Brian Vesall survived Stage 2A testicular cancer | orchiectomy | bleomycin | etopside | cisplatin | teratoma
- Bruce Morton
- Dec 27, 2025
- 11 min read
In 2021, Brian Vesall noticed some pain in one of his testicles when getting in his car. He sought medical attention, which led to his getting an ultrasound. After briefly looking at the scan, a urologist confirmed to Brian that he had Stage 2A testicular cancer. He underwent an orchiectomy to remove the cancerous testicle, followed by an aggressive chemotherapy regimen of bleomycin, etopiside and cisplatin. But he wasn’t done. Brian also underwent an additional surgical procedure to remove approximately 30 lymph nodes. As daunting as his treatment was, Brian chose to address it with a sense of humor, which he still has after achieving survivorship and advocating for other men diagnosed with testicular cancer.
Brian’s cancer journey began when he felt pain in a testicle as he was getting in his car. Upon further inspection, he noticed a “hard spot on one side.” He immediately went to see his primary physician, who sent him to a urologist. The urologist called for an ultrasound and only minutes after seeing its results told Brian he had Stage 2A testicular cancer. The diagnosis was confirmed with Alpha-Fetaprotein and BHCG, or, Human Chorionic Gonadotropin tests, whose results were far above the normal range.
Addressing his cancerous testicle meant just one remedy, an orchiectomy, surgery that would remove the testicle. Diagnosed on September 27, 2021, Brian had the procedure done just three days later. He was told to avoid any lifting and really, just about any type of strenuous physical activity.
In November 2021, the surgery was followed by three rounds of BEP chemotherapy, which stood for bleomycin, etopiside and cisplatin. Brian said he suffered the usual side effects, including cognitive issues, fatigue and hair loss.
In addition, Brian Vesall had to undergo an additional surgical procedure known as RPLND, or Retroperitoneal Lymph Node Dissection in June 2022, to remove approximately 30 lymph nodes
Brian’s health is pretty much back to normal, but a byproduct of his treatment regimen is that he suffers from retrograde ejaculation, meaning that semen travels backward into the bladder during orgasm instead of exiting the penis.
By way of advice, Brian Vesall says if you experience the symptoms of testicular cancer, you should act right away, and at all times, be your own advocate
Additional Resources:
Support Groups:
Man Up To Cancer: https://www.manuptocancer.org
The Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation: https://www.testicularcancerawarenessfoundation.org
Brian’s Speech at TCAF’s San Diego Conference:
Brian’s Appearance on the TCAF “It Takes Balls” podcast:
TRANSCRIPT
Bruce Morton: This is the @CancerInterviews podcast. I’m your host, prostate cancer survivor Bruce Morton. Once our guest survived Stage 2A testicular cancer, he wasn’t done clashing swords with the disease. Brian Vesall of Blaine, Minnesota, not only advocates for others diagnosed with testicular cancer, he has come to realize that part of that fight should include humor. Now here’s the story of a guy who at times addresses a serious topic in a non-serious way, and Brian, welcome to Cancer Interviews.
Brian Vesall: Thanks for having me.
BM: Before we hear about your cancer journey, Brian, we want to hear about life away from cancer. So, if you would, tell us a bit about where you are from, what you have done for work, and what you like to do for fun.
BV: I am from Blaine, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. I am huge hockey fan. I am a huge music fan, mostly metal, and just try to take everything in my life and put it into the cancer realm.
BM: Brian, for all of us diagnosed with cancer, there was that time when we noticed something abnormal about our health, which touched off a chain of events leading to diagnosis. When did you first notice something wasn’t quite right, and what did you do about it?
BV: August 24, 2021. I first noticed some pain when hopping into my car. I was delivering some custom hockey gloves made with the Minnesota North Stars colors. Later that night I also noticed some more pain and that was very abnormal.
BM: Did you act on this right away?
BV: I did the non-guy thing and acted right away. I have kicked so many physical things down the road and not acted on them, and wife knew that when I said I had to call the doctor tomorrow, that was something was wrong.
BM: And what led to your diagnosis?
BV: First, I had to start with my primary doc. Got an appointment set up with her, then set up an appointment for an ultrasound with a urologist.
BM: And was it from the ultrasound that you found out you had cancer?
BV: That’s correct. Perhaps my primary did not want to be the bearer of bad news, but the ultrasound was very apparent from the urologist. He had my scan on a screen for five seconds and said it was cancer, so it didn’t take long.
