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That time I had ball cancer – Part IV

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Surgery is done. Recovery from the surgery is mostly over. I am walking normal and have a nice scar to show. My wife was my personal nurse and dammit, she did a great job. Now for the fun part: treatment.

I met with the first of two Oncologists at a radiation/oncology office. Dr. Metz was nice. He came in and gave me, my wife and my mom the treatment options, numbers and all of the other information we questioned about or he had to give. We listened as he gave us all the options. He was however very focused on going the radiation route and with his numbers he gave us Denise and I thought we should go that route.

My mother however wasn’t impressed with the doctor. She thought he was a bit “unprepared”. We did ask him some questions that normal cancer patient didnt ask and he had to go find the information so my wife and I weren’t too phased by that. He did however give us information on chemotherapy but he wasn’t very detailed on it since he doesn’t give that type of treatment so we decided to go with radiation instead of chemo. Our main worry was anything that had to do with my being infertile after the radiation and chemo. Dr. Metz only knew the numbers and stats for radiation and they were so minimal that we just said we wouldn’t even deal with chemo.

The day after our appointment with Dr. Metz I got a call from the Hematology/Oncology clinic. They called to schedule an appointment with me. I had no idea that I was to meet with them but it turns out that my Urologist/Surgeon had set up the appointment so I could hear all my options for treatment. We obliged and had our appointment with the other oncologist Dr. Dibb and listened to what he had to say.Dr. Dibb was great. He was an elderly man, 50 or so and VERY schooled in the art of “the sell”. He came in and broke it down to us. He told us all about the chemotherapy and what to expect and all the side effects. He had charts, papers, research studies all printed out and ready for us to take home and read.

The thing that was different was when I asked him what he would do in my situation. See, doctors are just suppose to give options. Reason for this is all the malpractice suits and so forth. So they end up just giving options and letting the patient decide. Dr. Dibb was not that type of doctor. I sensed a “confident” attitude coming from him. It wasn’t that type of “I’m the shit, I know what I am talking about” kind of persona but that he was confident in the advice he was giving cause he had been doing it for years and probably had great results with patients that had taken his advice. He told us that the chemotherapy would be a “slam dunk” and not have any of the side affects that the radiation therapy would have.

He said we could go home and think it over and make our decision when we wanted but to also remember the sooner we made a decision the sooner I would be beating this cancer.

We left and went and had some breakfast at Black Bear. As we sat and waited for our Denver omlet and chicken strips we talked about the treatment. Well, it wasn’t really much of a talk it was me saying I am in favor of chemotherapy and Denise agreeing. That was that.

I went home later that afternoon and told the doctors office that we wanted to go with chemotherapy and they made my first appointment, December 1st. Exactly one month after I had been diagnosed with cancer.

So that brings us to today, November 30th, the day before I start my treatment. I am nervous, excited, scared and just lost. Nervous cause I don’t know what the hell to expect. Excited to get the treatment started and one step closer to being cancer free. Scared and lost mainly because of the unknowing of what is going to happen when this drug is inside me and working its magic.

I am ready. I am ready to get this started. I am ready to begin something new. I feel that I have been given a second chance at life and I am going to take that opportunity and make the most of it I can.

I will be updating about the chemotherapy. Might even take a few videos while I am getting treatment. Hell, you might even see some photos of me with no hair, if I lose it. We shall just see.

Too be continued….

Posted in About Me, Ball Cancer, Denise, Life | 3 Comments »

That time I had ball cancer – Part III

Friday, November 20th, 2009

The day of the surgery.

I wasn’t really that nervous. I knew what needed to be done and that was having my left nut removed. Period.

Denise and I walked into the hospital, filled out some paperwork and then they took me back to my room. They took my blood pressure and then did some blood work. The normal stuff they do before any surgery. It was warm in my room, thank God. There is nothing worse than having to be in a room, waiting for surgery and then have the room be cold.

Denise and I joked around, chatted. It was nice. We were in good spirits and knew that what I was doing was getting me on the road to beating the cancer. They put me in these WEIRD stocking kind of things but DAMN did they make my legs warm. I also got a pair of those socks that have little sticky traction treads on the bottom of them. Still have em. They are totally awesome.

