Amazed at the Response

WOW!

You all have just been so fantastic with the emails, thoughts, prayers and offer of helping hands. Can't even keep up with all the messages and respond to each one individually. I am trying to get better about responding individually going forward from here.

So today is Tuesday morning (Feb10th) 4 days post surgery and I'm finally weaning myself off the heavy pain meds. Actually got up and showered yesterday, so that was refreshing and shaved this morning, so feel some what human again. Most of the pain I'm having is localized on the left side of my abdomen around the incision site and further up around my kidney, were the Doc removed the spermatic cord. I can stand for about 30 minutes right now before it starts throbbing, so just trying to slowly increase that. Mentally I'm raring to go and my head is clearing from the fog of the Vicadin, physically I'd say I'm about half way there, but making some steady progress.

Am actually going out of the house today to have my chest X-ray (one of our many offers for someone to help out, getting a ride there, not driving myself!) and get the contrast for my CT scans. The CT scans of abdomen and pelvis are scheduled for tomorrow afternoon 1445. Then if things are going better, going to try and try and get a couple half days in at work Thursday & Friday, that will be a see how things going kinda thing. Friday I see the Dr. again and he should have the results from the CT scans and hopefully the pathology from the surgery, so at that point we'll determine the next step in this adventure.

Marnie and I were talking and thinking back over the last few months and wondering if this hasn't been in me longer than we thought. We were thinking back over the last 6 months at the few time that I had these little unexplained 'flu' bouts. Were I would spike some high fevers and then it was mostly over in 24-48 hours. That same thing happened the day that Dr. Lailas examined me too, so my supposition is that his examination caused the tumor to release something into me that my body was fighting. Thinking back it is possible that this has been going on for a bit longer and the symptoms are all very similar. Regardless, gone now, but still food for thought and will be interesting to see going forward.

Well hope that each of you is doing well, and know that I'm slowly getting back to normal and just taking each day one at a time.

The Day After

Goodness,

Thank you all for the thoughts, well wishes and prayers. Got home Friday afternoon (Feb 6th) and was pretty looped from the narcotics and other pain meds they gave me. But a dull ache most of the day. Finally was able to eat some food later that evening (and kept it down the second try! LOL)

Ended up sleeping in the recliner, and awoke this morning feeling very sore, but semi-lucid, so thought I'd write. They went in through my abdomen, like a hernia surgery on the left side and took out it out from the inside along with most of the spermatic cord. The Dr. was pleased with the surgery and it went well. He also liked that the spermatic cord looked and appeared normal. The other encouraging factor at this point was just before surgery he told us that they had gotten the results of the blood work from Thursday night backed. Based on the levels of the tumor markers, it appears that my cancer is a 'seminoma'. We are waiting on the pathological examination of the removed parts at this point. More information can be found here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testicular_cancer)

So I have to treat this as if I had a hernia operation at this point. No heavy lifting for a couple weeks, and stuff like that. Have the CT scans scheduled for Wednesday afternoon now, and those combined with the pathological report, should have some more direction towards the end of next week. Still just taking it one day at a time.

Heading to Surgery

I struggled with this on Thursday night as I tossed and turned... whether I should share this information or not. Like most, I tend to be a private person and really don't want to be the one in the limelight. Then I remembered a friend who didn't share what was going on and how it affected those around him in a negative way. So anyways here goes...

I have Testicular Cancer. Yup no joke..

Got back from a trip to St. Louis a couple weeks ago and felt uncomfortable down there.. so went and saw a urologist (Dr. Lailas) on Monday (Feb 2) , his initial diagnosis was epididymitis, which is swelling of the the epididymis (the ducts & tubing that collect the sperm from the testes and funnel into the Vas Deferens)

To ensure that there was nothing more, he scheduled me for an ultrasound yesterday morning (Thursday Feb 5). Well yesterday afternoon after unloading 2000+ boxes of Girl Scout cookies into the garage! Then Dr. Lailas called me and said "I hate to ruin your weekend...." With those words, I knew that the worst case scenario had come to the fore front. I rushed back over to his office before they closed for blood work (they are looking for levels of tumor markers in the blood) They scrambled to get me on a surgical schedule for today and I'm sitting here typing before I head out the door to have surgery to remove my left testicle.

At this point that's all anyone knows, don't know what type of Testicular Cancer (yes there are a few) don't know if it has spread (will be having CT scans next week to determine that) and don't know the course of further treatment (dependent upon type of cancer and if it has spread or not).

Many of you are going, what can I do? How can I help? Right now thoughts and prayers are much welcomed and very appreciated for Marnie, Shannon, Ashley and myself. As things go forward there may well be other ways to help out and we'll be sure to keep you updated with more information as it comes forth.

Today is only the first step, and should be outpatient surgery, shouldn't be in the hospital more than a few hours and home by this afternoon. From there, we'll just be taking it day by day....