infection etc and all came back clear.

He was asked if he wanted to be seen as a paediatric patient or an adult. He chose the former.

My DS had no signs of infection in his urine or blood either - it was just a white patch on the scan that was apparently a sign of infection - which thank goodness it was

My ds had it. Came home from school with walkable pain. Within an hour he could barely move. No nausea or sickness. Phoned for advice and we were told to go straight to A&E. Within an hour he was in theatre. His only symptom was excruciating pain. Testicle was saved.

My son presented like this, he was 12.

They diagnosed gastritis.

The next day a slightly swollen testicle was noticed on discharge.

They did a scan, saw testicular torsion, operated, testicle could not be saved. Other one was stitched down.

He's 18 now, needs to decide about an implant at some point, leaning towards not having one.

So glad they saved his testicle Magissa.

As I said upthread DS is in no pain now. The pain in total has lasted 10-15 minutes. This it seems is the problem. No sense of urgency. I am on tenterhooks. In fact that's am understatement. I feel like it has to happen again before they will do sth. I hope we get to Monday's appointment without further episodes. And I'll be grilling the urology doc.

Puddinchops1 I am not wanting to worry you but when my son lost his testicle they anchored the other one down, but 15 years later the same happened although it shouldn't have done, apparantly rare to do that but do make your son aware as he gets older to be aware.

Sooy op, I have asked for my last post to be removed as it is not, in any way, helpful to you or your son. I'm sorry