Dear Testicular Cancer

One week later I was at the hospital. No food 12 hours and no drinking 6 hours before the operation (Orchiectomy).

7am: Admission to hospital
8am: Switching to hospital clothes
9am: Shaving all pubical hair
12am: Operation

I don’t recall the moment of waking up, but I felt relieved. The nurse said that everything went well. I carefully explored my genitals. One testicle only. It felt a little numb on the right side around the groins and in the leg.

A couple of hours later the doctor came by and said it was indeed a seminoma as expected. He asked whether I was ok with the look of the scrotum like this or whether I’d wanted an artificial replacement for the right testicle? I decided against it because I thought it didn’t look too strange and I have heard about possible sideffects of implants in general:

“[...] The artificial testicle has no function and there have been concerns with some of the artificial testicles made of silicone (because the silicone may leak from the testicle into the rest of the body). [...]“

But yes by now it honestly is hard to tell how many balls are floating around in that little sack. I am definitely not worried about the look at this point.

The first couple of nights past the operation were a little painful, nothing major though. Most of the pain was caused by laughing or caughing. I took painkillers for about a week. I was able to walk again after 2 days. The third day I was released from the hospital.

Tags: cancer, groins, needle, operation, orchiectomy, pain, preparing for operation, testicle, testicular cancer

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 23rd, 2006 at 1:05 am and is filed under My Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.