I want to mention and thank one of my good friends who came to town on Monday to play golf with me. It was the most FUN I've had since this whole ordeal began. He will remain nameless because he was supposed to be working and I don't want him to get any grief for it.....He took the photo that I have posted on this BLOG.
I also played GREAT and totally kicked his a** too!!!!!
He and Don Fletcher took me to dinner afterwards to complete a great day!!!!! Thanks guys!!!!
I'll briefly state that we played again on Tuesday (who needs to work these days anyways) and the results weren't so good for me..... I'm going to stay positive and just remember Monday's round.
I'm hoping to get another round of golf in while I'm in Cleveland before I begin the next phase of treatment, but I'm not confident the weather will allow it. It is C-L-E-V-E-L-A-N-D after all...
Thursday, October 30, 2008
off to Cleveland - 10/30/2008
I am headed to Cleveland tomorrow. I have appts at the Clinic on Monday with a surgeon and an oncologist. I will decide between surgery and chemo on Monday. Hopefully, I will get started sometime next week.
I will be staying with my parents at 33108 Tanager Court, North Ridgeville, Ohio 44039. My parents (Ron & Marilyn) can be reached at home at 440.625.1223 and via cell at 440.227.3019.
I'll have someone in my family update this BLOG while I am severly drugged out to keep everyone informed.....
Your thoughts and prayers are much appreciated.
Best regards,
Ron
I will be staying with my parents at 33108 Tanager Court, North Ridgeville, Ohio 44039. My parents (Ron & Marilyn) can be reached at home at 440.625.1223 and via cell at 440.227.3019.
I'll have someone in my family update this BLOG while I am severly drugged out to keep everyone informed.....
Your thoughts and prayers are much appreciated.
Best regards,
Ron
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Cleveland Clinic.....
Fortunately, my brother-in-law, Jon (married to my sister - Michele) works at The Cleveland Clinic. The Clinic is the #2 hospital in the USA....
Jon has been great and has spoken with colleagues about my condition and pulled strings to get me an appointment with the best docs.
Even though USCF has some of the best cancer facilities also, I feel that I will receive better care at the Clinic. It also makes more sense to be treated there since I have family that can care for me and transport me to my multiple appts, lab tests, CT scans, etc....
The docs at UCSF are recommending Chemo and the docs at the Clinic are recommending surgery.......
I'm still undecided but leaning towards surgery....
Jon has been great and has spoken with colleagues about my condition and pulled strings to get me an appointment with the best docs.
Even though USCF has some of the best cancer facilities also, I feel that I will receive better care at the Clinic. It also makes more sense to be treated there since I have family that can care for me and transport me to my multiple appts, lab tests, CT scans, etc....
The docs at UCSF are recommending Chemo and the docs at the Clinic are recommending surgery.......
I'm still undecided but leaning towards surgery....
CT Scan results - 10/20/2008
Results - not so good.....
They found cancer in 2 lymph nodes.....small but still there....
I have to decide between surgery or 9 weeks of chemotherapy......
They found cancer in 2 lymph nodes.....small but still there....
I have to decide between surgery or 9 weeks of chemotherapy......
CT Scan 10/15/2008
More tests......at this point, I'm confident I can start my own IV. After a couple of attempts, I have another needle in my arm for the dye (oops, we can say "dye" because it sounds like "die" so we use the word "contrast.")
I have more funny stories about the nurse - Bobbie, and the technician (don't remember his name) but I will keep this brief....
CT Scan, blood tests, blah blah blah....wait for the results....
I have more funny stories about the nurse - Bobbie, and the technician (don't remember his name) but I will keep this brief....
CT Scan, blood tests, blah blah blah....wait for the results....
test results 10/10/2008
The verdict is in and it's not that great......
I had a mixed germ cell tumor consisting of seminoma and embryonal carcinoma.....
Seminoma = good
embryonal carcinoma = bad
If it would have been all seminoma, I could have had 2 weeks of radiation and been done. The side effects would have been minimal (sunburnt balls, fatigue) not too bad....
embryonal carcinoma = RPLND (retroperitoneal lymph node dissection) and/or Chemotherapy
I asked for another option since neither one sounded good to me, but those are the only two available.....
I now need a CT Scan of my chest, abdomen, and pelvis......more waiting.....
I had a mixed germ cell tumor consisting of seminoma and embryonal carcinoma.....
Seminoma = good
embryonal carcinoma = bad
If it would have been all seminoma, I could have had 2 weeks of radiation and been done. The side effects would have been minimal (sunburnt balls, fatigue) not too bad....
embryonal carcinoma = RPLND (retroperitoneal lymph node dissection) and/or Chemotherapy
I asked for another option since neither one sounded good to me, but those are the only two available.....
I now need a CT Scan of my chest, abdomen, and pelvis......more waiting.....
waiting game begins.....
Vicodin is worthless......My balls still have the sledgehammer effect and now my abs feel like my insides are pushing their way out....Next time, I better get something stronger that this whimpy drug....
I now have the pleasure of spending the next 2 weeks recovering and WAITING for the pathology results from my tumor.....
More Waiting......
I now have the pleasure of spending the next 2 weeks recovering and WAITING for the pathology results from my tumor.....
More Waiting......
chopping off my left nut - 10/01/2008
Fun times ahead.... after not eating anything since Midnight the night before (by the way, I did have my "Last Supper" at the usual joint - Town Hall but only had 1 or 2 cocktails) I headed off to the Hospital.....
Deanna (my girlfriend for those of you who don't know) was a trooper. She drove me to the hospital and stayed with me until I left for surgery. I was less than impressed with the Hospital and staff for too many reasons to list now, but I do have some funny stories to tell about it....
