ADAM POPP

In early May, 2007, I began to have a pain in my right testicle. It was a sharp, shooting pain that felt like I had been hit in the groin. I could tell that my right testicle was harder than normal and a bit misshapen, like a lump had been added to the testicle. Concerned about the unknown change, I made an appointment with my Urologist, Dr. Robert Bae, to get it checked.

My appointment date was scheduled for the end of May, no less than a week after my graduation from Cal State University Fullerton. At my appointment Dr. Bae could tell that the lump was something that needed to be taken seriously and immediately ordered an Ultrasound of my right testicle. The lab was nearby so I walked over, got the Ultrasound and came back immediately to his office for the results.

Dr. Bae began to tell me that I had a testicular mass that was malignant and it had to be removed as soon as possible. Four days later I was in the operating room getting my right testicle removed. To remove the testicle an incision was made about 2 inches below my waist line and closed with 9 staples. The procedure went well and afterwards I wasn’t in much pain. Since my testicle was cancerous, Dr. Bae also removed some lymph nodes in my right groin / thigh area to make sure the cancer had not moved to that region

Once the surgery was complete and I had time to heal, a PET scan was ordered of my chest, abdomen and pelvis. This PET scan came back showing that there was the same type of cancer in the lymph nodes of my lower abdomen. I was referred to an Oncologist at Hoag Hospital, Dr. Khosrow Mahdavi and at my appointment the decision was made that I was to undergo 3 separate treatments of Chemotherapy.

My schedule was to be as follows: 5 days inpatient at Hoag, where they would administer 2 different chemo doses on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. On Tuesdays I was to receive 3 doses of chemo. The types of chemo given to me were Bleomyacin, VP-16 and Cysplatin. In between each 5 day period, I was to get a 2 week break where I would receive 1 dose of chemo on each Tuesday as an outpatient, which would complete 1 of 3 treatments.

I handled the first 5 day treatment well, with an I.V. in my right arm; I received my scheduled dose of chemo and saline solution fluids. I was able to drink a ton of water to help flush the chemo through my body. The next round is where things began to take a turn for the worse. I began feeling extremely weak and nauseas. A metallic taste formed in my mouth and it felt like I had the worst heart burn I had ever experienced.

My hair began to fall out and my skin color became pale and flush. The next weeks and oncoming month seem like one big blur. I had a port-a-catheter installed in the left side of my chest, this way the chemo, fluids and blood draws could be given or taken from that. The port, however, cracked and after attempting to flush it out with Heparin, we learned quickly that I was allergic to the drug. My platelets quickly dropped to an unsafe number. I was put on steroids to help gain strength and gained about 30 pounds as a result, causing more fatigue. An I.V. stand packed with all sorts of different medicine from chemo to pain and nauseas medicine accompanied me everywhere I went.

I began losing sleep to the point where my sleeping meds wouldn’t work one bit. Plus, the sleeping pills lead to hallucinations. At Hoag I was only able to walk laps around the 8th floor and I wasn’t able to leave or step outside. At home, due to my weak immune system, I was to stay in my room with no exercise and wasn’t able to step outside in case I picked up any form of illness.

At the end of August, after spending just about the entire month at Hoag, my 3rd round of chemo was complete. I had a PET scan and scheduled an appointment with Dr. Mahdavi for the results. On September 13th 2007, the results came back that my treatments worked and my cancer was now in remission. Finally I could get back to my life in the water and out. I had such a positive outlook on life and looked forward to doing the simplest things like walking around the block at my house.
Getting back into shape was very hard. My lungs were not functioning well from the Chemo, so it took me a long time to get my energy back. Taking one step at a time I finally started to get back in the swing of things. Surfing felt great, no matter what the conditions, water temperature, or what type of board I was on. After getting back to my life outside of Cancer, I was hit with more bad news in the early months of 2008.

During late March and early April I had some pain in the right side of my lower back. I thought it was just a pulled muscle and I had a regularly scheduled CAT scan coming up, so I figured I would wait for that to see if anything came up. Unfortunately, the pain was from a lymph node near my Ureter, which was pinching off flow from my kidney to my bladder, thus causing the back pain. A PET scan was ordered and it showed that the same type of Cancer was back in the lymph node near my Ureter.

A stint was placed in my Ureter to help the flow from my kidney to my bladder, which was very uncomfortable at times. I had a lot of blood in my urine and the frequency of urination came about much more often. After surfing or even running I would get a burning sensation while urinating, which would stay with me until the stint was removed.

The next step was to undergo 20 rounds of radiation at the Hoag Radiation Center. The side effects of the Radiation weren’t nearly as bad as Chemo. I was still able to be active, surf, hang with friends and besides the usual stomach aches and fatigue, I felt good. The radiation was administered by machine and only took about 15 minutes per session.

