Ringing in the New Year...The Ball Drop

The holiday's were over and we headed home. We quickly got busy getting back into our routine and became caught up in too many things. James was busy with school and I was (I still am) adjusting to taking care of a new baby. It was a few weeks before James finally made it to the doctor. He went in early January, on a friday before school. The school has a clinic that was free to students and easy to get into so he just stopped in before going to class. The doctor was calm and sent him to get an ultrasound because there was definielty something there, he just couldn't be sure what. Around noon, James called me and said I needed to hurry to the school. His doctor wanted to meet with him during his lunch break and I needed to be there as soon as I could. I was sick to my stomach with panic. I knew that there was only one reason why we both needed to be there. It wasn't to tell us any good news. I gathered up Isla and we went over to the school. Things were going so quickly but it felt like slow motion all at the same time. In less than an hour we had been told that it was indeed a tumor, met with a specialist, and had surgery scheduled for the following Monday. We met with his doctor, his dean, his surgeon, he had imaging and blood work done... it was crazy. People always say "don't do this or that, it will give you cancer," and I always said, "everything will give us cancer." Never in my life though did I really imagine being told that my husband has cancer, especially at 27 and 25 years old. The whole thing was surreal to me. The following Monday, James headed into surgery to have an orchectomy (his right testicle removed). His doctor and surgeon were very optimistic about his case and we all hoped for the best, that this would be the end and we could just move forward. James healed very quickly and even went back to school the Wednesday after his surgery. We were ready to continue as if nothing had happened.