I have cancer

[_Kevin Graham]

Thanks everyone.

I'm flying to Brazil on Monday and will have surgery next week. After they remove the mass and we get the results from pathology, we'll know more. Hopefully it isn't the kind of cancer that spreads. If it is, they'll scan the rest of my body to determine if I need chemo or radiation treatment.

I'm happy to see a post from you. Over the years, whenever I am at odds with you, I've come to feel like I'm fighting with my kid brother. That's only a statement on our ages, not intended to demean you, and I feel that way about a couple of other posters that we know as well. I know that you know that there is never any animosity involved. So, if you don't mind a little sisterly advice from one who has gone toe to toe with you, here goes.

One thing I have never seen you do in all these years is be perfectly gracious to anyone. So don't be gracious now.

Take the gloves off, come out swinging, and kick it's ____ ass, Kevin.

You are a fighter.

Thanks Jersey Girl. It is funny you should say all of this... from last week:

[_Kevin Graham]

Thanks everyone.

I'm flying to Brazil on Monday and will have surgery next week. After they remove the mass and we get the results from pathology, we'll know more. Hopefully it isn't the kind of cancer that spreads. If it is, they'll scan the rest of my body to determine if I need chemo or radiation treatment.

Good luck, sir. We have our fingers crossed for great news.

Thanks Kish. Fingers and toes crossed.

[_Jersey Girl]

See now here's how Kevin Graham thinks. He puts up a muscle selfie with a ton of Facebook comments and he thinks I'm going to actually read the comments with that pic in my face. Not today, buddy. I'm framing that crap.

Thanks Jersey Girl. It is funny you should say all of this... from last week:

Get down there and “F” up that cancer, brother and I'll keep the pic.

;-)

[_ajax18]

I hope you pull through Kevin. I still believe with God all things can work together for our ultimate good.

[_RockSlider]

Thanks everyone.

I'm flying to Brazil on Monday and will have surgery next week. After they remove the mass and we get the results from pathology, we'll know more. Hopefully it isn't the kind of cancer that spreads. If it is, they'll scan the rest of my body to determine if I need chemo or radiation treatment.

If they do radiation, Cat scans are so incredible. They 3d map the tumor area to be radiated via cat scan and the radiation machine rotates around you precisely radiating only the 3d mapped area (typically the organ in question and nothing around it). My only tattoos are three little dots, one on each hip and one low central pelvic - those tattoos mean a lot to me, they messed with the central pelvis one with surgical incision and upset me! They line ya up with lasers to those three dots, setup via the cat scan mapping.

Radiation is not so bad, other than you have to go every day and it gives you a bad case of sunburn in some bad areas!

Chemo is another story, I hope you can avoid that. Please keep us informed.

[_beastie]

I'm very sorry to hear this, Kevin. I hope that everything goes as smoothly as possible, and you have a quick recovery.

[_DoubtingThomas]

I still believe with God all things can work together for our ultimate good.

God's people are fighting stem cell research!!!!!!! Don't bring up your bull!!!

"At the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, more than 200 faculty members are working to translate the promise of stem cells into viable treatments for some of society’s most vexing medical conditions, including cancer, heart disease, immune disorders, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, autism, blindness and diabetes. Much"

Get your stupid god out of here!!! Kevin doesn't need him!

[_ajax18]

I still believe with God all things can work together for our ultimate good.

God's people are fighting stem cell research!!!!!!! Don't bring up your bull!!!

"At the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, more than 200 faculty members are working to translate the promise of stem cells into viable treatments for some of society’s most vexing medical conditions, including cancer, heart disease, immune disorders, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, autism, blindness and diabetes. Much"

Get your stupid god out of here!!! Kevin doesn't need him!

So much for calling off the dogs when someone is in a life or death situation. I thought Kevin was still a deist.

[_Kevin Graham]

Look I appreciate everyone's comments but I'd rather not have this thread turn into a political or religious debate. Sometimes you just need to have a place to unplug from all of that.

I don't know what I am anymore when it comes to religion honestly. If I do believe there is a God, I don't believe he gets involved in our personal lives. Some of you may remember the story about my niece Layla who is suffering from Battens disease. They realized when she was five and now she is eight, and last week they determined she is legally blind and she'll be completely blind by the end of the year. She hasn't spoken in nearly two years, she hasn't eaten in over two years (fed through a tube in her stomach) and she has monthly surgery to pump enzymes into her brain as an experimental treatment which, after three years, seems to have had minimal effect and is probably just delaying the inevitable. No one has ever lived past the age of 12.

If God is real, then he's been sitting on the sidelines during all of this while she and millions of other children suffer needlessly. And if that's true, then this is't the kind of God I want to devote my life to.

[_Kevin Graham]

Sorry to hear this Kevin, and I wish you the best. My wife had breast cancer and a mastectomy 2 years ago, so I can understand the shock and worry. Keep your energy positive and hang in there. If you don't mind me asking, how did you find out? Where you in for a routine physical or were you having a lump checked out?

I'm 47 going on 48 and I had never been to a urologist before so I went. I also noticed over the years that one testicle was noticeably bigger than the other. I googled about it and webmd and other places said this was normal so long as one isn't more than 25% larger than the other. Well, mine was at least 100% larger. But I wasn't sure if one was getting smaller as opposed to the other getting larger.

So I went and the urologist scheduled me for an ultrasound. They saw a mass 4.8 centimeters in diameter. She said we had to assume it is cancer. I asked if it could be something else, and she said there is like a 2-3% chance it could be something else if I had trauma to that area. I said trust me, I'd know if I had any kind of trauma to my nuts. So, now we have to take it out and see what the pathology determines. If it is the kind of cancer that spreads, then they will scan further and probably do chemo and/or radiation.

I'm flying to Brazil on Monday and having surgery on Wednesday. We should know more by next week.

Anyway, the doctor said she is glad she had me do an ultrasound because she was 50/50 on that decision and damn near let me go without further ado.