Bill,

I've been thinking about what you said the other day about being pain free after some amount of time spent in a hot tub (or the equivalent).

The way I see it, it is fairly unlikely that an infection would cause such extensive nerve damage so as to cause excruciating chronic pain. I'm not saying it can't happen. I just haven't heard of any such infection, at least not one that would be very severe (my initial infection, if it was an infection, was very mild with no fever or other signs of infection).

If I recall, you were going along fine just before you got whacked by this really fucked up round of pain (excuse the language). Does it seem likely that (a) an infection capable of nerve damage, and (2) actual physical nerve damage, would just pop up so quickly? There are others on this board who also appeared to have no infection, or a mild one at best, before experiencing very horrible pains. It just doesn't seem logical. Of course, that isn't to say that there couldn't be some other kind of nerve disorder at work that isn't actual injury, but perhaps some kind of 'misfire'.

Anyway, that brings us to muscle pain. Now, at first I was thinking that muscle pain couldn't possibly cause this kind of pain. But then I was talking with my mom, a nurse, who said that many times "muscle" pain doesn't stem from the muscle itself, but from the fact that a muscle will contract and in doing so pinch a nerve. That can be quite painful, or can lead to numbness, etc. I, personally, never knew that subtle fact about muscle pain (I assume she is correct, of course).

O.K., so what works for muscle issues? The answer: heat. Especially moist heat, such as what would be found in a hot tub. As you saw, you sat in moist heat for a spell, and felt much better. Coincidence? Perhaps, but it is circumstantial evidence to me that muscle issues have an important role, especially since I have never heard of heat therapy being used for nerve damage. Obviously, I am not an M.D., but it sounds reasonable.

Of course, there can be many other causes of scrote' pain, and there could be a cause yet to be discovered.

But I think that this model provides a good explanation, especially since most of us have no other apparent explanation, i.e. trauma, surgical mishap, etc., to account for nerve injury.

The next question, then, is how do we stop the muscle from doing what it is doing? I don't know. You found a good temporary solution, at least. Is it stress? Do we store stress in our nuts like some people store it in their necks, backs, or sphincters? Is it the result of a sedentary lifestyle, i.e. sitting for long periods (kind of like a carpal tunnel syndrome of the ballsack)? I would be curious what would happen if you took a muscle relaxant. Have you ever done this to see if it would affect the pain?