Day 2 Post Orchiectomy

[kevinoc]

Lost the right guy yesterday, feeling pretty darn sore and stiff. Came through pretty good, and the prognosis is positive as my markers have been normal. I am feel pretty positive now that the testicle is gone and that all my other tests are clear. My work has been awesome, and the support I have gotten has been really uplifting. I am hoping that all I need to worry about now is having one of my kids (5,3,1) attacking me with a stealth-hug.

Kevin

[dadmo]

kevin:
Welcome to the forum. Do you know when the pathology will be done on the tumor? Have you had scans and x-rays done?
Don't even give your kids a chance for sneak attack hugs, you hug them first.

[Scott]

Hey, Kevin, glad to hear you're on the mend. Keep us posted as you get results and make follow-up plans.

[Already Bald]

I have young children as well Kevin, be careful with the hugs.
You will notice a lot of brusing all over your area- and I thought I had a hernia at the stitch line- it wsa just internal stitches creating a ridge line at the incision.
Take your meds and relax for a while. Let us know your path report.
Joe

[kevinoc]

Follow Up to Questions

Pathology and Updated Markers due later this week along w/ an updated T level. The pathologist picked up the teste himself and they did a quick assessment while I was there zonked out on the table. The preliminary view is that it is either CiS or StageI Seminoma w/o a microscopic. Been cleared through CT and X-ray for metasism. High-grade Neoplastic CiS would make me about the luckiest man alive, so I am deep in prayer.

I am so glad that I found this group, after reading all through the forums. I have learned so much and feel like, not matter what, that there are a group of people who understand.

Kevin

[dadmo]

Well if everything stays the same it would appear that you are cured. Congratulations.

[Fed]

Kevin,
This is all great news thus far. You will certainly have to watch out for the kids! My one-year-old accidentally kicked me squarely over the I/O scar a week after surgery. No major consequences apart from the excruciating pain and swelling, but you definitely want to be on the lookout for unexpected displays of affection. Make sure you keep getting rest. Best of luck,

[kevinoc]

Day 3 - Man, am I Tired

Wow, did one of you guys hook me up to an intravenous sleepy drip overnight?

My wife went back to work this morning, I got out of bed to see her off w/ the kiddies at 7:30. I decided to go back to bed, as I was pretty fitful sleeping last night and didn't feel rested. The phone rang at 11:00 and woke me up. I got up and grabbed a coffee and a leftover Paczki (look them up if you don't know what they are ) and read a couple of emails. A couple of my friends saw I was online and called and I had short chats where I was hating on them for each making me laugh. It was nice. Around 1, I was feeling wiped again, so I thought I would lie down to read for a minute or two...

The phone rang at 4:15, w/ my wife telling me that she was heading home. I am actually considering lying down again. Physically, I am feeling pretty good, the pain in my back is gone, and I can feel the heal going on in my incision and down in my scrotum. My incision is pretty itchy, so I know good things are going on there too. Tonight's excitement is having my wife help have a shower, something that would have sounded alot more fun a week ago then it would be now, or will be in a few weeks. No one has told me no showers, so I am assuming that as long as I am comfortable, I am good to go on that.

So far, so pretty good.

Kevin

[dadmo]

Paczki

A 6 pack of Polish beer?

Get sleep while you can. The body does it's best recovery while at rest.

[Karen]

Everyone reacts differently to general anaesthesia and being wiped out for a few days is not uncommon.

[kevinoc]

Day 4 - Much Better

Wow. I feel a ton better today. Still really tired, but alot less pain and swelling. Was hoping to have the full-on pathology back today, but the Dr. didn't hear anything from the pathologist, so we wait. Also waiting on the latest blood chems, though they were all good a week and a half ago, albeit w/ very low T. Low T seems like it may be the red herring in all this, but we will know more once everything is back. A couple of friends came over today to visit, though I was pretty bagged right before they left, and they were thinking that was pretty funny. I have been suprised to some degree by the reactions of my immediate family to all this, some have been great and others are completely freaked out to the point of being annoying.

I am off the heavy pain meds now, and have graduated to Ibuprofen, seeing that everything is manageable. That is a great sign for me.

So far, so pretty good, again.

Kevin

[Fed]

I have been suprised to some degree by the reactions of my immediate family to all this, some have been great and others are completely freaked out to the point of being annoying.

My recently divorced parents flew in from Mexico for the I/O. They both freaked out after I broke the news to them, and as a parent myself I understand why. I was more stressed out about them being here freaking out together than the surgery! Their visit actually wasn't that bad.
The rest of my family was harder to deal with, though. We all lost my grandma to breast cancer 12 years ago, so having a second close relative with cancer was unsettling to them. I had to do damage control by giving them frequent "mass updates" explaining the details of what was going on. That certainly helped out.

Good call on the pain meds. The narcotics made me feel stoooopid , and I didn't enjoy being that loopy and out of it!

Great to hear you're faring well! Take care,

[kevinoc]

Day 5 - Pathology/Blood Chems Back

So, to start. I might be the luckiest man on the face of the earth. Due to some hellish pain for the last year, chronic infertility and a family history of cryptochordism, I went to see a urologist last year. After spinning through a bunch of potential causes and symptoms, on Jan 4 I got an MRI that showed some pretty funky things (not the medical term ) going on with my right testicle, none of which could be good.

The pathology from the orchiectomy showed a prevalance of testicular intraepithelial neoplasia. Fancy way of saying CiS. According to my urologist, that pretty means that we got the TC before it got me. I now get the unpleasant fun of a needle biopsy on the left guy to gauge the presence/non-presence of CiS in that one, but that is a trauma for another day.

Blood chems are normal across the board, except for the low T, which again may or may not be a red herring.

When he first told me, I kinda freaked out that I might have gotten i/o'ed without having had to. I sorta fixated on that until he told me that while this may have been non-invasive in its form, it is not benign and is likely causal for some of my fertility problems. It is just never diagnosed in people with healthy testes, until it forms the inevitable TC. So, today, I am thanking God for a completely messed up right testicle that required me to seek early treatment. Or something like that.

So the fun is, that if there is CiS in the left guy, after the biopsy, we are looking at radiation and chemo. But, the percentages are on my side that everything is fine with the left guy. So, for today, I feel like I just won something big. I am still pretty sore, especially when my wife called me into the other room tonight as she was watching the Borat movie and I started laughing hard and it felt like I tore the incision in half...

[dadmo]

kevinoc:
Congratulation on your report. Now go enjoy one of those cans of Paczki and celebrate.

[Fed]

Great news on your test results, and great work on catching it early. Enjoy the weekend!