Anyways, Dr. Martin came in the room and marked on my left leg with a big “X” to make sure he operated on the right side. I always find that funny that doctors and nurses have to do that but hey, don’t want them taking the wrong nut now do we? The nurse came back and said it was time. I kissed my wife and told her I loved her. I also gave my mom a hug and told her the same. They wheeled me back to the room and man operating rooms dont look like they do in the movies or on tv. But, when I got in the room I commented on the music and the nurse said that she could play something that I liked if I wanted. I told her very nicely that I doubt she would have any music that I like. She then said she had Metallica’s “Master of Puppets”. I gave her a look that made her happy and she put the CD in. I lay there on the table, with IV’s in me and started to drift off to Master of Puppets. Man, it was great.

I woke up and felt fine, minus the pain in my groin. I didn’t want to see the incision. I personally don’t like “fresh” incisions. It’s been almost three weeks and I can look at it and it’s no problem. But for some reason, I couldn’t look at it that day without getting sad. I think it was the fact that I lost my buddy that use to be on the left side of me down there. Anyways, the doctor came by, told me the surgery went great and that they sent the testicle to have pathology run on it and that he would see me on Friday for the results.

I spent about an hour in recovery and then decided it was time to take my first pee after the surgery. I have never had so many nurses walk 10 feet with me. I was able to pee and that was like the sign that I could go home. They brought in a wheelchair and took me to the front door. Denise picked me up and helped me in the car and took me home. She then told me that she had bought me “G.I. Joe” on Blu-Ray to watch and it made me so happy. Not cause I had the movie but she knew that I said something about renting it and knew that I wanted to see and she just went out and got it for me. This was the beginning of her campaign trail for the office of “Best Wife Ever”.

I got home and was still out of it. I went straight to bed after popping a few pain pills and I was out COLD.

When I woke up it was like 5 in the evening. I came and laid on the couch and we watched some Chelsea Lately. If you have never seen the show, it’s on E! every night and is flipping hilarious. While we were watching TV my friend Devin came by bringing both of us dinner. Carl’s Jr. had never tasted so good. I showed Devin my incision and then he left. I ate my food with my wife and then felt the need to go back to bed. Denise helped me back to the room and again I was out cold. I think I woke up twice that night to use the bathroom and felt awful cause every time I got up it woke her up. But, I guess it was for the best. Cause I was still learning how to get out of bed and she was there to help me out.

That’s the first day after the surgery. It just went uphill from here.

In the next entry I am going to tell you about the pathology results.

Too be continued….

Posted in About Me, Ball Cancer, Life | 3 Comments »

Don’t read this…you’ll be spoiled

Friday, October 9th, 2009

Well, I am not really going to “spoil” anything. But do any of you have those friends that do this:

Hey…don’t post anything on Twitter or Facebook about (insert show here), I am DVR’ing it and don’t want to have it ruined.

Sounds good. I won’t post anything on my Twitter or Faceb…wait a second…what?~! I can’t update my Twitter or Facebook because YOU don’t want to be spoiled and have the show ruined? Listen, I am sorry that you are not able to view at the same time as all of us. I know it must just suck. I have shows myself that I feel the same way about.

But guess what…I have a secret for you…I AM NOT GOING TO PUT MY LIFE ON HOLD CAUSE YOU DON’T WANT TO HAVE YOUR SHOW RUINED FOR YOU!!

Really? I can’t update or use something that is PUBLIC DOMAIN cause you don’t want to be spoiled. Wow, let’s all just put our lives on hold until you catch up with the rest of us.

GIVE. ME. A. BREAK.

Oh and those of you that live on the West Coast and don’t want to have the people on the East Coast post on Twitter and FB cause you don’t want the show ruined…give it a break.

I have the solution to this problem. Seriously, it’s a great solution and it works BOTH for the DVR people and the West Coasters. Wanna hear it? Okay, here it is:

DON’T CHECK TWITTER AND FACEBOOK!

How about you have a little restraint and don’t let Twitter and Facebook run your lives? I say you give it a try.

Did he just tell me to NOT check Twitter and Facebook for a whole evening? Is he crazy?

