So I then, next thing I knew I woke up back in the hospital in the normal ward. I had a tube up my nose, I had a drip in my neck er I had a drip in my arm, no I had a drip in both arms, had a catheter in, I had a drain out the side of my stomach so I was a, I was really wired up. And I had, I had morphine on tap with a little button which was quite nice but you could only put in so much at a time which was a bit unfair I thought. I was in quite a bit of pain, I was just rigid on my back because as you can imagine they’d cut through all of, really the whole front of your stomach so I couldn’t obviously really roll around or lift myself up at all. I was probably like that for a day and a half. I did hallucinate a little bit on the morphine, which is a bit weird.

Yes and when they did start to bring me back onto food it was, I was only allowed like a ration of water, this much at a time, like every hour er and then I might have been allowed some Cornflakes or something like that. But I think I, I snuck a bit too much water and, and I was sick. And as you can imagine I was bent over, you’ve just had that operation, you know your stomach goes all, oh I was holding myself in going “No,” and all that came up was green which you probably didn’t really want to know but (laughs). It’s funny some of the colours that are inside you and you don’t appreciate they’re there, they’re not particularly nice. But so I slowly, within 4 or 5 days I was back on my feet, walking round the hospital, wondering when can I go home because it was doing my head in being stuck in there for so long.

What I would say, well quite a big factor, which I had forgotten about, the final operation because of where it is, I was told that it can affect ejaculation. And they did say “Have you got your sperm banked?” I said “Yes.” He said “Well,” the urologist said “it is rare but because the nerves that control ejaculation run, are running very close to where the tumour is we may have to remove those as well and you might not be able to ejaculate. So it meant you wouldn’t be able to have children in the regular way. And I said “Oh right okay.” I thought oh well, again it’s the lesser of two evils really, you either cut it out, and have that risk, or you leave it in and then have the risk of it possibly coming back. So I just, well there was no sort of contest for that. But it has, it has actually, it doesn’t affect, I can’t ejaculate, it doesn’t affect erections or orgasms or anything like that but I can’t have kids normally now and so.

But your sperm is frozen?

Yes and were, well we are in the process now of finding out what weve got to do to actually make that happen. So er that’s , I suppose that is the only, the biggest effect that has had on me is that.

Did you have any sort of feelings at that time that it might affect your masculinity or anything?

No, not at all. At the time I weighed almost 18 stone er I was pretty big and I was known for being big and I was, I was a bouncer at the local university and I didn’t, I still didn’t, I felt almost invincible. And this minor operation, what I felt like, well it is I think a minor operation hadn’t affected me whatsoever. I was actually back training lightly a week after the operation, much against obviously medical advice (laughs) but I was.

And then I had regular check-ups. Because I moved with the job they also referred me to the local oncology unit so I then, I was having for the first month a blood test every 2 weeks and a blood test and a chest x-ray and like a physical examination every month. That lasted for 6 months

Somebody feeling your stomach?

Yes stomach, er between your legs, all your like, again all the sort of lymph nodes around the body, your heart and lungs and whatever. As I say, yeah, chest x-ray, take a blood sample from you. And so that was, that was like every month and then after 6 months it goes to every 2 months and then after another 6 months it goes to every 3 months. And I’ve just had one last month and now because I’m going into my fourth year it will be every 6 months now, which er it did turn out, towards the end it was just, it was a day off. I could work out that I could, if I got in there nice and early I could get everything done by 10 o clock, I could be home by 11 and have the afternoon off. So I never felt as I went back to the hospital, Oh God what are they going to find again.

You didn’t feel anxious?

No I thought well once it’s out and the doctors said you know “It’s out now, you’re going to be, it’s very rare that, luckily with testicular cancer once it is out and you’ve been shown the all clear then I think it’s very rare that it does come back, they told me that. So I was confident that it was just again a routine, I’ve got to do this so that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 3 years.

So I saw the urologist and he said “Yes you know well take it [the tumour] out, it’s ,” and I think I said “So will I be in and out?” because with the first operation I was in and out within a couple of days, so I said “Oh, will I be in and out within a day then?” And he said “No, probably 8 to 10 days you’ll be in hospital for.” I thought you’re joking. And he said, “You probably won’t be able to eat for about 8 days either. And I was like, What!’, I just couldn’t comprehend that they were going to do something that drastic. So I was like, Oh great. By this stage I thought, I didn’t think Oh God, it wasn’t like I was told I’ve got to have chemotherapy, you know you’ve got cancer, it was a case of, by that stage it was okay it’s [the tumour] probably dead, this is another thing I’ve got to do, you know hopefully the finally step to make sure I’m clear of it.

And so I went in, it was the same hospital I had the chemotherapy at, and I went in and I was there for I think for a day and then I was put on like a, a bit like the same sort of stuff I take for weight training, it’s just like little protein milkshakes to sort of empty your stomach. Because basically what they were going to do was cut me open from sort of here to here, er top to bottom, remove my stomach, remove my bowel, obviously cut out all the tumour because that’s where the tumour was all sort of hidden all the way, right at the back, next to the spine on the lymph nodes. Rip all that out, then put everything back in again and that was why I couldn’t eat for a couple of days because they say whenever they touch your bowel it affects your, the way everything works and you’ve got to slowly let that come back sort of come back into use slowly. So I had, I had an operation, my Dad was there, obviously I went and they tried to give me an epidural, which didn’t work because the muscles in my back were too thick and they couldn’t get the needle through (laughs). But it didn’t stop them trying 2 or 3 times so that hurt a little bit. And the next thing I knew I woke up in intensive care which was, is a precaution after having an operation like that, they will automatically put you in intensive care.