Surgery on Sept 8

[Hippie]

Really nice to happen on this site to hear about so many guys doing well after surgery, I am not as young as most I guess cause Urologist says I am kinda old for TC but not unheard of, I am 38. I had all my pre-op stuff a couple days ago.. blood work out the wazooo, chest xray, Ct scan with contrast.. damn iodine dye which they had to give me a Bunch of benedril and pretnozone cause I am allergic to Iodine. so that kinda sucked.. laying there knowing they were injecting me with something that I am highly allergic to was a flipping scary 7 minutes or so. Havent heard back from the doc since my CT scans so I am hoping no news is good news that they came back clean, but I have my pre-op with him on Wednesday Sept 6 and I guess he may tell me more then.. I have been having some low back pain so I dont know what that means or if that is normal and cramping in the lower stomach but I am assuming that is just pressure from the swelling, I am swelled pretty damn bad, about 3x normal.

Sorry I know I am kinda rambling but just a little freaked out over this and what the next year and beyond holds. I am married with a teenage daughter and a business and worried about how much down time is in store for me..


Hippie

[Scott]

I was 39 when I had my orchiectomy three years ago. Keep us in the loop as you find out more.

[IowaBrian]

Welcome
You will find out that surgery will be a thing of the past an you will do fine.
Blood work does take a couple days to return my last test was Tuesday and results Friday,. so that is normal Just ask the doctor when you go in for surgery what the numbers are. After you go back about 5 days after surgery you will get the path report to find out if it is cancer and if it is what type.
Make sure to ask for a copy of the path report and if post your info many on here can speak up and give you some good info.
You CT scan results should be back to the doctor with in 24 hours so they will also have them at the time of surgery.
Try not to freak out too much I was told on a Friday that surgery was going to be Monday morning so I didn't get much time to think about it which is good.
As for down time you will be down the first week plus the next 3 weeks very lite duty8 pound lifting restriction. You will be fully released to most hard work in about 6 to 8 weeks. Just remember that if you do too much and get a hernia you will be right back into surgery to fix that and start back at day one plus a lot more medical bills so take it easy and ICE ICE ICE.
If you have any questions ask away of send us a email.
Thanks
Brian

[Hippie]

Thanks for the info, I know about hernia's I had one on the side he is going in on about 21 years ago and he knows he will have to deal with the mesh that was put in then and he also said this surgery will roughly be just like that one which I remember was bearable, but I am not as young as I once was
You said ICE ICE ICE, I didnt think there would be much swelling cause of going in through the stomach and not cutting through the scrotom but I am assuming I am wrong ???
The surgery doesnt freak me out really but all the "what ifs" are driving me and the wife crazy and not knowing what will or will not happen next with what comes back from the biopsy is unnerving at times to say the least.

Just knowing there is others out there that have been through this already that I can ask questions and communicate with is a comforting thought, Thanks! I will post any info I find out so I can get it in layman terms, I am assuming I will possibly know more Wednesday morning when I meet with Urologist for pre-op on how all the new set tests came back Chest Xray, CT etc.

Seeing the word Surveilance a lot on here, assuming the meaning to be, having to stay checked out on a regular basis to make sure nothing shows up anywhere or on any test over time or does it mean something else. ??

Thanks!
Hippie

[Scott]

You've got it right. Surveillance is also called observation or "watchful waiting." It means keeping a careful eye on the situation and acting fast at just the right time. See this TCRC page for details.

[IowaBrian]

Your surgery is right about where the leg meets the pelvis just a little north of the penis so they are going to give you a hernia to get the testical out. The Ice: you will wake up from the surgery with a couple bags stuffed in a jock strap with a big wad of cotton stuffed in there. But once you go home you will want to ice it a lot I would go to the local drug store and get one of those screw on cap rubber bladder type ice bags they will save you a mess if one of the hospital ice bags startes to leak and they will leak after you use them a couple days. The doctor really only warned me about 2 things don't lift more than a gallon of milk and ice a lot to keep the swelling down as that can cause an infection which you really don't want. Once you start moving around the night after surgery you WILL SWELL and that is where the ICE ICE ICE comes in it will be second nature after the first day
watch and wait is xrays and blood work EVERY month and CT scans every 3 to 4 months this goes on for first 2 years, then it is scaled back. It is very fun but I really don't want chemo unless I have to do it so I do it once a month and life goes on.
Brian

[stevenh77]

You said ICE ICE ICE, I didnt think there would be much swelling cause of going in through the stomach and not cutting through the scrotom but I am assuming I am wrong ???

There will be some swelling, but it shouldn't be too bad. I'd recommend what my doctor told me. Use ice if you need it, but no more than 15-20 minutes every 2 hours. You want to keep the blood flowing so everything will heal faster.

