Russell Stine is a paramedic and firefighter who lives in the Memphis, TN area. He contacted me a few weeks ago to share with me that his family physician saved his life by finding his testicular cancer that is currently under treatment. He shares this story in a blog post entitled, "My Week As A Patient."
I had been having pain in my left testicle for about a month or so, and it started just before I went to go play airsoft in Ohio. After about two weeks the pain went away, and I thought nothing more of it.
Well Monday of this week it began hurting more, and eventually became pretty unbearable, so I went to the family practice physician down the street from my house. She did the entire physical exam on me, and really focused on what was wrong.
She didn’t know EXACTLY was the bumps and the hardening was all about, so I was referred to a urologist. I was also scheduled for an ultrasound that afternoon. The report they got back from that test said that I have 3 large neoplasms on the left side, as well as emlarged vessels. The doctor scheduled my urology appointment for Thursday of the same week. Tuesday went by rather slow, as the pain was not as bad as Monday but noticeable.
Russell is known as @HybridMedic on twitter and I got to meet him in person earlier this year in Baltimore at the EMS Today conference. He reached out to me on twitter and wanted to let me know that he wanted to share his story with my audience. I have heard from many in the Family Medicine community that for even more effective communication and who better to tell the story of Family Medicine, then a patient.
So, I hope you're able to join us on Saturday, May 14, 2011 at 9pm Eastern Daylight Time for Family Medicine Rocks Podcast Number 9 which will be live on BlogTalkRadio. For those new to the show, there will be a live chat room for you to participate. And, if you cannot listen live, you can always download the archived podcast later via iTunes. Also check out the video promo for the show above. (Yes, I know youtube is down as I post this. But, hopefully, it will be back up soon...)