UCLA Health Innovation Challenge

Seeking breakthroughs to build a better world.

[graysonfritsch]

Like many young men, my testicular cancer diagnosis came out of thin air. I had no symptoms and thought I was a healthy, twenty-six-year old, juggling a job and working on my MBA when I suddenly had a pain in my left testicle that made me drop to my knees. It felt as if someone taken a dagger and shish kebabed me.
At first, my doctor misdiagnosed it as an infection. But after a couple weeks of minimal improvement I sought a second opinion. Following a physical exam, blood tests and an ultrasound, my new doctor confirmed that I had testicular cancer. Surgery—just two days later—revealed that the cancer had spread outside the testicle. Testicular cancer has a fairly predictable path of travel when it metastasizes: lymph nodes, then the pelvis, then the abdomen, next behind the kidneys, then the lungs and finally the brain. Mine had already spread to my lymph nodes, pelvis and lower abdomen.
Five months of intense chemotherapy followed. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of my journey.