Interview 33

Age at interview: 21

Age at diagnosis: 15

Brief Outline: Testicular cancer (teratoma) and secondary tumours diagnosed in 1994. Orchidectomy and 5 cycles of chemotherapy. In February 1995 major surgery to remove a secondary tumour in the abdomen, near to the spine.

Background: Student nurse; single, no children.

Said that he found a lump in his testicle but did not experience any pain or discomfort.

I was 15 years old, it was October 1994, I'd been at home and I'd found a lump on my testicle. And I'd probably had it for may be 2, 3 weeks. It wasn't really causing me much pain but it was certainly, I thought it shouldn't have been there. I wasn't so much worried about it as concerned that it shouldn't be there. So I spoke to my Mother and she obviously said that she wasn't particularly an expert in that field of body matters so she, I spoke to my Father and he said that it wasn't right. So I decided to go the GP with it. Saw my GP and he sent me away for some tests and an ultrasound the same day. So I obviously realised then that it was, it was something that was quite serious

Was it quite easy to feel the lump?

It was yes, it was definitely obvious that it was there. It was a reasonable size, probably slightly less than a quarter of the size of the testicle at the time.

And how long had you, how long had you been aware that there was something wrong before you decided to talk to anybody?

Between 2 to 3 weeks really. That was what I was remember as the time of thinking about may be I should do something, may be I shouldn't, but I'm not too sure from before that unfortunately.

Recalls the consultant explaining everything he needed to know and this made him feel better.

So as my consultant put it, it was a tumour the size of an orange in my back, which was causing this pain my back. So it was another shock at that point, to think right I've had all this done and I knew there was a possibility that I'd have to have more treatment, but to find out that I had another large tumour in my body as well was a bit daunting to say the least. So the week, the same week that I got back from holiday I was taken into the hospital that I had my treatment, and met the consultant that treated me, and he explained exactly what was going to happen, how the treatment worked, his success rates which were very, very good, it was a very high success rate for treating and curing this cancer and really, really made me feel very at ease. And I was obviously still very, very scared but he did make me feel a lot better about it than I would have if I'd just been told, he did explain very, very well what was going to happen.

Recalls that unhappily one doctor spoke to his parents instead of to him, and how he found that...

The communication between you and the doctors and nurses how was that?

Most of the time it was really, really good. I found the nurses very easy to get on with, slightly easier than the doctors, they seemed to know a lot, well they didn't know a lot more about it but they were a lot better at communicating it than the doctors were. There was only, I only had one really bad incident with a doctor, in fact a consultant when we were, me and my parents were sat in the room talking about something and the consultant turned to my mother and said, "So does it hurt when he does this?" And my mother looked back at him and said "I don't know why don't you ask him, he's sat next to you." And the consultant couldn't quite get his head round talking to a 15 year old as if he was an adult.

Suggests that his brother and sister had less attention because his parents were so preoccupied with him and his illness.

What was the whole impact of this on your family?

It affected my family a lot. Probably as much as it affected me. I've got a younger brother and sister who were pretty much put by the wayside and moved between family friends and other members of the family whilst I was in. And obviously my parents' focus was completely on me because I was so ill and so they, they weren't ignored but they were put aside. And my parents would get back from the hospital every evening and say "Hello, how was your day?" and eat a meal and then go straight to bed because they were coming straight back the next day. So it did affect everyone a lot.