Chemo Round Two

I haven't posted much in the last week. I guess I've been able to start focusing on other things than the treatment and cancer, which is very good. My mind starts to function again on a more normal level. I'm more relaxed and I don't freak out about every little pain I feel. In fact I haven't even felt the tiny infection in my left testicle anymore. Vitamins A,B, C and E, Isoflavones, Q10 as well as a ton of green tea have become my daily companions. I definitely don't want to give cancer another chance. I have also started to exercise once a day on the bicycle for 10 to 15 minutes. I'll move up slowly since I'm quite out of shape as I've noticed.

Round two of Chemo has gone by like a breeze. The first 4 days were as expected a little bit difficult, but definitely not the end of the world. The doctor has prescribed me some laxative which has helped a great deal with the constipation. It helps to know how the body will react. I again drank tea and water until I could not taste it anymore then I switched to apple juice and soy milk. Also rinsing my mouth with warm salt water helped with the taste a little bit. Supposedly it's also good to strengthen the gums.

I'm now in the second week. My blood results after week one were good. One more doctor visit and i'll head back to New York. I'll take things slowly but I have to start getting back into life. My bank acccount is so empty it hurts...

Feeling normal again

I start to feel completely normal again.  Every now and then the incision causes a little bit of trouble if I walk for a longer time, but it's not too drastic.  During the sleep I start to dream about pain under my armpit which worries me, but I can't tell whether it's only part of the dream or whether the pain is real.  I have not experienced the pain during the day yet so it might just be a dream.  I earlier had also a dream that my left testicle has moved up to my groins and that I need to push it back down, aaahhh.  How painful.  I remember that was the case with my right testicle because it was undescended& when I was born. Supposedly those undescended testicles have a higher chance of getting a tumor than the ones that have desceneded on their own.  Anyway I need to keep my head busy in order for these nightmares to disappear.  I have to move on.  I started a new blog called WAITING FOR CHEMO I'll be writing an entry every day until the chemo therapy is over and I moved back into my old appartment in New York which will be in approximately 6 weeks.  Well who knows maybe earlier.  The second dosis of chemotherapy is coming up in 6 days.  I'll be enjoying my life without poison until then. 

Blood Results good

It's roughly one week since the first dosis of paraplatin. All the sideffects seem to be over. It took about 7 days for the constipation to disappear. the muscle pain vanished after 3 days. I was tired for roughly 1 day. and no nausea whatsoever. But yes a major constipation.

I started another blog trying to write short thoughts or stories related to my cancer while I am waiting for the chemo to end. Please take a look. I am curious to hear what you think: WAITING FOR CHEMO.

I got my blood checked and everything looks ok. I am starting to exercise again, well not again, I am starting. I started to feel like a human being again. Walking is also going practically like before. I am still trying to walk carefully but I didn't feel anything major in about 2 weeks and I have walked about 3 or 4 kilometers a day.

Chemo Round 1

I got the first dosis of paraplatin three days ago. I went up to the hospital with my girlfriend at around 9am. The doctor said I wouldn't feel anything and I should not prepare anything of any sort. They gave me some anti nausea medicine and then I had to wait for an hour for the drug to kick in. Then I walked into a room which a bounch of beds with people on them getting their chemo. The last one in the row was mine. A nurse hooked my arm up to the IV bags with more anti nausea drugs and also the paraplatin. The needle barely hurt. The whole process took about 1 hour then the bags were empty. Two old elder men in the beds next to mine were talking about getting a few beers after the chemo.

Back home I started to feel tired, so I took a little nap after a very rich lunch. When I woke up I started to feel a slight muscle pain sort of like a flu. I was able to sleep nevertheless. Then it started... not the nausea, as it turns out they gave me enough of those anti nausea pills, but the constipation. I was never so full of shit. I could barely sit. My father got me some laxative. I stuck up 3 dosis of that stuff up my rear end and 2 dosis of the liquid version through the mouth. after 8 hours of tremendous asshole pain I finally was able to eliminate some junk.

They really could have warned me. Next time I will only eat vegetables and fruits.

Visiting the Sperm Bank

Sperm Banks. I was always curious about these places. The one I went to looked like this. "Would you like to watch some DVDs?" the nurse kindly asked me.

They made me release my potential future babies into a plastic cup with my name on it. I needed the help of my girlfriend, the DVDs and the posters on the wall didnt really do it for me. I think I could offer them my porno consulting services to create a more inspiring atmosphere in there. Although they probably dont want the people to enjoy themselves too much, or else they'd be lining up around the block. So I guess it requires the right balance between hospital and porno.

I called them a few hours later. My boys can swimm!!!

--ER



CANCER NEWS : testicular cancer survivors can still father children

Chemo it is!

Alright I don't like any of those three options. Who would. After long dicsussions with my girlfriend, my family and my doctors, I came to the conclusion that chemo was not the worst option for my case.

My Beta HCG Values have dropped from a 14 to a 2 after 4 weeks which is a great sign that things are going better. There is a chance that the values could drop to zero but it might not which would mean that some micro cancer cells could be still floating around my lymph system.

So I will receive 2 dosis of about 700mg Carboplatin (Paraplatin for IV). And a bunch of antinausea medicine. The second dosis will follow three weeks after the first one.

There is a slight chance of infertility caused by the Chemotherapy. For this reason I will need to have my sperms checked to see if there's enough skilled swimmers in there. That should be interesting :)

Links I have found on the Carboplatin treatment:
- urotoday (critical)

3 Options

There is a 80-90% chance that the surgery has healed me completely and that there are no cancerous cells in my body left. Another doctor gave me a relapse rate of 70% and 80%. It's all statistics anyway and it boils down to whether I'm a half full or a half empty kind of person:

20% Chance that the tumor will come back within the next 5 years
80% Chance that nothing will ever happen again...

I was given two options for post surgery treatments to lower the relapse rate to ~5%:

Option 1) 10 Days of Radiation Therapy or

Option 2) Chemo Therapy : 2 Dosis 700mg Carboplatin (=Paraplatin)

Interesting Video found on google talking about the chemotherapy option

[...]the latest research shows an early stage of one type of cancer—seminoma--can respond just as well to a single dose of chemotherapy after surgery, rather than needing a three week course of radiation therapy. (source: www.empowereddoctor.com)