When to seek non-corona medical care
April 12, 2020 9:14 AM Subscribe
Testicle lump details below the cut.
Last night I found a lump on my husband’s testicle. I (and we) find it concerning. It is on the underside of one testicle, and not near the upper testicle where the internet suggests less concerning lumps generally happen. It feels like a tiny piece of pea stone, and seems to be part of the testicle itself. We are in an area where Covid-19 is expanding rapidly, and no one is eager to seek non-urgent medical care. How much time should he give this before seeing his doctor? I find the location and feeling of the lump concerning. However, he’s also a man who tends to get cysts regularly, and those sometimes feel concerning and are ultimately not (really, cysts happen regularly on all his joints, and he has several lipomas that don’t concern doctors, he is by default a bumpy person). When should he see a doctor? Are there any details that would make this more or less urgent?
Last night I found a lump on my husband’s testicle. I (and we) find it concerning. It is on the underside of one testicle, and not near the upper testicle where the internet suggests less concerning lumps generally happen. It feels like a tiny piece of pea stone, and seems to be part of the testicle itself. We are in an area where Covid-19 is expanding rapidly, and no one is eager to seek non-urgent medical care. How much time should he give this before seeing his doctor? I find the location and feeling of the lump concerning. However, he’s also a man who tends to get cysts regularly, and those sometimes feel concerning and are ultimately not (really, cysts happen regularly on all his joints, and he has several lipomas that don’t concern doctors, he is by default a bumpy person). When should he see a doctor? Are there any details that would make this more or less urgent?
IANYD. I am a medical oncologist who has a fair volume of patients with genitourinary cancers. I would call your primary care physician and ask for a referral to a urologist.
Most of our local urologists are seeing patients - live and in telemedicine - but surgeries are not being scheduled here as we are trying to conserve resources (PPE and ventilators). However, there will come a point in time when all of this is over, and all of the people who didn’t get diagnosed or have surgery are going to have to get diagnosed or have surgery. I am already trying to think and plan for the eventual bottleneck that will happen when the medical community has to play catch-up for all of the things that we just can’t do right now. We are going to be limited by the number of ORs that can be staffed, and how many hours surgeons can operate.
Having a consultation with a physician now allows for triage - let someone else decide whether this is something that needs immediate or urgent surgical care (maybe it won’t need surgery at all!). There are still urgent cases being scheduled (my dad had a uro procedure last week), and if nothing else, it may help you get in line when we are all working again.
Thinking of you and hoping for good news.
posted by honeybee413 at 9:42 AM on April 12, 2020 [23 favorites]
Most of our local urologists are seeing patients - live and in telemedicine - but surgeries are not being scheduled here as we are trying to conserve resources (PPE and ventilators). However, there will come a point in time when all of this is over, and all of the people who didn’t get diagnosed or have surgery are going to have to get diagnosed or have surgery. I am already trying to think and plan for the eventual bottleneck that will happen when the medical community has to play catch-up for all of the things that we just can’t do right now. We are going to be limited by the number of ORs that can be staffed, and how many hours surgeons can operate.
Having a consultation with a physician now allows for triage - let someone else decide whether this is something that needs immediate or urgent surgical care (maybe it won’t need surgery at all!). There are still urgent cases being scheduled (my dad had a uro procedure last week), and if nothing else, it may help you get in line when we are all working again.
Thinking of you and hoping for good news.
posted by honeybee413 at 9:42 AM on April 12, 2020 [23 favorites]
I had a lump on a testicle long time ago. After examination, the urologist held up a diagram and said "if the lump was here, you would be going straight to the hospital, but it is there, so you have a day or two. "
In my case, the treatment was an excision biopsy. Maybe they have other ways to biopsy now.
I'd act right away.
posted by SemiSalt at 4:03 PM on April 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
In my case, the treatment was an excision biopsy. Maybe they have other ways to biopsy now.
I'd act right away.
posted by SemiSalt at 4:03 PM on April 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
Definitely schedule a phone appointment right away, and then go from there, based on the doctor's advice.
(FWIW, I went to schedule a phone appointment Thursday morning. My regular doc was out until Monday, but they had literally 10+ doctors available in almost every time slot for Thursday and Friday. It's entirely possible your medical center also has plenty of physicians available for phone consults right now.)
posted by ktkt at 8:19 PM on April 12, 2020
(FWIW, I went to schedule a phone appointment Thursday morning. My regular doc was out until Monday, but they had literally 10+ doctors available in almost every time slot for Thursday and Friday. It's entirely possible your medical center also has plenty of physicians available for phone consults right now.)
posted by ktkt at 8:19 PM on April 12, 2020
Followup from the anon OP:
Per your suggestions, my husband called his doctor yesterday morning. His doctor agreed that it was potentially concerning, and suggested following up now with an ultrasound rather than waiting ("so you can sleep again, if nothing else"). It turns out that now might be a *good* time for non-surgical medical care - he was booked for an ultrasound this morning, and his doctor just called with the radiology results. The lump wasn't structurally a part of the testicle, despite feeling that way, and was therefore not particularly concerning. He's planning to get a vasectomy this year anyway, so he'll follow up with a urologist then, but there's no emergency in the short term. Thank you all for your kindness and responses.posted by LobsterMitten at 10:15 AM on April 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by namemeansgazelle at 9:29 AM on April 12, 2020 [11 favorites]