A February to Remember

Last fall, in an effort to raise awareness for Testicular Cancer, the "Feeling Nuts Challenge" was created.  The challenge was to post a picture of yourself...well..... feeling your nuts.  Notable celebrities that participated in the challenge were Hugh Jackman, Ricky Gervais, and William Shatner to name a few.  This challenge did not gain the popularity or notoriety of the Ice Bucket Challenge, but I did find it amusing and humorous.  I did, however, fail to take the message to heart.  It was meant to be more than pictures of men grabbing their junk.

February 1st, 2015:  It was Superbowl Sunday,  I had stayed home from church with a sick child.  I noticed a slight pain in my right testicle.  Upon further examination I found a lump.  I was scared.  I told Rachelle as soon as she got home from church.  I normally am resistant to going to the doctor, but we agreed that I should get an appointment as soon as possible.  I work in an office with a female nurse practitioner.  She is an amazing practitioner, but having her examine my man-parts would have forever changed our working relationship, so I scheduled an appointment with a Urologist.  The soonest I could get in was the following week. 

February 12th, 2015, I met with the Urologist.  You know something is up when, while examining your man-parts, the doctor says, "oh!" in a surprised voice.  "It appears that you have some type of growth on your testicle".  An ultrasound in his office confirmed that there was a tumor.  The Urologist recommended that I have the testicle removed the following week.  I was told to go to the hospital for a "High-Definition" ultrasound.  While waiting for the secretary at the doctor's office to schedule my ultrasound appointment, I texted my wife:  "Cancer...surgery next week".   I called my wife as I left the doctor's office to head to the hospital for the ultrasound.  We cried.  

At the hospital, I registered for the ultrasound appointment.  Everyone was very nice.  Each person I talked to asked me how my day was going.  I wanted to tell them that this was possibly the worst day of my life, but I settled for "I've had better".  The ultrasound tech took me back for my appointment.  I was relieved to find that I had a male ultrasound tech.  He told me to undress, lay on the table, cover myself with a blanket and he would be back to do the scan.  I did as he instructed.  As I lay down on the table, I noticed a screen on the ceiling where the patient can watch the ultrasound as they lay there.  I saw my name: Dan Hymas, Procedure:  Scrotal Ultrasound, Category: Small Parts.  As the ultrasound tech reentered the room, I told him that I wanted to lodge a formal complaint.  I was offended at the category in which I had been placed.  He informed me that the category specified the size of the wand they were using, not the size of the parts they were scanning.  The tech completed the scan, and I was told that the Urologist would call me on Monday and let me know if I indeed needed surgery or not.

February 16th 2015:  The Urologist called.  He confirmed that the ultrasound showed a tumor and that it needed to be surgically removed.  The surgery was scheduled for Wednesday.

Februrary 18th 2015:  Right Radical Inguinal Orchiectomy.  Google it.   Not fun.  (Pics from surgery here) The Urologist did a great job.  It was the first surgery I have ever had.  I don't like surgery.  I had the surgery in the morning, and was back home in the afternoon.  As we were leaving the hospital, I thought it might be fun to get sick and throw up as I was in the elevator.  Luckily, we had a little puke bag for the ride. The doctor scheduled me for a CT Scan the following week to make sure that the Cancer had not spread, and said that he would let us know the results on the Pathology of the tumor at my next appointment.

February 24th, 2015:  CT Scan.  For 12 hours preceding the scan, you are not allowed to eat or drink anything, except for the 2 bottles of delicious radioactive toxin that you drink so that they can see your digestive system on the scan.  The scan is not uncomfortable, other than the additional radioactive dye that they inject into your vein that makes you feel warm all over like perhaps you wet yourself.  

February 26th 2015:  Met with Urologist to go over the results of the scan and pathology of the tumor.  The tumor is a teretoma, a form of testicular cancer.  The scan shows that it has spread to the lymph nodes in my abdomen.  The scan also identified a small growth on my liver and a cyst on a kidney.  Both of those were too small to identify as cancer.  The doctor said that due to the nature of the cancer, and how it had spread, that he was referring us to the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake for further treatment, which would likely include additional surgery to remove the cancer.

March 4, 2015:  Huntsman Cancer Institute:  We met with the Urologist there.  He was very personable, and answered a lot of the questions that we had.  Unfortunately, the hospital had not sent the CT Scan pictures to them, so he was unable to determine the next step in treatment.  On my blood tests, it shows that the cancer markers are increasing (getting worse).  This means that the most likely option is chemotherapy.  They ran some more tests to determine the reason for the cancer markers increasing.  If everything on those tests is normal, we should start chemotherapy next week.  They will be staffing my case next Wednesday to determine the best course of treatment with their board of doctors.

March 5th, 2015:  Got a call from the doctor at Huntsman.  He said the tests were mostly within normal ranges, but the cancer markers had actually gone down, so now they are unsure how to proceed.  They want me to get an appointment with an Oncologist here and get my cancer markers checked again on Wednesday.  We made an appointment with an Oncologist in Pocatello, because that is the closest doctor that our insurance will cover.  We have really good insurance so we are happy to go there and be covered!

So as we sit right now, we are waiting until Wednesday to get the cancer markers checked.  The doctors at Huntsman are staffing my case that day.  When we have all of the test results, they will be making a decision on what treatment we will do.  Likely, I will be starting that treatment next week, whether that is another surgery, or chemotherapy.

We really appreciate all of the prayers, well-wishes, and donations.  The support that we have received has been overwhelming.  

-Dan