They say bad news comes in 3's. That saying to me was never so true than in September 2011, when lifting a table at work I felt pain first in my left tricep than into my neck. The diagnosis? 2 herniated discs in my neck at c5 and c6, with a crack at c7. 

While recovering and during a year long fight for Worker's Comp benefits I had lost because of my job termination due to this on the job injury, In December 2012 I developed a perferated ulcer due to all the stress caused by the fight I had put on during this time.  I had surgery to repair my stomach and large intestine. A 4 hour surgery followed by 6 blood transfusions, and a 6 day hospital stay as well as 16 weeks of aftercare, I felt I was ready to return to the workforce.  As I was preparing to do so the third of my medical problems and most challenging yet was staring me right in the face.

While undergoing a routine physical on July 13, 2013, (and since it had been 10 years since my last one) my primary care doctor discovered a lump in my right testicle, 3 times the size of my left testicle. My doctor knew exactly what it was but wanted to be sure so, about a half hour later I was in lab getting an ultra sound which proved to be positive for what she feared. Yes, Testicular Cancer was the confirmed diagnosis. I was then scheduled to see a Urologist on July 19th and he confirmed the diagnosis to be true for Testicular Cancer. He then scheduled me for surgery on July 25th 2013 to have the Right Testicle as well as all the "hardware" removed which is what happened.

In August 2013 I had my first PET Scan to see if they had gotten all of it and they had. In November 2013 I had another scan and was clear. so, shortly thereafter I decided I wanted to give Vocational Rehab a shot since it was written into my Worker's Comp settlement agreement in 2012. 

All was going well for December 2013 and into January 2014. Then, in February 2014, like the old saying goes, "All good things must come to an end". 

It was then when I felt constant pain in the right side of my stomach that wasn't going away. I contacted my doctor and a lymph node biopsy was scheduled because my doctors told me that it is common for this type of cancer to travel along the lymph nodes and a lymph node biopsy would confirm what they were confident it was. This for me couldn't have come at a worse time as I was chugging along with Vocational Rehab and making strides doing so to the point where I was scheduled to have what is called a Functional CompacityTest. A 4 hour test which tests your brain function, pain tolerance and strength for a new profession which would be the best for me. 

Knowing that the lymph node biopsy would be done 2 days after my functional compacity test I wanted to do this anyways just in case the pain I was feeling was nothing and would go away. I took the test and failed it as I thought I would. 

The result of the lymph node biopsy was that all the lymph nodes on my right side were confirmed to be cancerous. I was told again that this was common for Testicular Cancer patients. My sister had told me that I was suseptible to this since my stomach had already been opened up from the previous surgery in December 2012. 

My Urologist and team of doctors were great throughout this process. They knew exactly what to do with me and going through the previous two medical issues I was agreeable to almost anything my doctors wanted to do with me to help me survive and live a healthy rest of my life.

The diagnosis for me then was to go through 3 rounds of chemotherapy to be performed as soon as possible. So, on March 31, 2014 that's exactly what I did. 3 rounds of chemotherapy 5 days a week, 7 hours a day is what I did. I had no issues doing this as I was told that Testicular Cancer carried a 95% survival rate. 

On May 27th I had my last treatment and 2 weeks later I had a PET Scan to see if the chemo treatments succeeded and it did. My scans going forward in November 2014, February, and May of 2015 have proved to be clear as well. My next scan is for August with a CT Scan for October 2015.

I applaud the research done so far for the many types of cancers and with the advancements in chemo meds and what they give you during the treatments an while your at home are remarkable, I rarely got sick during this process but continue to have after effects from the chemo meds themselves. I have breathing issues and sleep apnea from it which I am still recovering from. I hope one day I will be completely cured from this and live a normal life.