It’s still amazing to me how quickly this all unfolded.

I started having dull back pain in late December. I picked up the pace in my workouts and added a few new exercises, so I initially just wrote this off as part of my new workout regimen. I am far from a hypochondriac, but having been an athlete my whole life I also know my body well. This pain didn’t go away right away. I realized quickly that it wasn’t really a muscular pain – it was something different. It was dull and I couldn’t pinpoint it. At this point, maybe because of all of the football, I somehow got it in my head that I had a sports hernia.

This is about the time that found something that just didn’t feel right - something I hadn’t noticed before.

The rest happened very quickly even in the holiday season. I made an appointment on the Monday before Christmas with my general practitioner. My regular doctor wasn’t in; the doctor filling in for him didn’t feel anything but recommended an ultrasound just to be on the safe side. I went for an ultrasound on the Friday after Christmas Day – the results came the following Tues and confirmed a mass. I was told that it was probably nothing but I should still follow up with a specialist.

I managed to get a last-minute appointment with a urologist on Long Island recommended by my family doctor. After some additional tests, the urologist confirmed the mass and recommended surgery since something like 90% of masses are malignant.

On Wednesday, I managed to get an appointment on Friday with Dr. Scherr for a second opinion. He confirmed the original diagnosis and recommended immediate surgery. When I say immediate, I am not exaggerating: he scheduled my orchiectomy the following Monday. I spent the rest of the day at the hospital getting additional tests and tying up other pre-admission details.

In the course of three weeks (with 2 major holidays in between), I went from being concerned about a little back pain to having surgery for cancer. Talk about a plot twist…