Unknowingly? Are you kidding?

Just like ignoring advice that doesn't meet your desire for an easy answer that won't cost anything. Good luck because you obviously need it.

Gotta love the advice about enrolling (and presumably paying tuition) in a University for the purpose of applying for cheaper health insurance. Yep that's a real plan to save money; goes right along with the advice about lying on health insurance applications after writing to the world about a pre-existing condition.

Most of us can tell when a patient comes in with a chronic vs. acute condition. Just go to the county clinic/hospital. They'll take care of you for a lot cheaper and possibly even free depending on your income. When I was in medical school I was seen for free at the county hospital I did rotations in. I made nothing so I paid nothing.

I will. I was hoping last night when I went to sleep that the pain would be completely gone when I woke up. And it was. I woke up and felt nothing. Then I got up and started getting dressed, and after a little while I felt it again. Now that I'm thinking of it and concentrating on it, it now feels like more of a pain in my general lower abdomen than it feels like it's coming just from my groin/testicle. But when I was riding and it was a sharp pain it felt like it was coming from the testicle itself. I'm at work now, but I'll look into making an appointment somewhere for Tuesday (or as early as possible) when I get home.

If we are playing 'guess the ailment', I throw in another possibility. I suffer from a cronic condition called Sarcoidosis. It is a quirky, autoimmune disfunction in which the body attacks itself. In most cases, the damage shows up first in the lungs (mine was found during a routine checkup, when the doctor said "hey, what are all those black spots?"). But the lymph system can also come under attack. They say testicle swelling is rare, but I am convinced that mine are affected.

Same thing I got, the doc said not to worry about it, they won't kill you, just take some tylenol.

some_guy282-good luck with it.
Now just in case you took someone's comments seriously-you wouldn't be lying on most insurance forms(not that that would keep me up nights).You don't have a dx of anything,and you have never sought med attention for this condition.It wouldn't be a pre existing condition for most insurance companies.Your mention of it here has nothing to do with that,and the insurance companies don't monitor forums to see who is lying about pre existing conditions(no one is that gullible-well,maybe one individual!).
In short-pre existing generally means something you have sought med attention for-something there is an electronic trail for..Now some insurance companies have the forms set up so that every ache,pain etc could be interpreted as pre existing.
Insurance companies have(had) the MIB-Medical information Bureau-it is an agency that works for all the insurance companies.It tracks insurance claims,so if you apply for insurance your new company will be able to find out of this condition was treated before-if a claim was made.They also ask for permission to get your old medical records.If you are treated by your local MD,but no claim was filed,then the ins companies won't know about it-unless you tell them.
Bontrager-yes,I agree sometimes you can tell if a condition is acute or chronic,but not in this case-unless he tells you.You( in the written record) will always take the pts word for duration of symptoms(any doubts will never be recorded).Just kidding,if he has to go now,the local county hosp is a good bet.However, in the current era even county hosp. try to collect from everyone.Nothing he can do about that-other than getting insurance very quickly.
The "go to college" was just in case you were planning-considering going sometime soon.You might not know that group policies are commonly offered at great rates.For some folks,it actually is a lot cheaper to pay university fees and them buy a policy.I just tumbled to that last August-it saves me $3000/yr counting university tuition to be in grad school.Health ins($5000 deduct) was costing $680/mo for wife,me,son-the insurance was $3500 for all three with ~$100 deduct-tuition~$1500/yr.At your age,it would be about $550/yr.Good luck,Charlie

First of all, I'm glad you've decided to go see the doctor. My doctor once told me that testicular cancer can go from nothing to terminal in about 3 months. Do not ignore pain or lumps. I had similar symptoms a little over a year ago. Turns out it was an infected prostate. If you think turn and cough exams are annoying, you can imagine how they discover prostate issues. :eek:

Regarding health insurance, if it concerns you, just make it a priority and get it. I had it even when I was making less than $15K/year. I didn't have a cell phone or this nice high speed internet connection that I do now or cable TV, and I didn't take vacations, etc. It blows my mind that close to 33% of the uninsured in this country make a household income over $50K/year. My household income is still less than that with a family of four and we had health insurance even when I made much less than I do now. I bet if you want to, you can find ways to live below your current means and afford health insurance.

