Diagnosed with testicular cancer : ( [View All]

[Ninjaneer]

Hi all,

so I don't really post here in the lounge much but I'm really hoping for some words of encouragement and support. You already know the punchline to the story but...

Yesterday, I got home from work and was taking a shower when I noticed my left testicle was super swollen. I freaked out and went to the emergency room in my city (I live in Tooele, Utah). Only a PA was on staff and he referred me to the Utah University of Medicine emergency room. They asked me how long its been like this, I told them a few hours. They did a sonogram and said the growth had to have been growing for months or weeks.

The sonogram didn't show that its spread to my stomach or anything. They did an xray of my chest too. They're going to do a CT scan this upcoming week and I have to make an appointment with an Urologist and go from there. Surgery is for sure and I guess if it works out I can still have kids and stuff someday. They told me its a VERY small chance of it not being cancer (10%) but the doc also told me that based on his 20 years of experience, it was cancer. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and all that. They said they're treating it like cancer.

I literally don't know a single person out here in Utah. Actually I met this girl and we've been dating for a short while. When I told her last night she broke down and told me that her last bf died of cancer (surprised the hell out of me) and that she hated herself for it but she couldn't walk down this road again. She's a doctor in training so she was around the area. Funny thing is the whole time they were telling me that I have cancer, all I could think was that I wouldn't be able to take her out this weekend like I planned. I asked her for a raincheck on our relationship as I am head over heels for this girl (apparently).

Ah, but thats neither here nor there.

I'm 22 by the way, super healthy. I'm just in shock. I just started work out here 2 weeks ago. I'm so worried about how all that is going to work out. I'm really terrified. I haven't told my mom or anyone other than 3 close friends who live back in Michigan. I hope I can keep working through this as my health insurance is through my work...although since I've been there for 2 weeks only I don't know what their time off policy will be : (

Any advice regarding how to handle this or how long this sort of thing usually takes to get over or what my chances or just words of encouragement or anything would be really helpful and appreciated. I found out less than 12 hours ago and I'm still feeling really lost.

Thanks in advance