Two Weeks Ago Today

November 20 & 21, 2009:

Chris was diagnosed with testicular cancer. His life was turned upside down, as was mine. This blog is to inform anyone who wants to know about the journey we are going through as we speak.* If you don't want to read about the nitty gritty details of our every day life battling cancer then turn away now beacuse here it goes...


Let's talk about the ER visit. We intially went into the emergency room Friday night because yes, his testicle was swollen, and yes we ignored it for too long. More on why we waited later...The ER doctor looked at me during the examination and asked me if we were sure there had been no trauma to the area. "Yes, Dr. R., I beat my boyfriend on a regular basis down there. Not!" Initially, I thought he was thinking that maybe we did some super kinky stuff (embarrassing!) or I was beating him ( uh, negative). I now know that he was just hoping it wasn't what he thought it was. He scheduled blood work and we (I) knew right then what it was. Actually, we knew what it was (cancer) about a month and a half before we did anything about it. But we didn't talk about it. Denial. After the blood work he had a CT scan and then an ultrasound. It was the quickest, most productive emergency room visit that I'd ever witnessed. Without any answers, just a hint that "It may be testicular cancer" Chris was admitted to the hospital. Needless to say we didn't sleep that night. We got into the room about 2:30 am. Immediately they stopped his fluids and I knew that wasn't a good sign. Surgery. I had to beg the nurse for ice and water but she made me promise my first born I wouldn't share with him. Poor Chris. On to Saturday morning.


Horrible Nurse (that's what we'll call her) PEEKED HER HEAD IN THE DOOR about 9 am and asked if we had any family that could come be with us because the doctor would be there about 10. I was like HOLD UP. What the hell is going on?! You have to know that at this point we had been told nothing since Chris had been admitted and I had to beg for ice and water the night before. Horrible Nurse proceeded to RUN AWAY and we didn't see her until a few hours later. So, here I am pacing the floor freaking out because why do we need family? What is this? I begged Chris to let me call some family because I needed them there and he may not admit it but so did he. Fast forward to 10ish that morning.


A urologist, we'll call him Dr. M. came in, introduced himself, and asked who was going to take notes. At this point my cousin, grandparents, aunt, and her boyfriend were all there. Val, my cousin was quickly chosen to be the note taker. Thank God because I only heard bits and pieces after he said "We are 95% sure that you have testicular cancer." Some of the bits that I heard were...surgery right away, we suspect it may have spread and sperm banking. I lost it. Hard. I think Chris was in shock because he was just sitting there holding my hand. A few tears came toward the end of the meeting with Dr. M., but I think Chris was just ready to get this show on the road.


Shortly three hours later after the diagnosis, he was taken into surgery to have an inguinal orchiectomy. Dr. M, made the surgery short and sweet but you couldn't tell by looking at me. I was a hot mess sitting in that waiting room on the most dreary Saturday of my life.






*Also, the purpose of this blog is so that Chris and I can keep our facts straight and we can look back and read the details (why would we want to do that?!) some day down the road.