Let us know how the checkup turns out. Good luck.

I'm sure lying would cause you no problem at all if there is money to be had. Hey why not give a phoney name at the doctor or ER (or get some phoney ID) and forget about paying a cent. Everything is OK unless you're caught, and even then its somebody else's fault, eh? Just like chintzing on paying no insurance and then *****ing when luck runs out and its time to pay up for a decision to gamble.

I like to bike-Gee,I don't know if I will be able to sleep tonight knowing you feel that way!!.I would never suggest it to someone like you,but I figure some_guy282 has the stones to do it.Of course,he won't have to lie to get the insurance-the condition isn't pre existing in an insurance sense.I know you are having a tough time understanding that,no surprise there,but a discussion on an a bike forum isn't "sought treatment for",and it sure as hell isn't a "diagnosis of"!
Your harsh words will keep me up tonight,but lying to a health insurance company wouldn't.
I hope you found this instructive-all in good fun!!Thanks.Charlie

At least he has them for now. But that could change unless he drops the idea of only seeking painless free treatment via the Internet that is in synch with what he wants the problem to be.

It might also be something like this:

http://www.urologychannel.com/varicocele/index.shtml

Which is what I had to deal with and later had surgery for to fix. All I can say is, see a urologist immediately about it. You might have also gotten torsion (twisting) of the cords down there, and it can lead to some serious problems.

I had my first hernia operation, a double inguinal, within a couple of months of turning 18. I was in pretty good shape and weighed less than 150 at the time. Roughly 10 years later I had to have the right side repaired again, and I've had a very mild inguinal on the left side for...I guess going on 7 years now. Not bad enough to operate on.

This doesn't really sound like a hernia to me though, at least not based on my experience, but there are several types. In any case get it checked.

some_guy282
1)Give Blue Cross or some other name brand insurer a call.You can probably put it on a cc-it should be well under $100/mo for someone as young as you.
2)Get coverage that covers office visits.Office visits add up,and there is an excellent chance that this isn't a surgical condition.There will be some sort of deduct-keep it as low as you can afford(maybe $100-$250??)
3)If it is a lot more to get Physical therapy coverage-pass on it.Pay for one session-pay attention to what is done-then do it yourself.The PT will understand-tell them your plan.
4)I don't think I would immediately go to a "hernia specialists"-general surgeon.
5)Your complaint reads like an overuse injury(starts hurting when you exercise,quits hurting when you take a week off).Of course,it isn't possible to tell without an MD-maybe a Sports Medicine Specialist-actually examining you.If you decide not to get insurance,and to self pay-I would start with a Sports Med Specialist.NY must have an abundance of Sports Med Clinics.If it is something other than overuse injury-they will diagnosis it.They are fully aware of hernias etc.There is an excellent chance that they can diagnosis it without any expensive imaging studies(CAT-MRI).(2-3-(with no studies) visits will be ~$500-the insurance looks better and better).Any fancy study is about $800+.


Remember-this(the entire thread) is free online advice from unqualified strangers getting just bits of the info a qualified MD would need to make a dx.Filter everything thru your BS meter.
You have 3 choices
1)Ignore it-quit riding-it will probably go away,but them you have to pay $5/d to get to work-$1000/yr-and it might not go away-same cost as number 2,but you have no ins,and no bike fun-health benefits etc.
2)Get ins-them get an appt.-cost maybe $80/mo-+slight delay in being seen(maybe 2-4 wks)
3)Seek immediate appt-cost maybe as little as $250-one spec appt-but maybe-if it is surgical-$15000+
#2 looks best to me,but it involves a longer wait than 3.Biking saves you $$-this is interfering with that??
Severe pain that doesn't go away is your cue to seek immediate med attn-emergency room.Wish there was a better solution,but..Luck,Charlie

go to a doctor now. really, it doesn't matter much if you haven't got coverage or not. your nuts are your nuts, and they're more important than a few grand. if you can't handle the money right now, then get off your bike. take the subway or something.
seriously.
i had this problem a month or so ago. i also had a problem with my prostate. so i am not saying this to be calllous. but this is important. you have to make the choice. but when i had this problem, staying off my bike really helped to solve it.

