hi every body ,
i am new to this site and i have never written a blog before but i thought why not,so here goes.
The first time that i heard the word cancer (or paid attention to it)was 8 years ago as i was sitting in the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford patiently waiting for the oncologist to step in the room,apologise,and tell me that he had made a big mistake with my diagnosis.I was 27 years old and i had moved to Oxford from scotland to work as a kitchen manager i worked long hours, was out every night after work and just basically living life.i had noticed some lumps on my neck (which the first doctor diagnosed as glandular fever) and my lower back was quite painful which i just put down to working extremely long hours.after the lumps not reducing and another few trips to the doctors they sent me to the hospital for a biopsy.
The oncologist entered the room and with a solemn voice informed me that i had testicular cancer,just like that my life changed,but it still didn't hit me i think i just pretended not to hear him for a while.
i remember the oncologist talking to me in the background as i was just staring out the window wishing that i could be the man that i saw walking his dog or even the elderly man sitting on a park bench,anyone other than me.I cant remember to this day the stage or type on tumour it was but i know that it had spread obviously due to the lumps on my neck.
Anyway my life in Oxford was over as i couldn't' stay off work even for a few weeks and pay bills and rent and i didn't really know about benefits as id always worked and i didnt think of any other options at the time so with a heavy heart and leaving loved ones and friends behind i moved back to Aberdeen,scotland to live with my dad for a while as i prepared myself for three cycles of chemotherapy. i started the chemotherapy and to be fair i was feeling good i lost my hair but that was nothing,and that was it until the last week of chemotherapy when i suffered a heart attack.
now this wasn't the pain in the arm fall down type of heart attack,i had pains for about two weeks in my chest,my arms,my lower jaw and my neck and i just thought it was a side effect of the chemo and/or the drugs that i had to take,silly me!!In fact the only thing that made me go to the hospital was that another young patient in the same ward as me had taken a stroke a week before and i thought i better get this checked out.i was told that i was suffering a rather large heart attack so i was hooked up to morphine and taken to surgery to remove a clot in one of my artery's i then had a stent put in to my artery to keep it open.
my last week of chemo was in jeopordy as it was determined that the chemo had caused this attack,but i got to complete the cycle which was good as the chemo had been working there were no more lumps in my neck and my back felt so good.basically i was ok so i set off to rebuild my life with aftercare and checks from the hospital.
So,five years had almost past ,i was thirty two years old and i know had a girlfriend and two young children reaching five years with no recurrence of cancer is quite a good achievement or at least the first good step to leaving it behind.
Well wouldn't you know it two weeks from my five year mark i found a lump in my right testicle.
My heart just sunk even more than the first time as i now had two young children,a family.i didn't have to wait until i saw the doctor because i knew that the cancer had returned.My doctor confirmed this and i was told that the best option for me would be removal of the testicle which was fine as i just wanted the whole situation dealt with as i didn't want my life or the life of my family turned upside down.
i had the operation it took time to heal and recover,we had decided to move to Glasgow as my girlfriends family lived close to glasgow in ayrshire and we felt that it would be good for the children.In glasgow following my operation i was told that i was to have radiotherapy as a preventive measure to decrease the chances of the cancer returning.i had the radiotherapy with no side effects(again i was lucky)and i started to go back to work and live life.
A year later we had our third child which was a miracle as the doctors had said there would be a slim to none chance of fathering any more children after the radiotherapy,it just goes to show that any thing is possible.
So lets get up to date i am now thirty five years old and i am studying for a HND in software development before moving on to university to hopefully gain a degree in computer science,and guess what i had cancer yet again,this time in the left testicle which had to be removed so i am now on HRT forever and next week i am starting preventive chemo to lower the chances of the cancer coming back again but surely the cancer is running out of places to go because i would think that it would be anatomically impossible to have testicular cancer again ,so what next.
I would love to hear from anybody in the same situation or any situation that want to talk about things as just writing this blog has made me feel good as its the first time i have told my whole story,whilst slightly edited,to anybody
so yeah,be well
