Bubba's Testicular Cancer Fund

It hurts me so much as a girlfriend, mother, best friend to have to make one of these posts in hopes for any help we can get or any resources we can benefit from. After spending almost 3 years together my boyfriend and I have accomplished so many things together, one of those accomplishments include giving birth to our baby boy Cooper in February 2017. Around that time he had noticed a tender lump in his chest, but pushed it aside because of other worries. Between taking care of me being postpartum, and our newborn baby we didn't have time to think about it. About a month ago he had noticed that his left testicle became enlarged, our son suffers from fluid build up so we figured that was probably it and it would resolve on its own so we didn't go see a doctor because he was not in any pain. On June 14th, 2017 he began to have chronic pain and we decided it was time to go to the doctor because the swelling did not go down. ( I know we probably should have went way sooner ) They drew blood and took and ultrasound of each Testicle and measured the difference. The ultrasound showed that it was not fluid, and in fact a mass measuring out to 5 cm. Our next step was to set up surgery. June 16th, 2017 he had an surgery to remove the whole left testicle out through his groin and taken to be looked at as a possible cancerous mass. June 22nd we had our first follow up appointment to get the results back and talk about our options. We went to the appointment and he had told us that it was a 5cm cancerous mass consisting of 95% non senoma and 5% senoma. We were not supposed to have his CT scans until the 28th to make sure it had not spread anywhere else but the dr. Urged us to bump up that appointment and the same day we went to get CTs and had to wait until today to get back results on what stage it was and where it spread to. Staying positive at this point was extremely hard. Today, June 23rd, 2017 he was officially diagnosed with stage 3 testicular cancer. In today's results we also got to look at the CT scans and found that there were other places the cancer spread. The scans showed that there were small nodules in the lungs and lymph nodes in the back and abdomen. At this point next week will be a busy week. He has a blood draw that has to be sent to Iowa City before he can bank his sperm in case infertility becomes a problem after everything is all said and done, A port consultation to talk about where the port that he will be getting his chemo through will be placed, and MRI to make sure it has not spread to the brain, check his heart, lungs, and hearing before to make sure everything is strong enough to handle the chemo as well as to make sure his hearing doesn't decrease over the time, Go to Iowa City to bank his sperm, and then have his port put in. He will begin chemo July 3rd early in the morning for a three week session, 4 times. I hope, and pray to god as his girlfriend and mother of his child, that this is all it takes. After being a stay at home mom for 4 months, while Bubba took care of us I decided it was time to go back to work, but am still training and will most likely not be able to work much now with all of this. It was my turn to take care of the both of them but with these circumstances, I may not be able to do as well of a job as he did. At this point with cost of diapers, the clothes for our growing baby, bills, gas money, and unexpected medical expenses that are not going to be covered are what I am most worried about. I am at a total lost for words on why terrible things like this happen to such good people. Cancer is never convenient, but it crept up on us at the most inconvenient time. Staying strong is so hard when I have to keep it together and take care of both of them. But any help will be forever appreciated. I know taking it one day at a time is what we need to do, and I will try my hardest. It hurts my heart to see him so upset and scared of all of the possibilities and not knowing how to comfort him enough to make him feel okay. I will not let myself think negative, and only try my hardest to keep you positive. I know it's a long post, but thank you for taking the time to read.

I will make sure to keep updates posted!


Tiphanee