April 29, 2016:
This is the day that I’ll mark as the day my life changed. It’s also the day I should be thankful for as it will ultimately be the day that saved my life. It was a typical Friday morning. I had just got out of the shower getting ready for work. For some reason on this particular day I decided to do a self-examination of my scrotum. Keep in mind this wasn’t something I do all the time. Heck, I knew I was out of the “normal” age range for Testicular cancer. This is a disease that affects most men between the ages of 18-35. I’m six years past that supposed line. This morning I noted my right testicle felt enlarged, and by enlarged I mean double the size of my left. My immediate thought was I had somehow gotten injured. Was my testicle twisted, had I been hit and did;t remember, did i somehow have an infection? Finally I thought it could be cancer but that couldn’t be the cause.
I told my wife and had her feel it as well. She actually thought I was just trying to get her to touch me. Hell, usually I would love to try to get her hands on me. What man doesn’t want to have is wife’s touch on him. Anyway i digress. She felt and agreed that there was certainly something wrong. I told her I’d set up an appointment with a Doctor as soon as I got to work. Once I arrived at work I completely changed my normal morning routine. Instead of checking email, grabbing a coffee and water, and hitting up my buddy’s in the office with the latest sports gossip, I instead sat right down and Googled “Urologist in Round Rock”. I called the Urology Team and got an appointment with Dr. Jones for the following Thursday (5/5/2016).
Now, the appointment is set. I know in a few days I’ll hopefully get some answers. In the meantime I went back to my normal life. Except, not quite normal, now I did what most people do these days. I reached out to “Dr. Internet” it was time to self diagnose. I typed in “what causes an enlarged testicle”. Wow, there are actually a number of things that can cause an enlarged testicle. Let’s run through a few:
1.Hernia: this makes sense but I hadn’t lifted anything in a while- probably not me.
2.Hydrocele: a sac filled with fluid around the testicle. Maybe but mine feels to hard and it’s most commonly found in babies.
3.Tortion of Testes: twisted testicle- I don’t think so in my case- hope not cause this is an emergency situation. Blood flow get cut off so immediate surgery to save the testicle is needed. My appointment was’t for another 6 days. Probably too late if this was the issue.
4.Epididymitis: this is an inflammation of a tube at the back of the testicles.— another maybe.
5.Orchitis: a bacterial or viral infection- most often caused from STD’s or UTI’s— well unless my wife is cheating me then I’m fairly certain this one is not what I had/have. I also know my wife wasn’t stepping out on me. Our relationship is too strong.
6.Mumps: I knew I didn’t have the mumps
7.Varicocele: a vein abnormality- decreased blood flow that can cause testicle shrinkage. — I don’t think this was me- my left testicle seemed normal.
8.Testicular CANCER: yep, the Big C. As we already know it’s normally seen in men ages 18-35. I’m thinking I got a good shot at it being one of the other reasons listed above for my enlarged testicle. I breathed out in relief.
My research was done. Obviously it had to be one of the reasons we just covered. Time to wait and see. Let me just say, waiting has become my new normal. I didn’t know it yet but the words “we have to wait and see the test results” would become my new reality. Time for the weekend let’s forget about it for awhile.
No need to really take everyone on a day by day description from that Friday I set my appointment until the day I would actually see the Doctor. I just went on my normal life, loving my wife and girls and working.