Maybe I am a little crazy and SOMETIMES I may listen to the voices in my head but plan for solving this problem is SOUNDPROOF! IT WILL WORK! Try it!

Trust me!

In the end it just shows that we all depend on Facebook and Twitter if we are having to say on Facebook and Twitter about how we don’t want people to update their Facebook and Twitter cause WE don’t want to have a TV show spoiled.

Get over yourself. It’s a damn TV show.

P.S. This entry is three hours old and the people on the East Coast have already tweeted the HELL outta it.

Posted in Funny As Hell!, Life, Rants | 2 Comments »

Follow up….

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

I wrote a blog about Health Care the other day. I also saw my article transform during the two days of writing it. With this post I got a lot of comments with people agreeing and disagreeing. Great, but that is not what this post is about.

I made a huge mistake with the Health Care post. I shared personal and private information about a person. I used them as an example without their permission. I didn’t know 100% of the actual information that I wrote about and that got me in some hot water.

Now, I know you are all saying that in blogging you are not going to make everyone happy. That is not what I am addressing. I am trying to point out that as bloggers, writers or just people who wanna vent on their blogs, we have the task in front of us that we need to be respectful to those that are mentioned in our blogs.

Yes, I was voicing my opinions. For anyone that knows me, you all know that I am very opinionated when it comes to things. However, that does not give me a right to post personal and private information about a someone or something that I don’t have the permission or right to post.

I am not going to quit blogging. I love doing it. But, I am going to be watching a bit of what I write so that this does not happen again.

To the person that was referenced in the blog post: I am sorry. I messed up. I had no right to share your personal information. Yes, I should have written a different way and or created a ficticious story or something to prove my point. You are someone that I hold in high regard and always have. I do sincerely apologize for what I wrote.

Posted in Conversations, Life, Politics | 3 Comments »

You asked…now receive!

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

I had some really good questions come in and I here I go!  I am going to answer some of them.  I hope these answers give you a bit more insight into what I am like.

You recently turned 30. Are you where you thought you would be? (Denise)

Are we ever where we want to be?  I would have to say that I am right where I am suppose to be.  My life has been a crazy journey.  I have lived so many different places and it’s been a great ride.  I do have to say that I love where I am.  If any small thing in my past would have been different I wouldn’t be where I am right now.  I am so happy to be married to my best friend.  I wouldn’t change anything in my past because then I wouldn’t get to be with Denise every night when I lay my head down to go to sleep……and rub her hair to help her fall asleep.

How are you feeling about really being an adult?  Considering not only yourself–but another person….and future children? (Crystal F.)

I feel good about it.  It’s a LOT different from my days of living at “The Boys” house.  I am more focused on my future.  I don’t look at things from the view of “how will this affect me?” but I now have someone else that I consider when making ANY decision.  I seriously mean EVERY decision.

The kids subject is something that flies around our house.  It mostly consists of my wife and I saying “I can’t wait to have kids with you” and then we smile and stare at each other and then hug.  Yeah, I also just threw up a little in my own mouth.  But, it’s something we have considered.  We even have some names picked out but we won’t tell anyone cause we don’t want them to steal our names.  They are pretty damn good.

What about married life? Best time/worse time. Conflicts/Resolutions? (Dana P.)

Well, like every married couple we have fights, disagreements, conflicts and that is only natural.  We have had some big fights (which I will divulge) but I will tell you this……the best thing about some fights is the WHOOPIE that you get to have afterwards.

Why is your friend Lauren so AWESOME?  (Lauren G.)

Lauren is AWESOME cause she loves LOST!  That’s the only reason.

Nah, seriously she loves the same shows as me and my wife.  Her husband (Hi Gibby!) also likes the same shows as us so we can talk to them about this.  I have only met Lauren and Gibby in person once and damn I wish we lived closer.  The main thing that is great about Lauren is she is a listener.  She someone great to talk to.  I feel that when you are on the phone with her just talking she is actually listening.  That is something that not everyone has.  My wife has that too but if I can’t get ahold of her I know who I can call that’s for sure.

Hope you all like the answers.   If you have any other questions, feel free to comment and I will get to them.

Posted in About Me, Life | 4 Comments »

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