C62.9

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For those that don’t know, C62.9 is a medical ICD-10 diagnosis code for “Malignant neoplasm of testis” – or more commonly known as testicular cancer. According to sources, it is the most common cancer in 20 to 35 year old men.

This post is not a sob story of mine. I am not looking for pity or sympathy but rather looking to encourage other men out there to do their part in early detection of this disease. If it is found early and treated, it is not life threatening or even really life changing. 2 years down the line since I was diagnosed and treated, I live a totally normal family life and only my operation scar reminds me of that time.

My Story

As most men do, the 35 year old me was stretching and going through my morning rituals I noticed an unusual lump on my testicle. Instinctively I knew that something was not right and that I needed to get it checked out. But who should I see? I have a female doctor and I was not sure that I wanted her examining me. I realised that my best course of action would be to tell my wife – surely she would know what to do.

The doctors

I landed up in my GP’s office for a consultation and she quickly referred me for an ultrasound on the offending area. The doctor that did the report on the ultrasound outcome then referred me to a urologist. In the space of 4 days of seeing my GP I was sitting in the urologists rooms planning a surgery to remove the suspicious testicle.

To be honest, the whole sequence of events happened so quickly that I did not have time to digest what was going on. Maybe that was for the best? At that stage I still did not know if I had cancer or not, they would only be able to tell me once the had the results from the lab after the surgery.

Hospital

The operation that I had is called a radical inguinal orchiectomy. I won’t go into all the gory details here but you can read a bit more about the operation here if you like. Ultimately it was not such a big deal but it was my first time going under a general anesthetic.

That same evening my urologist informed me that I did indeed have testicular cancer but that it was only stage 1 and we had managed to catch it very early.

Oncology

My first visit to my oncologist after my operation involved a CT scan to make sure that all the cancer was gone and that it had not spread further. Because I had caught it early, I was given the all clear and did not need any chemotherapy or radiation treatment. Nowadays I see him every 2 months and have regular blood tests and CT scans to make sure there is no recurrence.

2 years on from my operation and it has no impact on my life. In fact, having 1 testicle has become a bit of a joke for me. I guess hat is how I deal with things like that...make a joke out of them. I tell my running buddies that I am at an advantage and that I chafe less!

Once again, my story is here just to encourage other guys of all ages out there to either check themselves or go and get yourselves checked out. Wives and girlfriends should be encouraging their partners to do so. The process is really painless and simple and early detection really will save your life as it did mine.

It seems as though since I have been through all of this, I have realised how many people's lives have been impacted by cancer and how myself and my family are the lucky ones.

Some useful info

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