On the mend after surgery

[Onenutpete]

Hey guys and girls new to this forum but have been following avidly over the last three weeks (mods please move if I'm using the wrong forum)

Please allow me to take the story from the start and apologise from the off if I'm being too long. Almost three weeks ago I was very very clumsy at work and sat on chair full force and at a weird angle. Hence I sat on my left testicle and sort of gave myself a wedgie (ouch). I thought nothing of it at first and believed that the pain should subside after a few moments. However, the pain was still there after 4 days so on the 5th day I decided to go see a urologist. Had an ultrasound done on my left testicle and found that I have an inguinal hernia. The doctor then said why don't we check the right, sure why not. That's when his face changed and utter the dreaded words son (I'm 35) you have a tumour... Truth is it felt like someone hit me across the face with a shovel.

He quickly ordered me to have blood test, CT scan and MRI (all covered by my insurance). CT scan came out absolutely clean for any metastasis, the MRI which focused on the groin and testicular area confirmed the ultrasound and showed a tumour 2cm x 1cm localised only on the right testicle area. Blood tests according to the doctor where "perfect" AFP 2.06 LDH 177 CRP 2 eGFR 102.907 plus a perfect blood count.

Went to another doctor for a second opinion, who said exactly the same things. Hence scheduled an orchiectomy with the second doctor as well as surgery for the hernia at the same time 10 days later. This gave me enough time to do a sperm count and sperm banking.

Surgery was performed last Thursday and the doctor said that everything went very well. He didn't see anything to worry about, the lymph nodes were clean, nothing around the scrotum area and the tumour was just isolated on the testicle.

So here I am now 4 days later nursing two incisions and a brand new silicone testicle while waiting for biopsy results to come out hopefully today the latest tomorrow. Im not in almost any pain just feel some pulls and occasional dull aches. The groin area below the stitches towards the base of my penis is numb (normal I hope) while I'm trying to get used to living with a prosthetic testicle which feels a bit weird tbh. Oh yeah and life on the couch in mid summer is bloody boring. Thank God for good friends and family who are there for me and who entertain me... Couldn't hope for a bunch of better clowns.

Sorry if this is too long or in the wrong forum. Just needed to get all of this out and particularly to people who can understand what I'm talking about. Will update when I know the results. Hope everyone is well.

Pete

[mcintoda]

That's some luck to find TC by giving yourself a wedgie!
Hopefully the pathology will show good result!

Next up is to see an oncologist to discuss options of active surveillance or in higher risk cases some adjuvant treatment.

[Onenutpete]

Hey mcintoda thanks for the reply. Yeah, my friends are joking that one of all the gods of olympus are smiling favourably upon me (I'm Greek hence the joke). I mean what are the odds of giving yourself a wedgie!!!

In all honesty being a newbie I have no idea what a good pathology report should be... I'm guessing pure seminoma???

[mcintoda]

I'm half Greek. From Thessaloniki.

How old are you?

[Onenutpete]

I'm half Greek half Cypriot... Im 35

[Trekga]

Healing vibes. Let us know what path shows.

[Onenutpete]

Doctor (urologist) called so I only have the results verbally... Three tumours found on testicle

1) benign
2+3) 100% pure seminoma

Guess this is the best I could have hoped for in this bad situation.

Next stop another meeting with urologist to see how I'm healing after a week of surgery and then schedule meet with oncologist....

[Mike]

Do you know if they measured a beta-hCG as well? I am assuming that they have but didn't see your mention of it.

Mike

[Onenutpete]

Hey Mike,yes they did test for beta hcg. It's 0,0.

[Mike]

Hey Mike,yes they did test for beta hcg. It's 0,0.

Excellent. If you are considering adjuvant therapy for stage I seminoma (carboplatin chemotherapy or radiation therapy) then it may be worth looking at the size of the original tumor and if the rete testis area of the testicle was involved. This information should be in the pathology report. The data isn't perfect but the size of the tumor especially and perhaps rete testis involvement may be prognostic factors for relapse after the orchiectomy. The way I personally look at it is if the tumors were small and then rete testis area was not involved then I would feel at a really low risk for relapse. Even the information that had been published the risk of relapse isn't much more than 25% and that is for tumors of 8 cm. Here is an article that you can share with your doctor if they are not all that familiar https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/art...40004-0155.pdf Again, the prognostic data for relapse isn't great but in my mind having negative factors makes me even more comfortable that I would be at low risk. Many experts do not look at these factors at all.

Mike

[Onenutpete]

Hey Mike, thank you ever so much for the article and your opinion. I have meeting with the oncologist tomorrow and I will most definitely mention the above. The three tumours were 0.4cm 0.8cm and 1.3cm so they all fall way below 3cm cutoff point the article mentions.

To be honest I have been struggling with the issue like of what to do next. Seems to me that there is no right or wrong answer to this question. If as the article states the chances are so low for relapse with tumours so small how far down will adjuvant therapy bring this % or is it overkill?!

[Daniel_Eye]

Hi Pete

If you have the option of surveillance then you should do that. Don't do chemo or radiation unless you absolutely have to. I'm just out of chemo ~8weeks and I am still having trouble concentrasting, and may hair is still not fully grown in (on my head). You caught it early enough where the orchy probably took care of it all. The pain around the incision is normal and most of it will go away in a few weeks. You might feel some pain while urinating for a while though, especially if you have to hold it in for a longer period of time, say, riding in a car.

Best of luck,
Daniel