Once the Radiation treatment was over I had another PET scan revealing that the Radiation also worked and got rid of the Cancer. Dr. Bae wanted to wait for two clear Scans before he removed the stint from my Ureter. In late July 2008 my blood results came back clear of any tumor markers and in September my CT Scan came back with no new cancer development. There is still some swelling near my lymph node so the stint will stay in place until my next Scan is ordered. If that Scan shows a decrease in swelling, the stint can come out and I can begin getting my life back in order. If not, then surgery is a possibility to remove the lymph node and any scar tissue left from radiation treatment.

It’s amazing to think that such a horrible, negative experience can actually create something so positive, but this ordeal has changed my life for the better in so many ways. If I could do it all over again I would. A second and even third chance at life left me so thankful for so many people and grateful for so many things. If I haven’t met you before and you have any questions or just want to say “hi,” please do so. I’m here to help out in any way I can.

“NEVER GIVE UP!”

-Adam Popp

JOHN RINEK

I was taking a bath and noticed a hard bump on the side of my left testicle. For about a week I kept checking it, hoping it was just a weird thing that would go away on its own. It didn’t go away so I looked up “lump on testicle” on the internet. Every page I found ordered anyone with a suspicious lump to go see a doctor as soon as possible. I obeyed and went into the walk-in clinic the next morning and had it checked out. The doctor thought it was a minor vascular issue and not something I should worry about, but she referred me to a urologist to make sure. The urologist thought it might be a cyst and that it was probably not harmful, but he had me get an ultrasound test.

I got a phone call from my doctor as I was about to go for a surf in Huntington Beach. My doctor informed me that the ultrasound test showed three tumors in my left testicle and that I needed to go get another ultrasound test immediately to confirm what the first one showed. He also told me that if the second test confirmed what the first test showed I would be loosing my testicle. Upon hearing this all my blood rushed back into my heart to hide. Instead of throwing on my wetsuit I threw on a blue gown and again had my testicles inspected by a lady with a magic wand. That night I got the results from the second ultrasound. I had tumors in my testicle and I would have to have it removed from my body. This was a Friday night so I had to wait until Monday to have a vile of blood tested and take a ride through the Computed Axial Tomography machine (CT scan). If I did have cancer the tests would show if it had spread to other parts of my body. This was the first of many very nervous and anxious times of waiting during my adventure. Waiting to take tests; waiting to get the results from tests; waiting to have surgery; waiting to heal; waiting to find out what to do next; waiting for all this to be over. I have learned how to be very patient by being a cancer patient.

My blood tests and CT scan were clean, normal, negative. There were no signs that cancer had invaded any other part of my body. Exhale. In fact there was no sure sign that I had cancer in my testicle. But I was told the only way to know for sure is to cut the testicle out and look at the tumor under a microscope. I met with another urologist to get a second opinion. He confirmed, surgery is the only way to know for sure. I was scheduled to have surgery in a week with my original urologist and I kept the date with him.

The surgery, Radical Inguinal Orchiectomy (they may call it radical, but it is definitely not rad) is relatively simple. Through an incision in the lower gut area the testicle and spermatic cord are removed. They do not go in through the scrotum as you would think because they do not want to risk “spilling” the cancer into the sac, which has a different lymphatic system than the testicles. Since they have to cut through some muscles the recovery from the surgery is somewhat painful. As I write this I am three weeks into the healing process. I have been walking around just fine for the last two weeks, but I am going to need to stay out of the ocean for another two weeks to make sure everything is healed up properly.

The bisection of my testicle revealed the presence of one tumor, not three as the ultrasound tests indicated, and it was a cancerous tumor. There were actually three types of cancer; 80% mature teratoma, 15% seminoma, and 5% yolk sac tumor. There were no signs of the cancer spreading, no signs of cancer in my spermatic cord (which is where the cancer would have spread to next on its way to the lymph nodes), and the types of cancer that I had are not the kinds that tend to spread rapidly.

I was very blessed to find my testicular cancer at a very early stage. I do not have to do any chemotherapy or radiation therapy, nor do I have to undergo Retroperitoneal Lymph Node Dissection surgery to remove my abdominal lymph nodes. I will be on careful surveillance, getting blood tests and CT scans periodically for the next few years.

As my case shows, this type of cancer is very easy to cure if it is found very early. Even if it has spread it is very sensitive to chemotherapy and there is a very high success rate, but as I am sure Adam Popp will tell you, chemo is not fun. I can only imagine. One scary thing about this cancer is that the symptoms are minor. I never had any feelings of sickness and never had any pain or discomfort in my testicle. If I had not accidentally noticed the bump when I did there is no telling when I would have found it or when the cancerous cells would have started to spread death around my body. The best way to catch it is to do regular checks.

-John Rinek