January 6th. Day 1. Visit with Doctor.

"Hi Marc, why are you here?"
"Continued pain and swelling in my left testicle for two weeks now. Anti biotic and Vicadin do not help. My friend is an internist and he recommend I see you to set up a testicular ultrasound?"

"Alright. Let's take a look"

I drop my pants and unfortunately got to hear from my doctor what I would normally love to hear my wife say.

"Oh, Jesus Christ" (Really, that's what he said).

Crap. I, think. It is not Orchitis.

He grabs me gently by the shoulders (after I put my pants back on, of course) and tells me that he is 90% sure he has bad news for me but only an ultrasound would tell for sure.
He walks me to the nurses' station and stops them all from working.

"Marc needs an ultrasound tomorrow. I do not care if there is room or not. He is going tomorrow".
He turns to me and orders me not to go to work tomorrow and come in and wait for the ultrasound, no matter how long it takes. He'll call my office if need be to tell them I cannot come into work. Stay strong, I will see you tomorrow, he says.

4 mile drive home took a long, long time.