Donald remembered that incident quickly and smiled at Michael. He hoped his confidence would convey itself to the young man. “I’ve reduced the executives at Red Rose Insurance to cowering puppies, Michael. Don’t worry about them. You’re in my care and I’ll go to bat for you if we run into any trouble with them.”
“How much will the surgery cost?” Michael asked, his eyes wide, his features still bearing his nervousness.
“That’s not for you to worry about,” Donald said, putting his arm around Michael and leading him to the door of the examination room. “In fact, I don’t want you to worry about this. Doctor’s orders. You’re going to be fine.”
Michael paused at the door and turned to Donald. “This surgery… how… is it necessary even if it does turn out to be cancer? I mean… don’t they treat cancer with radiation or something?”
“If the blood work comes back showing the white and T cell activity that suggests cancer, then a surgical procedure called a radical inguinal orchiectomy is performed where an incision is made in the groin and the testicle is removed through it.”
“So you don’t, like, cut through the ball sac?”
“The scrotum? No, Michael.”
“You have to actually take it out?”
Donald continued with the condensed medical lesson. “It has to be removed to be examined in the lab to see what kind of cancer it is. If a tumor called seminoma is found and it is verified that we caught it early in the first stage, treatment will be the surgery itself and a mild dose of radiation therapy to the abdomen where the abdominal lymph nodes are. If the tumor is nonseminoma, then the lymph nodes in your abdomen will be removed following the radical inguinal orchiectomy, to be followed again by either radiation or chemotherapy. It’s difficult to tell you now what the treatment options are without knowing exactly what we’re dealing with, but it’s important that you get those tests done today.” Donald made his order clear with a direct look into Michael’s eyes. “Do you understand?”
Michael nodded, rubbing his face with a shaky hand. “Yeah. I understand.”
“Good.” Donald clapped his hand on Michael’s shoulder. “Get those tests done and I’ll call you tomorrow. And don’t worry… everything will be fine.”
“Will this… surgery… will it affect my sex life or my ability to have kids?” Michael’s voice was low, barely a whisper.
“Not at all,” Donald said. “You will be able to function normally within a few weeks after the surgery, and it won’t affect your fertility rate at all. In fact, I’ve had several patients who later became fathers after having undergone treatment for testicular cancer.” Donald smiled again. “You’ll be fine, Michael. I understand that the mere thought that you might have cancer is scary, but trust me when I say testicular cancer is highly curable. In fact, if you’d like, I can send a couple of pamphlets home with you that explain things further. Okay?”
Michael nodded. “Yeah.” He looked a little better. “That would be great.”
“I’ll get them and leave them with the front desk for you to pick up when you check out.” Donald checked the clock. He was three minutes late for his next appointment. “I’ll call you tomorrow with those test results,” he said.
“Okay. Thanks, doc.” Michael held out his hand and Donald shook it.
“No problem, Michael.”
As Donald headed back down the hall for his next appointment he made a mental note to confer with Dr. Schellenger at Lancaster Urological Medical Group regarding his probable diagnosis of testicular cancer for Michael Brennan. He would recommend Dr. Schellenger to perform the radical inguinal orchiectomy if his schedule permitted it, and he would let Dr. Schellenger’s Medical Assistant know that Red Rose was the insurance carrier just in case the two had to face the panel of men who thought they were doctors.
Just another day, Donald thought as he put on his best friendly physician’s face and entered Examination Room #4 to greet his next patient for the afternoon.
CHAPTER TWO
MICHELLE WAS SITTING in the cubicle that had been assigned to her for her latest gig—creating a data warehouse for a manufacturing firm—when her cell phone rang. She pulled it off her belt clip and answered. “Hello.”
“Michelle?” It sounded like Sam Greenberg.
“Speaking.”
“Sam Greenberg, Michelle.” She felt her hopes rise. “I’m calling to formally offer you the position. Is April 3 still a good start date for you?”
“Absolutely!” Michelle felt giddy with excitement. “I’ll be there bright and early.”
Sam laughed. “Wonderful. Let me be the first to welcome you to our team. I’m very glad to have you on board.”
“I’m glad to be a part of your team, Mr. Greenberg,” Michelle said. “Thank you.”
When she hung up she paused briefly, ignoring the flickering screen of the laptop in front of her. It was Friday, her last day on this assignment. She’d have a week off to relax and get things in order at home which she’d been wanting to do, then she’d start the new job bright and early the following Monday morning. It was the perfect transition. All that was left was to inform the consultant group she was working for now that she’d be unavailable for a while. Common par with contractors.
The rest of the afternoon flew by for Michelle Dowling.
SHE TOLD HER fiancé, Donald, the news when he arrived home from work.
“That’s great!” Donald said, sweeping her up in his arms. She hugged him, felt his sandpapery face rubbing against hers as he kissed her. “We’ll have to celebrate.” He headed toward the wine rack in the kitchen. He was still wearing his white lab coat, which he thought made him look more doctorly; she thought it made him look like a mad scientist. “Do we still have that bottle of Chablis?”
“Yep,” Michelle said. She’d arrived home from work an hour before and had already gotten dinner started—a casserole in the crock pot. “It’ll go with this casserole I have.”
“Good.” Donald found the bottle and was rummaging for the opener in the junk drawer. He found it and began fumbling with the cork, tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth in concentration. “So you really got it then. This is great news. And the pay is what they offered you in the first interview?”
“Yep,” Michelle began setting the table. “Seventy thousand to start, plus bonuses.”
“Wow!”
With this new salary she’d now be making as much as what Donald made at Crossroads Medical Group. They had talked about the possibility of her quitting her job and returning to her avocation—music and art—if Donald landed a position with a larger, private medical group. Such a position would push his earnings over the six figure mark and would be enough to sustain them for the life they wanted—a modest house in the country, enough money to not only pay the bills and mortgage but have fun with, and then, as they’d been discussing recently, getting married and having children.
The thought excited Michelle for reasons she couldn’t dwell on now. Things had to be taken one step at a time, and with this new job they were already halfway there. The house they were in was in a nice development in Lititz that had recently appreciated in value. Donald had bought it four years ago; it could easily be sold and, with the money from both their jobs, buy them that ranch house in the country they’d always dreamed of. Getting married would be a cinch—neither of them wanted to go through with a formal ceremony. There were few people in her family she’d want to throw a formal wedding party for anyway, and Donald’s parents were open-minded enough to accept whatever their son wanted. They could get married this summer, get the house shortly after and then maybe by fall—