24 July 2009

I know I told y’all a story in the last post, so I thought I would add a second one.

About seven years ago I had a small medical issue similar to what my wife and I are going through now with her mammogram and the ultrasound she will get done a week from today.

No one ever talks about this. Women have no problems talking about breast self-exams and things like that. But what I want to talk about is men doing testicular self-exams.

 You see about seven years ago I had done my self-exam like I usually do and I found something that wasn’t right. At the time I was an OTR truck driver so I have to wait several weeks before I could schedule the ultrasound for when I would be at home.

Luckily it was only a small cyst and I still have it. Every month I check it to make sure it hasn’t gotten bigger, or that there are more.

During that few weeks of waiting for the ultrasound freaked out M, but I have few memories of that time, so I apparently didn’t worry about it to much.

But the think is, men don’t talk about things like this. I mean, think about it. If I had not caught this lump on my testicle and it had been cancer I could very well be dead by now!

So guys, do your own self-exams. A nice hot shower will usually loosen you up enough for you to feel your testicles. Or sometime take a bath instead. Or just anytime things have loosened up enough to feel the testicle. You need to do this every month.

Y’all, cancer is no freaking joke and if you think about it for more than a minute, you’ll realize that you know some one who either has had cancer and survived it or you know some one who has died from it.

So from puberty to the grave, everyone needs to do their own self-exams.

You just might save your own life.

I’m Alive… So Far…