Undescended Testicle - Plano,TX

Hey M.,

My son had the same issue when he was born and when he was 1 he had the surgery, I was scard (I was 17 yrs old)but the doctors and nurses told me that it is a normal procedure and nothing to worry about. The surgery only took about 2 hours, and for about 2-3 days after he just layed around relaxing. That was it, he is doing great now and is now 13, turning 14 in February. My son only has 1 testicle, the surgery showed it was nothing but dead tissue... He is healthy and have had no problems. I know that technology is much better than 13 yrs ago as well. It's normal to worry and be scared like I did, who wouldn't. I know God will be watching over him. Good luck and you and your family will be in my prayers.
May God Bless You
K.

I understand the fear of surgery especially for your child! I hopefully can make you feel a little more at ease. First I am a surgical nurse and as far as surgeries go this is a pretty simple and straight forward procedure. I would say if you little one has to have surgery this is one of the best ones to have. Secondly my nephew had to have this done when he was about the same age as your son. Even as a surgical nurse I was nervous and he breezed through it without missing a beat!! He is now a perfectly normal, healthy 5 year old. He recovered very quickly and the surgery was much harder on his parents than it was on him!! Just something to be aware of children tend to wake up crying and flinging around. It is not because they are necessarily in pain it is because they are disoriented and wake up in an unfamiliar place. Most hospitals/surgery centers will allow one parent to go to recovery room to be with their child. Best of luck to you and your son I hope this helps!!

A.

Hi M.,
My son had this procedure at 21 months. He did very well. About 2 weeks after the surgery one of the threads that was supposed to dissolve, worked its way through the skin. It was not painful and it resolved itself with no intervention. I took my son to 3 urologists before I found one that I was comfortable with. The dr. made one incision in the scrotum and was able to bring the testicle down. You may want to seek another opinion from a different urologist.

Not much to tell you, but I hope it helps some. I have a 16 year old and when he was maybe 6 or 7 months he had the surgery (which was approximately 2 hours long) because of one undescended testicle, and I had never even heard of such a thing at that time and I do have one older son and plenty of male family members. With what I can remember, he was fine and there were no complications, I can remember being scared and nervous. He has had no problems and his testicle was fine after the surgery, it descended properly and like I first stated, he is now 16, turning 17 in February. Hopes this can calm your fears some.

M.,
My son is now almost 17 months old. He was also born with an undescended testicle. He had the surgery at almost 6 months. My understanding is that if it is undesceded then it most likely will not come down by itself. It is also important to look for the testicle because it usually has died (then called an atrophic testicle). Atrophic testicles have been known to turn into cancer. I suggest that you see a pediatric urologist and not a regular urologist. We took my son to Dr. William Strand. Dr. Strand took the approach to use a laproscope through the belly button and look for the testicle. He would then move it to the scrotum or remove the dead tissue. He explained that it was important to use the laproscope because the testicle cannot be felt nor does it show up on a CT scan or anything. He also said that some urologists just start "cutting" looking for it and we didn't want that. The surgery was at Children's Medical Center. He sent us home with a pain relief prescription and even gave us his personal cell phone number in case we had any questions. My son didn't feel well and was not himself for serveral days, but seems to do fine. Let me know if you have other specific questions. I'll admit that it was a bit scary to hand my baby over the nurse (I was more scared of the anesthesia), but it all happened so fast. The surgery only lasted about 45 minutes. They let him take his pacifier and "blankie" with him.
E.

My son had this surgery when he was 15 months old and it went fine. He is 19 years old now and the testicle is alive and well. I'm not a grandmother yet, so the real test is yet to come, but it's passed all his physical exams.

At my son's 4yr ckup, they told me that they thought he might have an undescended testicle or a hernia. They told me to wait until his 5 yr ckup and we will see if it fixed itself. So, I waited and when we went in, they said still no change. They sent me to have an ultrasound done of it. The ultrasound showed there was fluid in his testicle. They sent us to William Strand and he was awesome. He said that my son had a hernia. I know how you feel though about being scared. My first born was a little younger than yours when he had surgery for a hernia. It is a very scary feeling. As soon as they brought my first born back to me, and he came out of the medicine, he was back to his normal self. I had to keep him from jumping around and being wild. It was phasing him that he just had surgery. Kids bounce back so fast. Everything will be just fine. I recommend that you check out William Strand at the Plano Medical Center. Good Luck. My 5 yr old is schedule for December.