Jan 07 2025 32 mins 1
On today’s @CancerInterviews podcast, Joe Brennan tells us how he survived testicular cancer. He says in April 2024, he noticed his right testicle was unusually hard, and immediately sought medical attention. His urologist called for an ultrasound, which revealed a cyst on the testicle, which led to a diagnosis of seminoma pT1a, or Stage One testicular cancer. That led to an orchiectomy, a surgical procedure that removed his right testicle and his spermatic cord. Joe said recovery from the surgery was much tougher than the procedure itself, but after two weeks he was back at work as a financial coach. He says these days his health is back to what it was before his diagnosis.
Joe was in the shower one day when he noticed that while his left testicle felt normal, the right testicle was hard, “like a baseball.” He didn’t waste time and scheduled an appointment with a urologist, who made a fist and said a normal testicle will feel like the ‘meat’ part, or soft part of the hand; but said if a testicle has that sort of hardness, like a knuckle, that should be a cause for concern. When the urologist determined Joe’s right testicle had that hardness, he said an ultrasound should be performed on Joe’s testicles. It showed a cyst on the right testicle, the urologist said cancer was likely indicated, and he was right.
The necessary procedure was an orchiectomy, which was surgery aimed at removing the cancerous testicle and Joe’s spermatic cord. Joe said he was under a general anesthetic for the two-hour procedure, which was a success. However, he said what followed was much more difficult. He thought he would be back at work as a financial coach in a day or two, but that wasn’t the case.
Joe Brennan said he was laid up for close to two weeks. He said he experienced a lot of pain “down there.” He had trouble walking, couldn’t do any heavy lifting and needed to take Vicodin for a couple days before switching to ibuprofen. He was eventually able to return to work, could walk normally and could play with his small children, which included picking them up.
Joe says those two weeks were tough. He said he would allow himself an hour each day to be sad, which sometimes involved breaking down in tears, as he still wasn’t certain about his recovery, but other than that hour, he wanted to be positive and upbeat for his wife and children.
Joe Brennan says he is doing fine but advises men to “check their balls” once a month, so that if anything is wrong, the prospect of testicular cancer can be detected and addressed at an early stage, as his was.
Additional Resources:
The Testicular Cancer Society: https://www.testicularcancersociety.org
Joe on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jsbrennan/
Joe on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/official.jsbrennan
