Best Case Senario

SOFT TISSUE, RIGHT SPERMATIC CORD, EXCISION:
- BENIGN FIBROVASCULAR TISSUE, NO EVIDENCE OF MALIGNANCY

LYMPH NODES, PERIAORTIC, DISSECTION:
- NO HISTOPATHOLOGIC ABNORMALITY (6 NODES)

LYMPH NODES, PERICAVAL, DISSECTION
- NO HISTOPATHOLOGIC ABNORMALITY (5 NODES)

And there we have it. I had my follow up appointment today, two weeks after my surgery, and the news could not have been better. Everything came back good. What this means is that I am for all intents and purposes cancer free! Well, not completely 100% guaranteed - there is still a microscopic chance something went to the lungs. Because of that, I will be closely monitored for the next 5 years. The first two years are the important ones. For the first year, I'll have to get blood work and chest x-rays every two months. After a year, it goes to every three months, and will get progressively more infrequent with each remaining year. I'll take that over any more CT Scans and surgery!

Speaking of surgery - I'm recovering quite well. My little holes are healing nicely, I'm not in any pain and have resumed working. The only limitations I have is that I can't hold Victoria for very long.

Thanks again to everyone who have been so supportive during these past 3 months!

Surgery Recap

I'm back from my luxurious 2-night stay at the UVa Medical Center. I'm feeling OK - I'm sore, but not as bad as my first surgical procedure in December.

As requested, Meredith and I arrived at UVa around 9:30am, and then proceeded to wait for about two hours. The laproscopic surgery was done with a robot and took about 5 hours to do. I really can't give much more detail about it, because I was out the entire time. What I can say is that they shaved my belly and poked 5 holes in me. (I look like the 40-Year-Old Virgin after a mob hit.) I was told that the procedure went as smoothly as possible, and that to the naked eye, nothing looked wrong. The removed lymph nodes will be sent off to a lab for biopsy, and we'll know the result by the time I have my follow up visit on the 25th. They kept me at the hospital long enough to be sure I could walk, go to the bathroom, and eat solid foods without any difficulty.

So now I'm home. I have to wear these TED stockings as much as possible to help prevent blood clots, I'm forbidden from lifting anything heavier than a full gallon jug for at least 4 weeks (That in particular will suck, as my daughter weighs significantly more than a milk jug), and I have my good friend Percoset to ease any pain.

I want to sincerely thank everyone who kept me and my family in their thoughts and prayers during this unfortunate time. I greatly appreciate it and I am humbled to have so many caring friends.

3 Favors

The Good News: After working a minimum of 5 hours every day for the past 41 days, I'll have the next 5 days off.

The Bad News: I won't get to enjoy it.

Those of you who have been reading my blog, communicating with me on Facebook, or have had actual human contact with me know that tomorrow I'm going to the hospital for more surgery. If I'm lucky, this will be the last thing ever removed from my body. Today I get to prep by drinking like a fish and eating nothing but jello or chicken broth. The surgery is set for 10:00AM tomorrow, and I'll be spending a minimum of one night there. My personal hope is that I'm home by Valentine's Day. I'm sure my wife will post updates on her Facebook and MySpace pages, but I'll give a complete report when I am able to get back online.

So while I was thinking how I was going to word this post, I thought of the concept of asking for 3 favors - one for me, one for yourself, and one for someone else. All 3 are quick and simple to do, and it would mean a lot if anyone reading this performed these small tasks.

A Favor For Me - I'm a big proponent of the power of prayer. I honestly believe it is our greatest weapon against all the crap that happens in our lives. So, tomorrow, I ask you say a small prayer for me, that my surgery goes well and my recovery is swift. Nothing fancy. And for those of you who don't have the Lord on speed-dial, sending warm happy thoughts my way works too.

A Favor For Yourself - Give yourself a test. The ball got rolling (literally!) on all this when I checked myself and found a lump. It easy to do, doesn't take long and can be done in the privacy of the shower. Don't know what to look for? Click here if you're a guy or here if you're a gal.

A Favor For Someone Else - I've been meaning to post this for awhile, and now is good a time as any. Go to The Breast Cancer Site and click on the link to donate a mammogram to someone who may need it. It doesn't cost anything!

Thanks again for all the support. I'll see you in a few days!

Choices

Yesterday, my wife and I traveled to the urology department at the UVa Medical Center. The purpose of this trip was to discuss what options I had in my treatment for my cancer. My father-in-law, who works in the cardiology department there, joined us. Basically I had three options:

1. Surgery: Testicular cancer is very predictable. From the testicles, it travels up towards a set of lymph nodes near my intestines and kidneys. There are actually two sets - one associated with each testicle. Although my blood tests and the markers the doctors looked for came clean, there is still a chance something microscopic got through. By removing the lymph nodes, they can biopsy and see if they are clean. If they are, great, I close that particular door and proceed to be observed. The observation segment would involve CT scans every 6 months for a few years, followed by yearly scans and at year 5, just doctor's visits. If the biopsy finds something, it's still good because we removed it already, and my observation schedule would be more frequent.

2: Observation only: I could avoid surgery and choose to be monitored only. I would submit myself to frequent blood tests and CT scans, with the amount decreasing over time. The downside to this option is if they find anything during one of these tests, I still have the surgery and start over with the observations.

3: Chemotherapy: Basically I was told that because of my situation and the type of tumor I had, this wasn't a recommended option. This of course, relieved me to no end.