I sat and waited for 2+ hours contemplating about what was about to be cut off..... By the way, even though the nurse had stuck a LARGE needle in my arm, I was given NO DRUGS to calm my nerves or keep my sanity.....Next time - I'm going to request large volumes of drugs.....
The next few hours are gone, but I woke up in the recovery room with a large bandage on my lower abdomen....Of course, the first thing I did was to chek out the new addition and to make sure they didn't cut off the wrong one and all of that...
I was the proud new owner of a fake left testicle!!!!!! The right one seemed fine. It did feel like someone hit me in the balls with a sledge-hammer though. OUCH!!!!!!
I was H-U-N-G-R-Y!!!!! The nurse gave me some crackers and juice, but I wanted more than that.....
They called Deanna (who was shopping or something....just kidding, she was tutoring...)
I was supposed to stay the night in the hospital, but they asked me if I felt well enough to go home. Dumb question - of course if given the choice, I'm going home!!!!
Deanna drove me home and with some help from my buddy Christian, got me up to my couch. She then cooked me a giant portion of chicken and rice. I felt much better (with the exception of the sledge-hammer effect.....)
Deanna (my girlfriend for those of you who don't know) was a trooper. She drove me to the hospital and stayed with me until I left for surgery. I was less than impressed with the Hospital and staff for too many reasons to list now, but I do have some funny stories to tell about it....
I sat and waited for 2+ hours contemplating about what was about to be cut off..... By the way, even though the nurse had stuck a LARGE needle in my arm, I was given NO DRUGS to calm my nerves or keep my sanity.....Next time - I'm going to request large volumes of drugs.....
The next few hours are gone, but I woke up in the recovery room with a large bandage on my lower abdomen....Of course, the first thing I did was to chek out the new addition and to make sure they didn't cut off the wrong one and all of that...
I was the proud new owner of a fake left testicle!!!!!! The right one seemed fine. It did feel like someone hit me in the balls with a sledge-hammer though. OUCH!!!!!!
I was H-U-N-G-R-Y!!!!! The nurse gave me some crackers and juice, but I wanted more than that.....
They called Deanna (who was shopping or something....just kidding, she was tutoring...)
I was supposed to stay the night in the hospital, but they asked me if I felt well enough to go home. Dumb question - of course if given the choice, I'm going home!!!!
Deanna drove me home and with some help from my buddy Christian, got me up to my couch. She then cooked me a giant portion of chicken and rice. I felt much better (with the exception of the sledge-hammer effect.....)
more history - 9/29/2008
8:15 AM - Urologist's office
I was felt up again by another Doc and he also used words such as "suspicious" and "mass" but never uttered the "C" word.
My tumor markers indicated everything was not well with the boys and I needed to have a "radical inguinal orchiectomy." That means to cut open my abdomen, pull my nuts out, and chop off the cancerous one. I also chose to have a fake ball put in so I wasn't lop-sided down there. I asked to have an extra large one put in so I leaned to the Left during my golf swing to create a natural fade (as opposed to my normal weak slice.....)
Surgery was scheduled for 10/1/2008 at 4:00 PM PST
I was felt up again by another Doc and he also used words such as "suspicious" and "mass" but never uttered the "C" word.
My tumor markers indicated everything was not well with the boys and I needed to have a "radical inguinal orchiectomy." That means to cut open my abdomen, pull my nuts out, and chop off the cancerous one. I also chose to have a fake ball put in so I wasn't lop-sided down there. I asked to have an extra large one put in so I leaned to the Left during my golf swing to create a natural fade (as opposed to my normal weak slice.....)
Surgery was scheduled for 10/1/2008 at 4:00 PM PST
a little history (so I don't have to keep repeating the story) - 9/26/2008
I had a condition known as "varicose veins" in my left testicle (also referred to as "ball" or "nut" in my vocabulary) ever since Jr. High School. I checked my balls frequently through Jr High (many times a day) and almost as frequently thereafter (ha ha ha.)
A couple of months ago, I noticed a change..... The "veins" seemed to disappear and replaced by some sort of "mass." I experienced a slight bit of pain in my nut and lower abdomen and figured I better get it checked out by a doctor. My thoughts were that you don't want to mess around with something as important as your balls...
Sure enough, after my Doc felt me up, I was sent for blood tests and an ultrasound.
After having some sort of heated goo squirted all over my boys (it was pretty neat by the way - I may have to get one of those heated goo machines for later use,) it was confirmed that something was wrong. I was immediately sent back to my Doc.
It's funny that no-one has used the word "Cancer." My Doc told me that it was highly supicious and that I needed to see a Urologist and get a blood test to evaluate three key "tumor makers."
I knew it was bad when he personally called the Urologist on his cell phone and made an appt for me the following Mon at 8:15 AM. He also sent me for the blood tests immediately...
A couple of months ago, I noticed a change..... The "veins" seemed to disappear and replaced by some sort of "mass." I experienced a slight bit of pain in my nut and lower abdomen and figured I better get it checked out by a doctor. My thoughts were that you don't want to mess around with something as important as your balls...
Sure enough, after my Doc felt me up, I was sent for blood tests and an ultrasound.
After having some sort of heated goo squirted all over my boys (it was pretty neat by the way - I may have to get one of those heated goo machines for later use,) it was confirmed that something was wrong. I was immediately sent back to my Doc.
It's funny that no-one has used the word "Cancer." My Doc told me that it was highly supicious and that I needed to see a Urologist and get a blood test to evaluate three key "tumor makers."
I knew it was bad when he personally called the Urologist on his cell phone and made an appt for me the following Mon at 8:15 AM. He also sent me for the blood tests immediately...
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