Yesterday I had my one and hopefully only chemotherapy treatment this time around. It was definitely a different experience than the last time. Aside from it taking 4 attempts to get the IV in, just call me the human pin cushion, it went off without a hitch. The weather forecast this time around is cloudy skies with a chance of rain. No hurricanes in site.
So far I am experiencing the normal side effects, nausea, ringing in the ears and some fatigue but it is nothing like what I went through before. It's hard to get a handle on what the duration is going to be. I have found some postings from people that have had just the single does of carboplatin and it appears that the side effects start to fade in a week or so. I am planning on working from home this week and for the most part this shouldn't slow me down.
Food Of The Resistance
I don't think I have mentioned it before but one of the things I would do during my first go around with cancer is check out some of the food offerings they had at a express food stand in the lobby of the hospital. They have things like coffee, pastries and a few other odds and ends. Whenever I passed by I would take a quick glance at the display case and check it out. Yep, food voyeurism at its best. Some people check out sports cars, other people.... not me, I check out food. One thing that caught my eye was a raspberry cream cheese croissant. When I could start to eat again and I was at the hospital I would get one. Initially it didn't work out so well but eventually I got to the point where I could eat it without a problem. This become a ritual for me and now whenever I am at the hospital I try to get one. Aside from being tasty it also reminds me of where I have been and where I am at now. (OK, I am really rationalizing why I want to eat a very tasty and decedent treat.) Anyway.... I picked one up when I first got to the hospital yesterday and ate it during my treatment. It was absolutely phenomenal to be able to do that this time around.
Viva la resistance!
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
CT Scan is negative and thats good!
Today we met with the oncologist and got the results of the CT Scan and they were negative. And as always negative is good. The cancer has not spread to anywhere else in the body so they think that this was caught early. Big time yippee! for that. All of the test from the surgery, blood work and CT Scan show this as being a stage I cancer. At this point it is undetectable. Once again big time yippee! for that.
I should mention that there was some anxiety leading up to this. It started when the person that did the CT-Scan wished me good luck. The last time that happened I was diagnosed with my first cancer as a stage III/IV two days later. Also the first business day after this test the doctors office called and said they needed to see me the next day. They already scheduled the appointment for late afternoon not asking if I could make it or not. That starts to get your mind wandering a bit.
For follow up treatment there are two options. The first is to just monitor with tests and see if it does spread. There is about a 20% chance that it could still spread. Given that the treatment for this cancer is highly successful they normally recommend this course of action. The second option is to have a single round of chemotherapy with a single drug, carboplatin. This reduces the chance of it spreading to 3%. Either way I am still in the 99% cure group. Given my past history the recommendation is to do the preventative chemo therapy. The reason is that the treatment if it does spread involves three rounds of a 3 drug group, one of them being cisplatin. I have already had some very high doses of that drug in the past and it did do some damage. The concern is that I will have increased toxicity to those drugs and that could cause other long term problems that I may not fully recover from.
Supposedly the carboplatin treatment is nothing like what I have been through. Basically there is some nausea, potential for some hair loss and fatigue but it lasts less than a week. The plan at this point is to schedule the chemo for this Friday. Hopefully there won't be any hurricanes that day. :-)
I should mention that there was some anxiety leading up to this. It started when the person that did the CT-Scan wished me good luck. The last time that happened I was diagnosed with my first cancer as a stage III/IV two days later. Also the first business day after this test the doctors office called and said they needed to see me the next day. They already scheduled the appointment for late afternoon not asking if I could make it or not. That starts to get your mind wandering a bit.
For follow up treatment there are two options. The first is to just monitor with tests and see if it does spread. There is about a 20% chance that it could still spread. Given that the treatment for this cancer is highly successful they normally recommend this course of action. The second option is to have a single round of chemotherapy with a single drug, carboplatin. This reduces the chance of it spreading to 3%. Either way I am still in the 99% cure group. Given my past history the recommendation is to do the preventative chemo therapy. The reason is that the treatment if it does spread involves three rounds of a 3 drug group, one of them being cisplatin. I have already had some very high doses of that drug in the past and it did do some damage. The concern is that I will have increased toxicity to those drugs and that could cause other long term problems that I may not fully recover from.
Supposedly the carboplatin treatment is nothing like what I have been through. Basically there is some nausea, potential for some hair loss and fatigue but it lasts less than a week. The plan at this point is to schedule the chemo for this Friday. Hopefully there won't be any hurricanes that day. :-)
Sunday, August 19, 2012
What are the odds?
There are lots of benefits to having the Internet available when you have cancer. You have access to all sorts of information. Of course one of the downsides is that you have access to all sorts of information. So... while waiting for the test results and having a weekend to mull it over you end up with postings like this one.
There are between 8,000 - 9,000 cases of testicular cancer a year in the US. It appears that roughly 1 in 18,000 men a year will be diagnosed. It is a pretty rare cancer but fortunately the cure rate is pretty high even if it has spread. Interesting stuff. However when taken into account with my prior cancer it gets even more unique.
Roughly 2,000 people a year are diagnosed with nasopharyngel carcinoma in the US. Assuming half of those are men that means about 1,000 men a year are diagnosed with this cancer. The 5 year survival rate is around 70%. It also primarily affects older people. To get 18,000 men that have had nasophyrangeal carcinoma in the US it would take over 20 years worth of cases. So where am I going with this? There are probably less than 18,000 men in the US today that have had nasophyrengeal carcinoma. If there were 18,000 men that have had nasophyrengeal carcinoma in the US this year the odds are that just one of them would come down with testicular cancer.
So basically the likely hood of having had nasopharengeal carcinoma and getting diagnosed with testicular cancer this year is one, as in one person, not one percent. Talk about being a member of a select group. :-)
There are between 8,000 - 9,000 cases of testicular cancer a year in the US. It appears that roughly 1 in 18,000 men a year will be diagnosed. It is a pretty rare cancer but fortunately the cure rate is pretty high even if it has spread. Interesting stuff. However when taken into account with my prior cancer it gets even more unique.
Roughly 2,000 people a year are diagnosed with nasopharyngel carcinoma in the US. Assuming half of those are men that means about 1,000 men a year are diagnosed with this cancer. The 5 year survival rate is around 70%. It also primarily affects older people. To get 18,000 men that have had nasophyrangeal carcinoma in the US it would take over 20 years worth of cases. So where am I going with this? There are probably less than 18,000 men in the US today that have had nasophyrengeal carcinoma. If there were 18,000 men that have had nasophyrengeal carcinoma in the US this year the odds are that just one of them would come down with testicular cancer.
So basically the likely hood of having had nasopharengeal carcinoma and getting diagnosed with testicular cancer this year is one, as in one person, not one percent. Talk about being a member of a select group. :-)
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