Given the options (mainly between surgery and observation), I elected to have the surgery. It seems more finite to me and will allow me to return to a normal life sooner. Obviously, with all surgery, there are risks - the biggest one being that it can cause what is called retrograde ejaculation. What this means is that when I release sperm, instead of traveling the normal route, it gets redirected to my bladder. I won't feel a thing, but when Mer and I try to conceive, we'll need some help from medical science. This risk occurs in less than 10% of cases, so I thought that was acceptable. Anyway, the surgery is set for Feb 12st, with a pre-op date set for Feb 5th.

Of CT Scans and Staples

Is there anything worse than having to wait hours in a hospital/doctor waiting room?

That was my day in a nutshell. I had an appointment for a CT Scan this morning. For those of you unfamiliar with the experience, patients are usually required to drink bottles of water containing a metallic element, I believe Bromide. This help the radiologist get a better picture. Well my urologist didn't believe it was necessary, so I never got any of the bottles. When I arrived, the radiologist decided i should have them - three bottles, one every hour. They gave me one to drink there, and one to take with me. I was to come back in two hours and drink the third and final. So that's two hours right there, which my wife and I spent picking up some item at Wal-Mart.

Finally when it was time for the scan I went in, to be pleasantly surprised by the fact that I didn't have to change into one of those horrid hospital gowns. I laid down on the CT bed, and got scanned. It was a little weird, especially when they injected me with a solution that made me warm all over and, to be perfectly blunt, gave me the sensation that I had wet myself. Fortunately the experience lasted about 20 minutes, and I was out of there quickly.

From there, I had to go to the urologist and get my staples removed. His office was packed and we ended up waiting there for 2 hours. It is at this point that I'd like to mention i had not eaten anything in about 9 hours, and had three bottles of water in me. Eventually I did get in. Dr. Beebe informed me that the CT scan looked good and he was 95% sure everything was as it should (No CT scan ever comes out perfectly clean, but what was found in my scan was not cause for alarm.) Snip snip went the staples, replaced with a sticky tape.

Next up is a date with an oncologist, which will get set up tomorrow. I also have another follow up visit with Dr. Beebe in a month.

I continue to feel well and in good spirits. I can pick up my daughter now, and sneezing is no longer unbearable. Thanks to all for the well-wishes and prayers!

I Haven't Done Any Of These Lately

You Are Ernie

Playful and childlike, you are everyone's favorite friend - even if your goofy antics get annoying at times. You are usually feeling: Amused - you are very easily entertained You are famous for: Always making people smile. From your silly songs to your wild pranks, you keep things fun. How you life your life: With ease. Life is only difficult when your friends won't play with you!

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

Your Vocabulary Score: A-

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

How's Your Vocabulary?

Happy Birthday Nick!

My brother turns 16 today! Drive safely bro!

Lights Out

Random observations here:

It's been raining all day today. As I was driving home for lunch, I couldn't help but notice a number of cars driving without their headlights on. I was always taught that when the weather was bad enough for you to need windshield wipers, you had to put your lights on. This is especially true in the Shenandoah Valley region, where we're high enough up to get lots of fog during rainstorms. But it seems like a large portion of the driving community around here just don't bother. How large a group you ask? Well, I decided to count how many mobile cars I saw sans headlights on my way back to work. I counted 14 cars in a 2.5 mile stretch along some well traveled roadways. Granted, I probably saw over a hundred cars total, but doesn't 14 seem high to you? It does to me. Later that evening when it was darker, it appeared everyone had their headlights on. So I guess I can't classify this as people being stupid so much as just being "not bright".

That was a bad pun even for me...

So What Else Is New?

Since I've gotten back into the blogging habit again, it seems like I should write and catch everything up on whats been happening since I last regularly posted in June. I'll try to keep this short and simple:

Home Life/Victoria: Pretty much the same thing here, as most new and exciting stuff revolves around the little one. We did manage to take a trip up to New York over the summer to see the Red Sox play the Yankees at the soon to be demolished Yankee Stadium. It was wet and rainy, and my Sox unfortunately lost, but it was a good trip and the baseball fan in me was glad to see such a historic stadium, especially Legends Feild. Victoria continues to grow by leaps and bounds. On the plus side, she's as cute as ever , her vocabulary has grown to a point where I can actually have a small conversation with her, and she's shown a real fondness for music, dancing, books and coloring. On the downside, she's started the terrible twos early. She quite determined to get her way and isn't shy to throw a fit or exaggerate an boo-boo. Despite this, she remains my perfect little princess.

Family: the big news here is that I became an uncle again! My brother Andy and his girlfriend decided to adopt a newborn, who was born November 19th. Welcome to the family Cameron Michael! My mom is doing very well. She recently returned to work and has just started the last stage of her treatment. She's in good spirits and things are going very well. Also along the new uncle vein, Meredith's brother Mark and his girlfriend are expecting in March, and my niece Angelina had the first of her procedures to remedy the cleft lip. Her beautiful smile is even better now.

Work: I'm still working at both LCC and Radio Shack. LCC recently moved to a more visible location in Staunton, and as result we've gotten more customers, which keeps me quite busy. I'm still enjoying both jobs, even if all those hours wear me out sometimes.

And finally, to those who've had birthdays since I last blogged regularly: Happy Birthday (Belated) to my wife Meredith, siblings Andy and Tess, Goddaughter Gail, nephew Cameron, and sibs-in-law Ronald, Inez, Ryan, and Tiffany!