Try to stay active, but don't overdo it, you don't want to end up with a hernia or any other injuries while you're healing. I was actually up playing my guitar the day of my orchiectomy.

[Hippie]

Sorry but I have a couple more questions, I just just woke up maybe 30 minutes and this has been getting worse, My lower back is killing me, not sharp pains but just that continues discomfort, normal cause of the swelling ? cause of the stress from waiting on Friday, just curios on real life experience with lower back pain with this. thats what is driving me crazy with the wait on surgery, is anything odd I feel anywhere is like oh god what is that.. I eat a pain pill which helps the pain both places and allows me to function for the day buts really getting annoying.

Also my wife ask me a few times now in the last couple days (hey we have "business" to take care of couple nights or so a week ), will this or does it normally affect the sex drive from having one removed, I know the doc says no but what is real life experiences.

thanks again for the responses, the mind really mess's with you waiting on something like this and hearing/reading about people been there done that on this helps knowing what real people have experienced if that makes sense.

Trying to keep my sense of humor over this and told the wife I was going to tell the Doc on Wednesday when I have my pre-op with him to "have a ball on friday doing my surgery" .. lol

Serious Note: Thanks for being out there guys and willing to answer questions for guys that are just starting there journey through this.

Hippie

[Scott]

will this or does it normally affect the sex drive from having one removed, I know the doc says no but what is real life experiences.

That can vary a lot. There's a TCRC page at this link that includes the information quoted below.

Regarding sex drive, testicular cancer survivors we have spoken with have told me everything from having sex the day after their IO (ouch!) all the way through having to go on hormonal therapies to re-establish their desire. Just as each one of us is different going in, we're going to be just as different coming out, too. One big key is to keep the patient-doctor communication lines open, before and after any treatments. If you feel different, or just out of whack, let your doctor know. They cannot read your mind, and they definitely cannot diagnose anything if you do not tell them that something is wrong!

[stevenh77]

will this or does it normally affect the sex drive from having one removed, I know the doc says no but what is real life experiences.

Your doctor will probably tell you to wait 2 weeks to 1 month, but other than that most people don't have any major problems.. and whatever minor problems you might have will probably be temporary. I know I had a little problem with not lasting as long as I used to, but once everything was completely healed I was back to normal.

[jason137]

Sorry but I have a couple more questions, I just just woke up maybe 30 minutes and this has been getting worse, My lower back is killing me, not sharp pains but just that continues discomfort, normal cause of the swelling ? cause of the stress from waiting on Friday, just curios on real life experience with lower back pain with this. thats what is driving me crazy with the wait on surgery, is anything odd I feel anywhere is like oh god what is that.. I eat a pain pill which helps the pain both places and allows me to function for the day buts really getting annoying.
Hippie

I had pretty bad sciatica for the two weeks prior to my surgery. I didn't mention it to the doctors because I thought it was due to a ruptured disk I have between S2-S3. It hadn't bothered me for years though. The sciatica was gone after the surgery, but if I sat too long standing up would cause brief back pain. Everything is fine for me now. Of course everyone is different.

[IowaBrian]

I had low back and groin pain before surgery surgery cured that problem.
As for sex drive don't worrry about it things will get back to normal soon enough and without the back pain might be a tad more enjoyable!!
Trust me once she sees the slight swelling after surgery she will be understanding and willing to wait a few weeks so as not cause you more pain then you need women think we can't handle pain too well so they don't want to make it worse
Forgot to mention talk to the URO about any sex drive issues or problems, they talk about it all day to people and make it very easy to talk to them about any issues trust me even my girlfriend fired off questions to him when I forgot to mention something
Good luck the 8th
Brian

[Hippie]

Well got back from the Urologist and my CT came back along with this set of blood work.. Blood work clean, but Ct showed some inflamation of the abdominal lypmnods, he had me go for another Ultrasound today.. he said it might be seminoma being not showing in my blood but my lympnods show signs of inflammation... Gues the byopsy will confirm what is what and he mentioned if after surgery if the nods do not go down then probably radiation of the abdomin and see what that does and/or possible surgery to remove them.. he says that it is good that if this is defiantly anything that it is not showing in the blood work cause seminoma is one of the easyest to kill ?? I think I am saying all this right cause my head is really kinda spinning and my wife is freaking out..

So guess I will know more after the surgery and the byopsy..
Hippie

[Scott]

You'll definitely need your pathology report. Do you know how large the lymph nodes appeared in your CT scan? What day is your orchiectomy scheduled? Soon, I hope.

[Hippie]

Surgery scheduled this friday morning Sept 8, at 10:45AM... He said hopefully will have pathology report by Monday or Tuesday.

It is true he saying its a good thing that my blood work is clean ???

Hippie