It may be a sebaceous cyst....I've had a few of them on my sack too....I just take a safety pin, and run some alcohol over the point to sterilize it, then with your thumb and fore finger wrapped around the cyst, squeese it until it's all bunched up....now stab it with the pin point and then squeese all the cheese out.....oh man does that stuff stink. Then put on a bandaid....actually liquid bandaid works the best, and you should be good to go. You may have to re-squeese it again in a day or two to get the rest of the cheese out.

I havn't ridden the bike since Saturday. Don't plan to ride it for the foreseeable future.

As for the pain and my nuts, it's feeling less like my nuts now and more like my lower abdomen. When I'm walking it feels lower, like in my testicle. When sitting down, it feels almost like a stomach ache. I can feel it now. It's a strange sensation that stretches all the way up to my ribs on the right side of my body...

Appendix.

UPDATE:

I went to the health center in my school today. Someone comes in twice a month to give students help with getting insurance. Today was my lucky day: someone was there. Based on my income and the fact that I'm a student, I qualify for free health insurance. I filled out most of the paperwork, I still need to fax them some things like pay stubs. Only bad part is I have to wait until all the paperwork is taken care of in Albany before the coverage starts. They don't pay for things retroactively like Medicaid does. I make too much for Medicaid.

A little later on I got to speak to the campus physician. She's not a full fledged doctor. I forget her exact title though. I explained everything, and she uh, inspected me. To make a long story short. She ruled out testicular cancer or cysts. There is also no obvious hernia. She thinks it's likely either one of two things: tendonitis or some sort of bacterial infection. Also possibly an STD, but she doubts it. I'm getting tested later this week to be sure. She wants to refer me to a specialist who can run more detailed tests to find out what it is. If it's tendonitis, a sonogram will show that.

It's not hurting me as much since I've been off the bike, so I'm going to wait till next Wednesday to see a doctor who visits the campus once a week. The woman I spoke to today thinks he'll say the same thing she did about what it possibly is. More importantly though, I'd like to hear if he thinks I should wait until the insurance kicks in (45 days at most, probably less) before I see the specialist.

If she's not a physician then go to someone who knows what they're doing - a doctor! She's probably a Physician's Assistant or a Nurse Practitioner or worse. You don't really need to see a "specialist" at this point - you just need to see a family practice doctor or an internal medicine doctor. What sort of specialist is she planning on having you see?

Tendinitis? Of what tendon********** And they're going to do an ultrasound instead of a cheap xray to rule out kidney stones? If she thinks you have a UTI then she should have given you some Levaquin and been done with it.

Oh God. I said the prostate exam was uncomfortable. I forgot about (blocked out) the test for STD's which they also ran on me (negative of course :o ). Good luck dude.

A family practice doctor is who will be on campus next week. I think she was a Physician's Assistant. I believe she said she I should be refered to a general surgeon or a gastro something something. The doctor I see next week will be more definite about it I'm sure though. As far as what tendon, a tendon in the groin. She's not quite sure what I have, she just mentioned tendonitis as a possibility. The thing about an infection that doesn't make sense is that I'm not having any trouble with my urine at all...

are you sure that she's a physicians assistant???? Maybe she's a crazed sex fiend who likes to play with your jewels.....?

Hey,this sounds pretty good.Schools(everything after highschool) usually have some sort of "plan" when it comes to insurance.
There are some obscure conditions(overuse injuries) in that general region that are inflammed tendons and nerve(s),that fit what you describe.
Did she-take your temp?Draw blood?Dipstick urine?These are all relatively cheap ways(pennies to $10's of dollars for the bld wk) to get an idea if you have an infection.It sounds like she isn't very concerned about the infection possibility.Luck,Charlie

lol

Yeah that was pretty awkward.

As for drawing blood, no she didn't. She did mention it as a possibility though. She said I could give blood right then and the lab at the school could analyze it, but she said it was expensive. And yes, she isn't very concerned about it being an infection. She listened carefully to me describing all of my symptoms and asked a bunch of questions before she started mentioning any possibilities.

Assuming for a second it is tendonitis, could it have been caused by anything improper about my riding position? Seat too high/too low, something like that?

In any event, the pain has leveled off since yesterday. I still feel the same dull ache. I noticed today that walking up stairs hurts my upper thigh...