My Cancer Journey: Part 5

When we left off last time, the doctor had determined that he wanted me to get another ultrasound and some bloodwork done.

The night before Thanksgiving my wife and I went to the hospital to get the ultrasound done.

Given my fears about the previous ultrasound(covered in Part 1), my wife was joking with me about whether the technician would be a male or female and how attractive they would be.

I went to the counter and they asked what I was there for, I said: "I am here for an ultrasound... I hope it's a girl". The lady behind the counter laughed with me and that helped to ease my tension.

Sure enough, it was another young attractive lady doing the ultrasound. Once again she was very nice and professional though.

We let her know that we needed a copy of the disc from the ultrasound and she said we could pick it up at the records area of the hospital on Friday.

The ultrasound went fine, my wife found it fascinating to watch what was happening on the screen and what the technician was doing. We went home and had a very nice Thanksgiving with our families.

The Results: Sort of

Friday while most people were black Friday shopping, we drove over to the hospital and got my results from the records area. They came in a sealed envelope for me to give to the urologist. They were my personal records though, so my wife figured what would it hurt to read the results...

She opened the envelope and started reading. I was driving, so I couldn't look myself. Next thing I know, she has her phone out and she is searching for something. "Honey," I said, "what is going on?" She told me that she didn't understand all of it, but the word they were using was Neoplasm.

Silly us though, now we had to wait until the next Wednesday to go to the doctor and see what he had to say. Meanwhile, I had gotten my bloodwork done and we were just waiting for my appointment.

Today's take home:

I know I have said it before, but the waiting sucks. It really does, if you can find a way to keep yourself busy during the waiting, absolutely do it. If you have a loved one that is going through this. Try to be there during the waiting, it means the world.

We now had a pretty good idea that I had a tumor, we just didn't know yet if it was cancerous or not. It was finally time to tell our family so they could be prepared in case of the worst.

Like me, our family was scared and concerned. I was pretty calm through the whole thing until my young niece sent me a text wishing me well. I had a good cry, it was like all of the weight of worry and waiting had finally crushed me.

Official Results

The next Wednesday came and we went to the urologist. This was the first time my wife had met him, and like me, she approved of him immediately.

We gave him all of the results from the tests and he left to take a look at them. We sat there, waiting and wondering about what he might say when he came back. Finally, he did, and suddenly my life was permanently changed.

The tumor indicators in my blood that are supposed to be under .6 for a normal male were at 97. In addition to that, based on the results of the ultrasound he said, "it has to come out".

He said "usually I do surgeries on Monday's, but I know I am already full and I don't want to wait that long. I am going to try to get you in on Friday". We were shocked. That's only two days away, this must be really serious...

Through all of our discussion though, he never said the "C" word. I finally had to just outright ask him: "Is it cancer"?

"Yes, they will have to do pathology, but based on everything here, it absolutely is".

There you go, after all of this leadup, we finally have a diagnosis, but my journey is not over yet. Thanks for sticking with me as I laid the foundation for my story. In my next post I will pick up on the morning of my surgery.

Catch up on the past parts here:

My Cancer Journey: Part 1

My Cancer Journey: Part 2

My Cancer Journey: Part 3

My Cancer Journey: Part 4

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