As you can imagine, being diagnosed with cancer is quite the bummer. It definitely isn't what I was hoping for at Christmas.
Here I was though, two days before the first of December and that is what the doctor was telling me.
As I mentioned in my last post, the urologist had determined based on my test results that I definitely had a cancerous tumor on one of my testicles and it had to come out right away.
I feel it is necessary to take a sidebar here and point out my wife. This is her in the photo with me, and she is the best. She has been such a great support during this whole ordeal. Getting through all of this would have been so much more difficult without her.
My surgery was scheduled for a Friday December 1st at 8 in the morning. They make you get there pretty early so they can get you all prepped. The doctor said it was a pretty quick surgery, but it was still invasive enough that they had to put me under.
If I didn't mention it before, I am a huge sissy when it comes to needles. The only kind of needle I like can be seen to the left here.
That being said, I was actually more nervous about getting the IV put in my arm than I was about the surgery itself.
Let me tell you, cancer isn't what you want to get if you are opposed to needles. From what I understand I basically have a lifetime ahead of me of tests and needle pokes from now on.
The nurse came back to get me prepped and ready. She asked me if I knew why I was there. I had done some research in the past two days so trying to be smart I said: "I am here for an orchiectomy (or-key-eck-toe-me)".
The nurse informed me it was actually a "radical orchiectomy" which means they were taking the whole testicle out. I looked at my wife and said, "go big or go home, I've never been one to do anything half-way".
The nurse anesthetist came into the prep room and let me know what they were going to do to put me under. Then the doctor came back and asked if I was ready.
He was still in his winter coat drinking his morning coffee, so I think I was more ready than him!
He left to get ready and the nurses started wheeling me back. They started to inject something into my IV and told me that it was just something to help me relax, and did it ever.
I was feeling pretty loopy as they kept wheeling me back. I remember letting the nurses know that I had shaved myself "down there" so that they wouldn't have to do as much work. Just my way of helping them out you know.
They got me into the operating room and moved me to the table, and that is the last thing I remember. Due to the fact that I was completely under during the surgery, they had put a tube down my throat to help me breathe.
I woke up to the nurse asking me if I needed a drink. I was still feeling pretty good from the anesthesia/pain meds, so I asked if I could get an Egg Nog milkshake. She laughed and said no, so I asked if I could get a captain and coke. She said, "how about some water".
As I was laying there I kept trying to ask every question I could think of and I was talking a mile a minute: "how did it go, did they get it all, how did the lymph nodes look, can I see it?" They said it went well and that they had to send it off to pathology so I couldn't see it.
They wheeled me over to my wife and she sat with me while they continued to check my vitals. They filled some prescriptions for me (antibiotic and pain meds) and let me know that I couldn't leave until I urinated because of where the surgery was. They needed to make sure everything was working okay down there.
My wife shoved the water at me and said, "drink up, let's get out of here!"
I was able to go to the bathroom no problem and my wife signed me out. They wheeled me down to the entrance and my wife pulled the car around to pick me up. I was going to try to walk out because it was cold and the nurse didn't have a coat, but then I thought better of it. She wheeled me out to the car and we got home.
Amazingly, the pain was minimal. I didn't have to use any of the opiates they gave me (which was fine by me, these days who wants to take that chance). I had taken that Friday off for the surgery, but I was back to work by Monday with no restrictions. I still took it easy though.
After the surgery... You guessed it, more waiting. Two weeks after the surgery I had a follow-up appointment with the urologist to make sure it was healing well. Then he would determine the next steps based on how the pathology came back.
Stop back next time for how that appointment went and the continuation of my cancer journey. It is scary, but definitely do-able, and I hope this series so far has helped you to see that.
You can check out the last couple of parts here:
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