BM: Quite obviously it was a bad day, so I won’t ask about it, but everyone is different, every diagnosis is different. Against that backdrop, how did you handle this awful news?
BV: It was difficult. One thing that was fortunate was that my doctor was not very far from home, about a ten-minute drive. My parents lived in the same city. So, we went from the doctor, and my wife, she has been my rock, she and I went to my parents’ house. My sister happened to be at my parents' house. The hard thing, beyond thinking of myself, was that my parents and my family were really going to worry about me.
BM: By the way, we hope you will find time to like and subscribe. And if you click on the bell icon, you will be notified every time we post an interview. We also want to remind you that at Cancer Interviews, we are not distributors of medical advice. If you seek medical advice, do yourself a favor and contact a licensed health care professional.
So, Brian, now you have been diagnosed and as we have learned doing these interviews, different types of cancer present different levels of flexibility in terms of treatment. In your case, did you have treatment options?
BV: Due to the nature of this cancer, you can’t go in to do a biopsy of a testicle and pull it out because there is risk of spread, so usually the first check is about the possibility of doing an orchiectomy. So, September 27, 2021, the doctor told me I had cancer and that we had act right away and remove the cancerous testicle. I had the first surgery, the orchiectomy, three days later.
BM: A lot of guys will be interested in the answer to this question, Brian, but physically, how did it feel during and after the orchiectomy?
BV: That was a bit of a change. They make an incision in the lower abdomen and remove the testicle. I couldn’t lift anything for awhile and had to stay away from a lot of activities, so, it was just making sure I didn’t pick my cat. I couldn’t do any lifting, couldn’t play any hockey, which was a real killer.
BM: And as if that weren’t bad enough, after the surgery came a chemo regimen. If you would, describe that.
BV: They do the AFP, which is the Alpha-Fetaprotein test along with the BHCG test, both a growth hormone test. My results were high, off the chart. So, some guys start with the orchiectomy, they lose the testicle and that’s it. And I foolishly thought that acting right away, that I was in the clear; but a scan showed that that was not the case. They had to go to my abdomen, and I had to do three rounds of BEP chemo, which stands for Bleomycin, Etopiside and Cisplatin, so that brought on a whole other set of side effects.
BM: That sounds like a very high-octane chemo regimen. What were the worst parts?
BV: There’s the brain fog that still happens, fatigue, nausea, which for me wasn’t too bad for me. Then there is the hair loss, but obviously there were a lot of changes. There were the side effects and treatment of the side effects.
BM: So, let’s see. You have had a testicle removed, followed by a nasty chemo regimen. Under these daunting circumstances, how are you able to address them with a sense of humor?
BV: Well, the ultimate irony is that when I noticed the lump, it happened when I started a new job and ironically, with nut cancer, I started a job at a nut company. So, you test your longevity a month after you get it, that you tell your boss that you have cancer. It was kind of a delicate balance as to how many nut jokes I could make at work without losing my job, but everybody knew that I was going through something, and it has just been a lot of humor. I am part of a podcast called “It Takes Balls,” so it has been kind of a running joke. I admit that with humor, this kind of taboo thing because it is south of the border, so to say. I have really use humor a lot, to joke about that, to spread awareness, so guys understand that their chances of survivorship are much better if you act right away, and I know unfortunately, a lot of guys don’t.
BM: Now we have to veer away from something humorous to something not so humorous. After undergoing chemotherapy, so you had to undergo another surgical procedure. Tell us about that.
BV: Yeah, a hat trick of cancer fun. Testicular cancer usually starts in the testicle. It will usually go up the abdomen. After that, I had a rapidly-growing teratoma that did not respond to chemo. So, they did something in 2022 called RPLND surgery, which stands for Retroperitoneal Lymph Node Dissection. My wife tells me I was cut kind of like a fish. They start at your sternum, go down around your belly button, so you have got a long, upside-down question mark, they take your guts out, they cut out the teratoma abd the 30-odd lymph nodes that cancer is likely to go through. Then they put your guts back in and 48 staples later, I have a crazy train track on my belly.
BM: After all that, you had to feel like you were trending toward survivorship. How exciting was that?
BV: Tempered excitement. Each successive treatment has its own set of side effects, and you have to adjust to the new normal. After this, I wish I would have known, but with retrograde ejaculation, which the chance of having kids is pretty much cut off. So, my wife and I are working our way around that, working on other options right now, but once you have cleared that third hurdle and I think that we did it so quickly, remember this all happened between September 2021 and June 2022, we think we are in the right place. Then it comes with the scans down the road and scanxiety, and those sorts of things. Every time you go in for a scan and have a clear scan, you think you are on the road to survival. Then we go on more of a path of positivity and awareness and a lot of life perspective, I guess.
