My Amazing Cancer Adventure
Just a warning, this post will probably contain frequent reference to testicles, all in a medical context, so you've been warned.
Saturday night I was over at Emilie's house and had to go to the bathroom. I did my business and proceeded to put the equipment away when my hand brushed against something that shouldn't be there. I performed a simple exam on righty and discovered that there was a hard BB sized lump that I'd never noticed there on previous checks. (Incidentally, if you're a male age 15-40 then you're at risk for testicular cancer. I'd recommend checking it out at least once a month, you never know when you'll find yourself in a situation like this.)
The next day I went to the doctor and he had a look. The doctor informed me that it was probably just a cyst or something else that I needn't worry about, but he also wanted to be absolutely certain. I was scheduled for an ultrasound on Tuesday at The Imaging Center here in Muncie.
Now I have to say that I didn't think I'd be going in for an ultrasound for at least a few more years. And I definitely didn't expect that ultrasound to be on my nuts, or on any part of me for that matter. Still, better safe than sorry, so I went in for the exam. It took about a half hour and then I was out of there with the assurance that they would know for sure what was going on in about 24 hours.
Fast forward to the next morning when I get a call from my doctor's office saying that the Imaging Center called and wanted me to go in for additional testing. "Uh-oh," I thought to myself. "That can't be good."
So I call the Imaging Center and make an appointment to come in between classes later that day at 12:45. I arrive on time and promptly have to wait 15 minutes for the doctor to get in from lunch. He was a South African gentleman as far as I could tell from his accent, businesslike and not particularly friendly or reassuring in his bedside manner. The technician had already informed me that it's rare they call someone in for additional testing, and the doctor didn't help matters.
"Sorry, I just saw something that concerned me on the pictures and wanted to get a look at them live."
"Well who wouldn't?" I quipped. I thought it was funny.
So he went through the examination with the ultrasound machine with a bit of help from the technician. It seemed the doctor didn't really know how to use the machine all that well. That instilled me with a great deal of confidence. When he was done he got up and was about to leave the room without saying a word.
"Um, so what do you think?" I ask.
The doctor then assures me that he feels much better now. He was concerned over something, but definitely thinks it isn't cancerous. Evidently he was worried there might have been something else going wrong in my wedding tackle. He still managed to equivocate in that special way that only doctors who are trying to avoid a potential lawsuit can, telling me that he would have to go back and look at all of the pictures and make a final report before he could tell me anything for sure. The technician again assured me that I would have an answer in 24 hours.
I called my doctor's office the next afternoon to ask if they'd gotten anything from the Imaging Center. Nothing.
I called them again today and they said they had finally gotten the info back. It was just a cyst, nothing to be concerned about. They said they could refer me to a urologist if I wanted to have it removed. Seeing as how cysts are rather benign, they tend to just sit there minding their own business, I declined to have someone come near that area of my body with sharp pointy implements.
So I ended up coming out of this one okay, no thanks to equivocating doctors who kept me on edge for the better part of a week wondering if I would have to have my right nut chopped off sometime in the near future (the typical treatment for testicular cancer). If you've made it this far then I'd like to encourage you to examine your pertinent parts, breasts on the ladies and testicles on the men, on at least a monthly basis. Thankfully it was a false alarm for me, but you never know when something might show up. Catching this stuff early gives you the best chance for survival, so make sure you give yourself that chance.
Saturday night I was over at Emilie's house and had to go to the bathroom. I did my business and proceeded to put the equipment away when my hand brushed against something that shouldn't be there. I performed a simple exam on righty and discovered that there was a hard BB sized lump that I'd never noticed there on previous checks. (Incidentally, if you're a male age 15-40 then you're at risk for testicular cancer. I'd recommend checking it out at least once a month, you never know when you'll find yourself in a situation like this.)
The next day I went to the doctor and he had a look. The doctor informed me that it was probably just a cyst or something else that I needn't worry about, but he also wanted to be absolutely certain. I was scheduled for an ultrasound on Tuesday at The Imaging Center here in Muncie.
Now I have to say that I didn't think I'd be going in for an ultrasound for at least a few more years. And I definitely didn't expect that ultrasound to be on my nuts, or on any part of me for that matter. Still, better safe than sorry, so I went in for the exam. It took about a half hour and then I was out of there with the assurance that they would know for sure what was going on in about 24 hours.
Fast forward to the next morning when I get a call from my doctor's office saying that the Imaging Center called and wanted me to go in for additional testing. "Uh-oh," I thought to myself. "That can't be good."
So I call the Imaging Center and make an appointment to come in between classes later that day at 12:45. I arrive on time and promptly have to wait 15 minutes for the doctor to get in from lunch. He was a South African gentleman as far as I could tell from his accent, businesslike and not particularly friendly or reassuring in his bedside manner. The technician had already informed me that it's rare they call someone in for additional testing, and the doctor didn't help matters.
"Sorry, I just saw something that concerned me on the pictures and wanted to get a look at them live."
"Well who wouldn't?" I quipped. I thought it was funny.
So he went through the examination with the ultrasound machine with a bit of help from the technician. It seemed the doctor didn't really know how to use the machine all that well. That instilled me with a great deal of confidence. When he was done he got up and was about to leave the room without saying a word.
"Um, so what do you think?" I ask.
The doctor then assures me that he feels much better now. He was concerned over something, but definitely thinks it isn't cancerous. Evidently he was worried there might have been something else going wrong in my wedding tackle. He still managed to equivocate in that special way that only doctors who are trying to avoid a potential lawsuit can, telling me that he would have to go back and look at all of the pictures and make a final report before he could tell me anything for sure. The technician again assured me that I would have an answer in 24 hours.
I called my doctor's office the next afternoon to ask if they'd gotten anything from the Imaging Center. Nothing.
I called them again today and they said they had finally gotten the info back. It was just a cyst, nothing to be concerned about. They said they could refer me to a urologist if I wanted to have it removed. Seeing as how cysts are rather benign, they tend to just sit there minding their own business, I declined to have someone come near that area of my body with sharp pointy implements.
So I ended up coming out of this one okay, no thanks to equivocating doctors who kept me on edge for the better part of a week wondering if I would have to have my right nut chopped off sometime in the near future (the typical treatment for testicular cancer). If you've made it this far then I'd like to encourage you to examine your pertinent parts, breasts on the ladies and testicles on the men, on at least a monthly basis. Thankfully it was a false alarm for me, but you never know when something might show up. Catching this stuff early gives you the best chance for survival, so make sure you give yourself that chance.