My Cancer Journey: Part 3

When we last left off, I had just been to the doctor after getting the results of my ultrasound. You can read about it here, but long-story-short, they determined it was just an infection.

This brings me to the first take away for today(that was quick right?): Never be afraid to get a second opinion. Especially if you have insurance that lets you see a specialist without a referral.

Two of the biggest kinds of insurance where I live are HMO and PPO. PPO allows you to see a specialist if they are in your network, while HMO's require you to get a referral from your primary care physician(PCP). That is the way I understand it anyway. We have PPO.

I took the antibiotics I was prescribed and went about my life. I was fully aware that things weren't appearing to get better, but I did what the doctor said right? Took the meds, everything should be fine...

Fast forward the story to October of last year

It was now about 3 months later and in the back of my head, I knew things still weren't normal. My right testicle (sorry, I am going to have to set modesty aside for the rest of the series) was still very large compared to my left and still felt very bumpy.

Second take away for the day, but I brought this up in Part 1, you have to be checking your body people(or have your partner check your body). Keep an eye out for things that don't feel or look right. That nagging in the back of my head was all but confirmed when I got out of the shower one morning and my wife said "baby, that isn't normal".

Great words to hear from your partner as you are standing there naked! I knew she was right though, so I contacted our family doctor(PCP) again and asked for a follow-up appointment.

The day of my appointment arrived and I went to the doctor. As you will see with many of my appointments, because of my job, it was an afternoon appointment. That gave me all day to be nervous and worried about what was going to happen.

I went back to the exam room and soon the doctor arrived. I knew it was coming, but sure enough, she wanted to take a look. My wife wasn't with me this time, so I shyly disrobed and let her examine me. She is a great doctor, but I really think she had no clue, so she did what I should have done back in July. She referred me to a urologist.

It turned out though there had been a recent shake-up in the staffing at the hospital my doctor was affiliated with and many of the urologists had left, so they were going to refer me to a urologist in one of two towns that were a short distance away. The doctor said they would set everything up and all I had to do was wait for the urologist to call and tell me the appointment time.

Great! More waiting! That is what I did though, settled in for the wait...

Thanks for coming back to check up on my progress. If you are a first time reader, welcome! If you want to get caught up on my story from the beginning, use the links throughout this post. Make sure you come back at the beginning of next week for the next part of my journey.

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