It may be too personal, but it must be said!

Last week, and this week have been pretty hard on me. I don't even know where to begin. I don't know if anyone has figured this out, but I really don't like going to doctors. I've told a number of people that I would rather die than to have surgery. Well I would like to go on the record here on my blog to recant my previous opinion on physicians. Right now I am going through something so personal and embarrassing, that it has changed many of my opinions and thoughts on life.

If you don't want to hear anything explicit stop now, because i'm about to take "personal" to a whole new level on my blog!

Last week I started feeling pain in my groin area, more specifically my testicles. The right one to be more precise. I didn't pay it much attention at first, until I the next day when it started hurting a little worse. So I got out of bed, and I (TMI) gave myself a self-examination. I noticed that my right testicle is not only larger than the left, but it's much harder than it felt before. That was last Wednesday the 12th. Thursday it wasn't feeling any better, and I decided maybe, just maybe I would call the doctor, but first I need to hear from a voice of reason to convince me, so I contacted my brother. He told me to do it just to be safe, and so Friday I did so.

I called and made an appointment. They only had one opening on Friday, but it was an hour and a half from the time I called so I couldn't make it, because I'm a bus rider. So I made my appointment for Monday.

Monday arrives, and eventually so did I. When I finally got to see a doctor, I had to undress from the waist down so she could feel and compare my testes. I think I made her mad when I told her that a previous doctor hinted at me about getting checked a couple of years back when I first started coming to that clinic. He told me about Lance Armstrong and his cancer. Like I said though it was more like a hint to me though, than a suggestion to get checked out. Anyways I don't know if I had any problems back then, but I sure do know about now. My current doctor made an appointment for me at another facility to have an ultrasound done. Its weird because I thought ultrasounds were done for only pregnant women.

Today I went to that appointment. I had some support from one of my aunts who drove me there and stayed with me until it was over. The technician that performed the ultrasound was pretty nice. First she scanned the left (normal) testis, then she scanned the right (suspect) testis. I noticed a difference in comparison. When she saw how I concerned I looked, she started talking to me. She asked me if I had ever had a song stuck in my head. I told her yes and I asked her what song was stuck in her head. She told me that a country song by a group called Zac Brown Band has this song called "Chicken Fried" out. We both laughed when she told me about how she would dance silly to the song. I guess the point of this was, I think that she was trying to distract me from monitor.

Did I mention in all of this that every person who helped me (Nurse, doctor, technician...etc.) were women. I felt kind of embarrassed. Like I needed to chest bump some guy or something.

After the ultrasound I was told that my physician would call me and give me my results. She called me four hours later, and said something no one really wants to hear. "Charles You have an abnormal lump". She then told me that she made an appointment to see a specialists and hung up with me. After I hung up with her I just stood there in front of some of my family members and I started crying.

So now your caught up with my life as it is. I don't have nothing to focus on, but the here and now. As it stands I'm not looking towards Thanksgiving, i'm not looking toward Christmas. Heck my life is in the moment right now. The constant pain, reminds me that I can only look as far as Monday, but at least I have my family to look with me.

I'm not posting this is for anybodies sympathy or pity. I know everyone cares, and I appreciate it and I thank you for it. The only reason i'm posting this is because there are a lot of men out there who may be in the same boat as me and not even know it. I'm posting this because every man out there should do a self-examination to make sure everything is A-OK and that they don't have any lumps in there testicles. The pain, the worrying, the sleepless nights...I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. In fact if I have an enemy I hope I'm helping them out. Hope I help everyone out.

Well off to bed. Aleeve is my new best friend!