Page 17 - Mangwanani Magazine - June2017

A CHanIcEAerLMLS..O.urvivor

My Cancer Story.
by Leon Hannibal

May 2014 was the month my life was thrown into the chaos of the unknown. (I have no doubt that my wife felt the same once my
diagnosis was confirmed) The terror of a cancer diagnosis. How could this be? I am not that old! (I was 41 years old) I have a wife and
two young daughters. They need me. I can’t die now! What about the future? I stil have so many things I need to do before I die. I stil
have a home loan. Other financial obligations. This can’t be happening! I need to bring up my girls and teach them how to look after
themselves! I need to look after my wife so we can sit on the beach and hold hands when we are old.

It was happening. I saw the lab report. Mixed germ cel tumour showing He does a physical. Quickly says it doesn’t feel or look good. Sends me for
both seminomatous and non-seminomatous malignant components. ultrasound. Radiologist looks gravely il after scan. I tel him to give it to me
(Google here we come!) Prominent background vascularity and scattered straight. He says it looks like bad news. Back to Dr Miceli. He agrees. Books
lymphoid cels are noted. (Google again!). The non-seminomatous tumour me in for emergency orchiectomy first thing the next morning. (google that
component includes areas of embryonal carcinoma as wel as and panic some more). S**t! I am going to be a unibal”. In early the next
choriocarcinoma (Google again and panic this time!) This particular one morning for the op. it was cold and I was quite damn nervous. I had a
carries with it a high mortality rate as the choriocarcinoma is very tonsilectomy 38 years previously. That was the last time I had been
aggressive and is carried in the blood while the original tumour often dies unconscious. After the op, I also had a CT scan to check for any swolen
out (as the lab report did state, there was significant necrosis of the lymph nodes or any other sign of metastasis. Scan was al clear (yay!)
tumour). This choriocarcinoma metastasizes early to the lungs, liver and Blood tests were done to check my tumour markers. They were high-ish.
brain among others. Quickly! 27 when the normal was between 0 and 10. (just by the way, al my tumour
marker tests since then have measured between 20 and 30. Above the
This al started on a Wednesday morning. 21st May 2014. I woke up and did limit of 0 – 10. Apparently I have “floating marker syndrome”.)
the “man scratch”. Hugh? What’s this? Lefty feels bigger than righty. Must be
my imagination. Get up, put the kettle on, make coffee. Check the news. It al moved very fast from there. (mind you, it had been a bit of a rocket
Hop in the shower. In the shower. Wash from top down. Oh, what’s this? ride so far) A week after surgery, I got the positive cancer results and was
Lefty is bigger. Not sore. Just bigger. Must be something trivial. Ignore it. Life referred to the oncologist. He immediately prescribed chemotherapy. This
went on. Did notice toward the end of the day that getting into the car and was very scary. I was to receive 2 cycles of aggressive BEP. This was
getting comfortable was not as easy as before. Ignore it. Just being adjuvant treatment as the testicle (complete with tumour) had been
paranoid. removed and my tumour markers were not very high. I was to wait for my
surgical wound to heal before chemo so I was scheduled to start chemo
Wake up Thursday morning 22nd May 2014. Do the “man scratch”. WTF? on 09th June 2014. I had a scuba diving weekend booked and paid for
Lefty has just about doubled in size. Ignore it. No. Can’t ignore it. Usual 13th to 16th June 2014. My oncologist said I could go if I felt up to it. I asked if I
routine. In the shower. I can even SEE it is swolen. Stil not sore. It feels a bit could drink beer. He said sure, have a couple.
hard. Something wrong. That was when I told my wife. “Love”, I said.
“Something is wrong. I think I should see a doctor. A urologist preferably. That did NOT happen. I started the BEP chemo regimen. Day 1 was okay, I
Please can you see if you can get me an appointment with Gelman?” He is guess. I had to sit for 6 hours while enjoying a drip of some seriously
the guy I saw years back to do a sperm count when we were trying for noxious chemicals. BEP is administered in 3 week cycles. The first week is
kids. He was not available but I got an appointment that afternoon with Dr quite hectic with 5 to 6 hour sessions every day. BEP is Bleomycin, Etopiside
Miceli. After a VERY long day, I was there. and Cisplatin. The weekend after was…wel, I don’t realy remember much

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