You mention that you'd lost a testical.
Serious question - had you talked about this "male issue" beforehand, say be mentioning to close mates "Hey, I've got a funny lump..." do you think you might have saved it?
Likewise, how long were you aware of an issue before you saw a doctor?
Unfortunately I’m one of those people who sit with something, thinking
nah, it’ll probably just go away. At the point of going to the Doctors, weeks.
Never thought about asking a close Mate to have a look. Should of, but we live in a different time now.
Despite it being a male issue, Doctor had a female nurse with him, after a little embarrassment (for no reason, it’s not like they’d seen anything new), a quip about ‘it being cold in here’, out with the goods.
Because it was early the best course was to have it out straight away. Apparently no two cancers are the same. So some might react to treatment, others just ‘hide’ and having seen the effect Chemotherapy had on my father (oesophageal cancer) it was an obvious choice.
One key lesson I learnt from my Father’s cancer is that if you’re not happy being brushed off, get another opinion- even if it means going private. His cancer was already six months in before being diagnosed. At which point surgery was no longer an option.
EDIT: My brother, sister and mother have all had melanoma, and the preferred course of action has been remove it before it gets elsewhere.
EDIT: I was fortunate enough to get talk to Dr. Sarah Forbes-Robertson who is one of the leading researchers in oncology, hence my comment on no two cancers being the same. I didn’t realise that the first dose of chemotherapy can cause the cancer (not that it’s sentient) to retreat, so all subsequent treatment is just killing the body. If/when, and I do think when, cancer returns I would go straight into palliative care. It’s a personal choice, obviously, but I’d rather see the weeks/months out being able to have a glass of something, a curry, roast dinner etc. without being horrendously ill due to the drugs.
Happy Thursday everyone.