BM: You had mentioned your wife as being a solid source of support, but you have received support from outside you four walls. One of them is the Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation. If you would, tell us what it has done for you.
BV: When I was diagnosed, I Googled myself crazy the first night when I noticed the lump. I went online and found a lot of different groups, and the Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation had so much information that I couldn’t find anywhere else. That’s kind of become my new family. I had my first post on their website the day after my diagnosis. People commented right away and people were positive. It has been such a wealth of information ,and they have a private Facebook page, but I am just the opposite, I am Mr. Overshare. More people know about my testicles than probably should, but that’s okay.
BM: I suspect TCAF has a website. If someone wants to go there, what is its address?
BV: Yes. It is https://www.testicularcancerawarenessfoundation.org.
BM: The Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation helps diagnosed with the disease bearing its name; but there is another organization with which you are familiar that comes to the aid of all men diagnosed with cancer. That group is Man Up To Cancer. What can you tell us about this group?
BV: It’s been truly amazing. With testicular cancer, 10,000 guys each year get diagnosed. In the grand scheme of things, those are pretty small numbers, but I was going online, looking for resources for some other guys I know who had been diagnosed, and a whole new brotherhood emerged. Man Up To Cancer is an international organization for guys with any type of cancer. It doesn’t matter your race, your sexual orientation, your religion, it doesn’t matter. Anything. There are people from all over the world who comment, being a support system for each other. It’s literally all guys, and we are a wolfpack, always looking out for each other.
BM: Man Up To Cancer. It, too, has a website. What is its address?
BM: Brian, we want to close the way we always do, and it is with this question. If you met someone one-on-one, who had just been diagnosed with testicular cancer, this guy, likely will have lots of questions and you could have lots of answers; but if there is one thing from your conversation that you would really want that man to remember, what would it be?
BV: Act fast. Act quickly. Be your own best advocate. Cancer is not a fine wine. It doesn’t get better with age. So, act quickly.
BM: Excellent. Brian, thank you so much. You have given us a story that is not only inspirational and informative, but it might make us laugh a little bit and sometimes we need to laugh in the face of that demon that is cancer. So, Brian, thanks very much for being with us on Cancer Interveiws.
BV: Appreciate it. Have a good one.
BM: And that’ll do it for this episode of Cancer Interviews. We want to remind you as we always do when we finish, that if you or a loved one are on a cancer journey, you are not alone. There are people out there like Brian, organizations like the Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation and Man Up To Cancer that can be a tremendous source of assistance. So, until next time, we will see you down the road.
Additional Resources:
Support Groups:
Man Up To Cancer: https://www.manuptocancer.org
The Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation: https://www.testicularcancerawarenessfoundation.org
Brian’s Speech at TCAF’s San Diego Conference:
Brian’s Appearance on the TCAF “It Takes Balls” podcast:
SHOW NOTES
Brian Vesall, Testicular Cancer Survivor – Blaine, Minnesota, USA
In 2021, Brian Vesall noticed some pain in one of his testicles when getting in his car. He sought medical attention, which led to his getting an ultrasound. After briefly looking at the scan, a urologist confirmed to Brian that he had Stage 2A testicular cancer. He underwent an orchiectomy to remove the cancerous testicle, followed by an aggressive chemotherapy regimen of bleomycin, etopiside and cisplatin. But he wasn’t done. Brian also underwent an additional surgical procedure to remove approximately 30 lymph nodes. As daunting as his treatment, Brian chose to address it with a sense of humor, which he still has after achieving survivorship and advocating for other men diagnosed with testicular cancer.
Additional Resources:
Support Groups:
The Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation
Man Up To Cancer
Time Stamps:
01:35 Brian noticed pain in one of his testicles.
02:56 He learned of his diagnosis from an ultrasound.
03:31 How he handled the news of his diagnosis.
04:52 Is asked if he had treatment options.
05:40 Brian recalls having a testicle removed.
06:33 Describes his chemotherapy regimen.
08:18 Explains how throughout his cancer journey, he maintains his sense of humor.
10:50 After his orchiectomy and his chemotherapy regimen, he faced additional surgery.
11:42 Recalls his moving toward survivorship.
KEYWORDS (tags):
testicular cancer
orchiectomy
bleomycin
etopiside
cisplatin
alpha-fetaprotein test
teratoma
retrograde ejaculation
