Cancer FREE

I have been waiting and waiting to post for this day...so excited that today we get to celebrate the 10th anniversary of John being cancer FREE! We are so blessed to be able to celebrate this wonderful anniversary! John recently visited his surgeon and urologist and was given a great bill of health and all tests were normal. Since I've never written down the story of his cancer journey, I thought I would today since now I have a blog.

John and I were both full-time students..both 21 at the time and had been dating about 4 years. I was in nursing school and John was in paramedic school. I remember him telling me he was having some pain in his groin. He saw his primary doctor and was treated with an antibiotic. The pain got better for awhile but came back about three months later and now John felt a lump in his testicle. He went back to his primary doctor who sent him directly to a urologist. After being seen by a urologist, the doctor sent him for an ultrasound that same day. John was called the next day and asked if he had parents in town, when he said yes, the nurse said we need to make an appt with you and you should bring your parents. Can't be good news with that kind of intro! So him and his parents went back to the doctor and John was told he had testicular cancer (seminoma). He was told that if it had not spread, he may just only need surgery, but it could entail some radiation. He was told that it was very curable and most of the time it did not reoccur. The doctor immediately scheduled a CT scan to check out the rest of his body, surgery was scheduled to take the one testicle and John was told he should immediately go and bank sperm.

I remember him telling me very vividly. We were going over to a friend's house that night. He picked me up at the house where I was living with 5 other girls and in the car on the way to the friend's house, he told me he had cancer. I cried and cried. We still visited our friends but while I was there I called my mom and cried on the phone to her. That night when he was dropping me off, one of my roommates and her boyfriend were at the door. Her boyfriend had just asked her to marry him. It was hard news for me, because I wanted to marry John and now we were about to embark on this journey. I remember lying on my floor that night in my little bedroom crying out to God to not let this man that I want to marry and spend the rest of my life with die. Of course it is very hard to be in nursing school when you find out something like this b/c your mind starts thinking everything negative.

So all the doctor's appts started. John banked sperm twice. The doctor explained that men that have testicular cancer are usually prone to being sterile. He made him go through some sperm analysis tests which showed he was not sterile but had a very low sperm count (about half of most men) and slow motility. This was before he even lost one testicle so the doctor wanted him to bank some sperm for the future since his sperm count could diminish even more after surgery and radiation. He was told it would most likely be very difficult for him to conceive naturally. He had surgery to remove one testicle in October of 1998 and went to see a specialist at Moffit Cancer Center. When they did the CT scan of John's abdomen, they found one maybe two lymph nodes that were cancerous. This caused concern due to his young age. He was referred to a radiation oncologist who would most likely to radiation to his abdomen. Dr. Scidmore was his name and what a great doctor he was. He loved John and took such good care of him. He wanted him to get the very best treatment and wanted him to see a specialist at Moffit to make sure radiation was the best choice for such a young guy. CHP didn't cover this but somehow (we are not sure to this day) Dr. Scidmore sent him there. John also never had to pay anything out of pocket to see Dr. Scidmore. I truly think Dr. Scidmore was picking up the bill. The question about radiation was that sometimes radiation can actually cause a secondary cancer later on down the road (20-30 years) and with John being so young this could pose a problem. If he didn't do radiation, then he'd do chemo which has many more side effects and problems in the present. We saw a doctor at Moffit that said the chance of a secondary cancer are low and the effects of the chemo are great for the small amount of cancer that they needed to eradicate so he said he'd go with the radiation (even if it was his own son).

So radiation was started in November. If I remember right, he went three days a week for three months. He had CT scans every month. Those were rough b/c of having to drink all that contrast. The radiation was uncomfortable. They do everything they can to protect the male parts and then radiate the hell out of the abdomen. He has permanent tattoos in place to this day which they used as markings as to where to radiate. The side effects in men are worse for radiation to the abdomen. He was nauseated all the time, vomited on and off and had a lot of cramping. He lived on phenergan which made him very cranky!!!! He had no appetite. Thanksgiving and Christmas were bummers that year because he couldn't eat. BUT John went to school full-time and worked full-time through this all! On January 29th 1999, John received his last radiation treatment and was given a clean bill of health. This was a very big day for us!

Little did I know John had very BIG plans for this day! He also on the same day had taken his paramedic state boards and passed them! He wanted to go out for dinner somewhere fancy. I was hesitant and actually tried to stall him. I thought he had had too big of a day but my roommate was in on it and insisted that I do what he wanted b/c it was his big day. She even took me to the mall to pick out a "little black dress" from Ann Taylor to wear. We went to dinner and to my surprise he drove me to Melhana Plantation in Thomasville to eat dinner. We took a horse and carriage ride. Then he acted as if he was calling his Grandmother who lives in Thomasville to see if we could come by. I thought it was awfully late to be stopping by his grandparent's house. Instead he drove to the center of town, main street, where they have this beautiful old water fountain in front of the courthouse under the huge oak trees. We sat there and talked and he gave me a penny and said to make a wish and throw it in. I did and as I threw the penny in....I looked down in the water and there was this huge beautiful diamond sparkling in the water. He reached down to get it after he knew I saw it and got down on his knee and asked me to marry him and said some really sweet stuff that I don't remember! Good thing my roommate convinced me to go that night!!!

I couldn't believe that he put my ring in the fountain where it could have been lost or sucked up or something. It was gorgeous and the setting was one that I had seen like six months earlier at a jewelry showing in the mall. He told me at the time it was way too expensive! He bought the setting I guess and then picked out a diamond to go in it and created a marvelous ring just for me! Little did I know he had help with the ring hiding and it really had not been in the fountain for very long....David and Debi Bearden were hiding in the bushes across the street and had hidden it for him and made sure no one came along and took it. That was that call to his "grandmother" he had made. He had already asked my Dad's permission that day and everything. What a big day this was...John was a busy boy on January 29th!

So we have lots to celebrate on this day..it is almost better than any other anniversary day b/c it signifies so much for us. Now him and his doctor/surgeon have jokes about the whole fertility matter (hence us being on number three kid without any medical intervention). Blessings are apparent all around. I love you John! Happy Cancer Free anniversary...I'm making a special dinner tonight just for you!