Surgery and PET/CT results

Okie dokie. We had Noelle's parents come in town today to help out and make life easier for the both of us.  It's good to have family here and fun to talk about things other than surgery or cancer.  Typically its the very end of the season for wakeboarding but the best time to ride.  The weather has been consistantly in the 80s and sunny, which is very unusual up here, and has been tormenting me since the day I had surgery 10 days ago.  I offered my services as camera man while some friends rode on Wednesday and we'll get to hang out on Lake Coeur d'Alene tomorrow.  It's nice to be occupied with something fun for a few days.

Surgery was a success.  I figured I will give a brief description of surgery just so those who don't know can learn more about it.  Its called a Radical Orchiectomy and involves approximately a 3" incision in my lower abdomen.  From that incision the spermatic cord is cut and the entire testicle is removed completely intact.  That way, there is no way for tumor cells to be left behind.  They can't do a biopsy of a testicular tumor and they can't cut a testicular tumor out.  Everything comes out.  Yes, I've lived with one boy for 6 years and now the boys are gone forever :( 

I'm still not sure exactely what to think or how to feel about this at the moment but in reality I'm not that upset.  Having a wife who couldn't care less and loves me for me is the biggest reason for that.  Love you sweetie!  I will have 2 absolutely gorgeous little girls and will likely have more in the future, thanks sperm bank in Tomball, TX!!!  I will never have to endure the pain of getting "racked" ever again!  Take that all you guys out there....  And go ahead and try to laugh and make fun of me for having no balls (even though I know you wouldn't), I'm still bigger than you and I can still do backflips on a wakeboard... Can you do that?

The pathology report told us what we had feared, that I once again had malignant tumors growing in my testicle.  For those interested, there are two types of tumor: seminoma and non-seminoma.  Seminoma's are essentially benign and are 100% curable.  My tumor was a non-seminoma mixed germ cell tumor.  That means there were at least 3 different cell types: 40% Embryonal Carcinoma, 30% yolk sac tumor and 30% Teratoma.  The primary concern is the Embryonal Carcinoma.  Thankfully, chemotherapy is extremely effective against all these cell types.  All of the tumor was contained within the testicle itself, no tumor on the epidimus and no tumor on cord (which is good). 

The day after my surgery I went in for the PET/CT scan.  This is really cool technology, I love this stuff.  They injected me with radioactive isotopes attached to sugar molecules.  The sugar molecules and the radioactivity will be highest in your brain, your heart and in cancer cells.  Even at rest, cancer cells are burning through energy (sugar) at a very high rate.  So, you then scan the body for radioactivity and match that picture up with a CT image taken at exactely the same time and you see if you have cancer cells. Very cool.  What's not cool is trying to lay perfectly still for 30 minutes on a flat board with my arms above my head while they did the scan.

The good news... The 1cm spot in my lower right lung is active but only marginally.  It could be cancer but its not definately cancer.  The only way to tell is to have surgery to either biopsy or extract it from my lung.  Then they can do a pathology report and see what it is.  Also, there was no activity whatsoever in any lymph node in my abdomen or pelvis.  Typically if the cancer has metastasized it will go to these lymph nodes 1st and they will be inflammed or have tumors.  I'm clean there.

The bad news... The PET/CT reveiled a lymph node in my chest with a possible tumor.  The area showed up as extremely active on the scan meaning it is highly likely cancer.  This one gets a little tricky.  The trachea is the light blue Y-shaped object with black stripes in the picture below. The lymph node in question is #7 on the left side image (image from  http://radiographics.rsna.org/content/29/2/403/F21.large.jpg ).
As you can see, the node is in a pretty tricky area.  Directly behind my heart.  Directly in front of my esophegeous and directly below my trachea. 



We were presented with a few options.  All involve surgery with the Cardiothoracic surgeon.  I'll talk more about that tomorrow. 

I don't really know how to describe what I'm thinking or how I'm doing.  My mom's probably sick of hearing, I'm fine, but I don't know what else to say cause I'm fine.  I'm more nervous about the next few weeks and months than I ever have been about anything.  But, it's a strange sort of nervousness where I'm driven to learn as much as I can about it.  I wish I would have grown a pair and put myself through medical school.  Lol, sorry, it was the 1st that popped into my head.  I need to stop that.  I've spent a lot of time searching the web and trying to learn more about what I need to have done and what is happening inside my body.  I'm scared of the surgery that I will have to have but I would have done it a week ago if I had the choice.  I want this crap out of me, whatever it is. I'm excited about the future, I'm excited to fight against whatever this is and I'm excited to move on.

I should be caught up tomorrow, I hope....