May 9, 2016: Surgery

It’s Monday morning on the day of my surgery.  I still don’t think everything has sunk in at this point.  I’m scheduled for surgery that afternoon at 1:30 pm.  The day seems to drag on and the worst part was my intense thirst.  I hadn’t been able to eat or drink anything since midnight.  I was hungry but water was what I wanted more than anything else at this point in time.

My wife and parents had come along to be by my side and of course drive me home since I’d be slightly loopy and feeling GOOD on the pain meds after the procedure.  Keep in mind we still hadn’t found out for sure if my tumor was cancerous, so that was still weighing on everybody’s mind.   Let me tell you my family is awesome and were a rock for me all day while we waited.

We arrive at the north austin medical center and I check in and complete all the paperwork.  That’s another thing I’ve come to realize is how much paperwork it takes to see a Doctor and surgery.  I haven’t had to write so much without the help of a computer in a long time.  Almost forgot what my handwriting actually looks like.  Hint: it’s not much better than a Doctors.  Let me say the entire nursing staff at North Austin Surgical Center were amazing.  Every one of them I had the pleasure of interacting with went out of their way to make me feel comfortable.  Thank you to those folks!

I finally get called back to the pre-op ward and now it’s time to get this show on the road.  Obviously I had to be completely naked for this particular procedure.  Not sure about you, but I’m not usually one to run around without a stitch of clothing on.  I mean I did have on the little blue apron thing that doesn’t actually close in the back.  Ok, in my younger days I would’ve been cool with it but my body isn’t that great anymore.  Now it’s time for the nurse to prep me for surgery.  She puts in my IV line, checks all my vitals, and does an awesome job of keeping me calm.  She tells me before she leaves that if I need anything just press the button and she’ll come back.  She jokingly says you can even press it just to time how quickly she can respond.  Little does she know I actually think long and hard about doing that.  You’ll find out later why I’m glad I didn’t.

Right before surgery

Now my Dad and my wife are the only two in the room with me while we wait for the doctor to come by with last-minute details about the surgery.  The nurses tell us that Dr. Jones is usually 15 minutes early so they’re moving quickly to be ready when he shows.  Low and behold in pops the doctor almost exactly 15 minutes early.  First thing the Doctor does is joke about which one of my testicles is to be removed.  Funny Doc. I think to myself, please get the right one and I literally mean my right testicle. He draws a circle with an X on my right hand to be sure he remembers once we’re in the operating room.  Man, I love low tech fail safes!

Next Dr. Jones goes over everything about the procedure with us and he turns to head out.  Well, me not wanting to wait any longer on the blood test results decide to open my big mouth and ask.  What did the results show?  Dr. Jones turns back and tells me they weren’t what we were hoping to hear.  My tumor markers were elevated and indications are I have a Non-seminoma tumor.  I might post about the different types of testicular tumors at a later date.  The short of this one is that it only responds to chemotherapy and it tends to be more aggressive.  Great news!  Not really but it is what it is and at least the Doctors know how to beat this particular type of cancer.

Boom!  I have cancer….. I quickly take a look at my wife and Dad next me to and the looks on their faces simply broke my heart.  My wife was tearing up and I could tell my dad wasn’t doing much better.  He actually left to go get my mom since only 2 people could be in the room with me.  This was the toughest moment I’d had up to this point.  All of a sudden I got extremely hot even though the room was as cold as ice.  I started to perspire like someone running a marathon, but the worst part was I got terribly nauseous.  I quickly hit the nurse call button and I hear her jokingly say.  “Are you testing my reaction time?”.  I respond “nope I’m really nauseous though.”  She moved quickly and got some meds into my IV.  Luckily 2 minutes later they wheeled me to the OR and the next thing I know is I’m waking up in recovery.

Jennifer waiting for me to come out of surgery.

One short story while I was in recovery.  They tell me I can finally I have some crackers and something to drink.  Thank you!!  I was as parched as man stranded in the Mojave desert without his canteen.  Let me just say those crackers and ginger ale were awesome!  Best tasting ones I’d ever had in my life.  So surgery wasn’t too bad and now it was time to go home, recover for a couple of weeks and wait for the pathology on the tumor itself.  Fun, more waiting.