I want to share my story on here as I have benefited greatly from the time invested by others on such forums and I want to say thank you first and foremost to all who have contributed so much for no other reason than to help others that are going through the most extremely difficult time of their lives.

I am a fit 37 year old based in London. I was the one my friends would turn to for nutrition and training advice and I had spent 13 years doing Muay Thai at quite a high level with some competitive fights in Thailand and a diet centred around this with very little alcohol. In early July this year I noticed a change in my right testicle compared to the left. I can only describe this as the right testicle feeling like a marble (round and hard).

I left and ignored this with the vague hope that it would rectify itself. After a week or two I finally plucked up the courage to book a consultation with my GP to state that I believed I had an issue. My GP called me to say she has seen many cases like this and 99% of the time there was no real problem however she would book me in for an ultrasound.

The ultrasound took three weeks for the appointment. It was a period of immense stress as day by day I became more aware of a dull ache in the testicle (many people don’t get a feeling I believe so if you are new, don’t let this put you off checking with a doctor). During the ultrasound I noticed a change in the demeanour of the radiographer who sat up straight and moved closer to the screen during the scan. I knew at this point there was an issue. I was not informed during the ultrasound or given any results however I was informed to call my GP the next morning. The next morning I had several missed calls from my GP and I immediately knew something was seriously wrong. I was told by the GP that a shadow had been found and that it may or may not be something sinister. I was requested to attend the clinic that day to have blood tests and a urology appointment was booked for the following Friday a week and a half later (this was a Tuesday).

This period of waiting was one of extreme anxiety and I spent a lot of time researching on this forum and other websites. I couldn’t concentrate at work or in conversations and I would spend every minute on my own looking online. 

Fast forward to the urology appointment and the doctor called me instead of a face to face (thank you Covid).  He stated that I could have an issue and requested that I come to the hospital for blood tests to which I replied I have already had the blood tests and he should be calling me to discuss the results. By this stage I was extremely stressed and frantic as a long period had passed and I strongly informed the doctor to examine me that afternoon by telling him I was coming to the hospital straightaway to see him. He kindly rearranged some appointments and saw me within the hour in person. He examined me and said there is a tumour present. My feeling was fear but also some relief that five weeks of extreme anxiety had finally led to an actual diagnosis. I broke down in the waiting room with a mixture of fear of the future, disbelief that this was happening to me and a feeling of lightness that I had professionals finally doing something about it. The doctor agreed that a lot of time had passed needlessly and offered me a private consultation to expedite this rather than wait for the NHS process to kick into action. Due to the blunders and time lost I requested to see the private doctor. I was seen that evening (Friday) and he confirmed there was a 95% possibility that it is testicular cancer. He was also disappointed with the long time gap between reporting it to the GP and the examinations and he expedited a surgery for the following Wednesday. He did also state that, although it is a frightening situation, that testicular cancer is “curable not just treatable” and he continually reiterated this and I wanted to mention this for newcomers.

Monday morning I was booked in for sperm banking and a virus test. Monday afternoon I was booked in for a CT scan. I can only describe the feeling as watching a movie of this happening to me rather than it being reality. I was fit and strong and healthy and felt like I could go to the gym not sit discussing possible infertility and the need to freeze sperm. The language used at those points is again frightening however this is done as a precaution to check sperm and ensure there is some in back up if chemotherapy is later done. Reality dawned on me much more strongly before the CT scan as I knew how serious the results of the scan were in showing whether it's had spread or not (it hadn’t).

I was in hospital on Wednesday and stayed the night as I was in a lot of pain after the surgery. I understand a lot of people leave hospital the same day but I was struggling to walk properly. I felt a great sense of relief that this had been caught and removed.

A week or so later I received the histology report stating 100% seminoma with rete testes invasion, 4.5 cm tumour and no lymphovascular invasion. I discussed this at length with my neurologist and oncologist and was presented the option of surveillance with an 80-84% chance of already being cured or a dose of carboplatin with a 93-95% chance of cure. My oncologist preferred surveillance but left the choice to me . This was an extremely difficult decision and I chose surveillance as the small increase in percentage wasn’t worth the chemo with a high chance I was cured already and I decided to overhaul my diet and totally remove all sources of stress from my life.

In this post I would just like to offer some advice and tips for those at the early stages:

1 - don't rely on your doctors they are extremely busy and my advice is to project manage this scenario yourself. If I had waited for the doctors schedule I would have lost more weeks with an unknown type of tumour inside me. Push the schedule ahead, question everything, go to each meeting armed with as much objective information as possible and be proactive. This also helps keep you busy rather than sitting still and dwelling on the unknown.

2 - do you not be a typical man and hold off alerting the doctor of a problem / potential problem with your testicle. I was shy and afraid and I left it longer than I should have done. Now I look back I understand that time is absolutely of the essence and “paranoia keeps us alive” (the words of my Urologist). Act quickly.

3 - do your research using credible sources like Google Scholar and this forum. Spending every evening and waking hour doing Google searches down a rabbit hole of algorithm-based links will lead you to misunderstanding and much higher levels of fear and anxiety.

4 -  waiting for scan results (referred to as ‘scanxiety’) is a very challenging time. I found long walks with my favourite uplifting music helped and recognising that the thoughts in my head were trying to dwell on every scenario (we always go to the worst scenario). From recognising this you can consciously catch the thoughts and make the choice to let them go until actually sat opposite the doctor, this saves a lot of adrenaline, fear, stress and anxiety, nine if which are good for the bidy when dealing with a disease. Prepare your strategy that works for you. 

5 - it is of little comfort at the beginning stages to know this is a highly treatable type of tumour since the shock is often extreme and highly unexpected due to the age group and often the high fitness levels we are getting diagnosed at. It is the most treatable tumour type and highyl sensitive to surgery and also chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Curable not just treatable. It is said from our greatest despair comes our greatest gift and I spent my days since surgery noticing nature, birds, being kinder to people, being humbler and seeing life for more depth than my busy and stressful London life had allowed. 

Again I want to say thank you to all the people that spent time posting on here, I was given much comfort with the detailed information and similar experiences and I felt not alone during a very lonely and frightening process.