~Steelclaw

I know that many of you haven't heard yet, and I'm feeling too tired and foggy to type it out fresh, so here are a couple posts from my livejournal (Steelwing.livejournal.com):

May 8th:
5/8/13 11:56 pm - Surgery
I'm sorry for waiting until the last minute to tell everyone, but I'm having surgery tomorrow morning at 9am.

In 2002 I had testicular cancer and had my left nut removed, and this January I discovered a lump that was recently confirmed to also be cancerous. I am likely going to have my right one removed tomorrow, though the surgeon is going to try and do a partial if he thinks it's safe. This would spare me from needing testosterone replacements for the rest of my life.

I'm currently unemployed and uninsured, and I'm going through a hospital charity\volunteer program, though the ultrasound wasn't covered. Nearly $800 for that, ouch. The surgery itself is supposedly minor, but it's going to really suck in recovery and such. I won't know if I need chemo or radiation or anything until afterward. The cancer typically isn't a "bad" kind to get, and I'm mainly worried about the hormone replacement issue. I don't care if I never have kids.

Anyway, I'll try and remember to post an update here once I get back online (maybe tomorrow or the day after), but if anything happens to me, know that I love all of you. There's also something special waiting for friends (only if something happens to me), which will likely get posted as a link in comments here by someone else.

I should be fine though. I miss talking with a lot of you, and I hope that we can talk again sometime soon.



May 11th:

5/11/13 12:14 pm - Recovery
This hasn't been a fun couple of days.

My Surgeon WAS able to do a partial removal, which should keep me off of hormone replacements as long as I've got healthy tissue there. Now, the fact that he sliced up an organ and left it inside of me? It hurts like hell.

I also ended up in the ER yesterday. The day before, they started me on oxycodone (not sure on dosage, but it was 2 pills every 4 hours) which I'd never had before. This was fine for about 12 hours. I'd take 2 and...well, at 5am I only felt the need to take 1. I could tell they were building up in my system. That became a problem later in the morning when I wasn't able to stand without shaking, being very weak and nauseous. I was unable to urinate more than a little. Called the surgeon's office and he ordered me to the ER. (Hopefully this is covered along with other expenses.)

The ER flushes me out with an IV of a few bags of saline, made sure that I could pee, and then I got put on hydrocodone instead (I guess it's a weaker version of the oxy?) but only 1 pill every 6 hours. There's more pain, but I'm not having the problems I had before.

One other problem that's been bothering me since 5pm last night: Tension headache. I tend to get them on the right side of my head\back of neck\etc several times a month. This one seems particularly bad and may be extended by lying in bed for so long, but it actually hurts more than the surgery site.

My incision seems to be healing nicely. He actually made the cut on an old incision which had caused nerve damage back then, so I'm not feeling a lot of pain from that area. Now, the area from where they...removed the tumor? I didn't realize that area could swell so big. It's also terribly bruised, and moving around is difficult. It'll get better eventually. I'm glad I still have something down there, though.