Tweet
Hello there everyone.
I have been lurking on the boards here for a couple weeks and thought I'd finally post a quick intro. Most of the details are in my profile. But for the sake of introduction, my name is Brian. I'm 36yo and I work as a Production Manager and announcer in Public Radio....at our NPR affilate at Ball State University (how appropriate, huh?
). I am no stranger to health problems. I have received 2 kidney transplants in my lifetime...the first when I was 12 (from my dad), which lasted 20 years and then another one from a dear friend from church on 8/6/04. I am also visually impaired and do not drive a vehicle. But I drive people crazy, I'm told.
When I was 8 or 9, I had surgery for undescended testicles. I've also taken steroids for years due to the immuno-suppresion for the kidney transplants. So both of those things put me in a higher-rick category to develop testicular cancer. Still, when the diagnosis comes, it's never easy and always a shock....particularly for my mother, who has struggled with cancers of her own, the death of her husband, and mutiple health problems with me. She is as much the patient, if not moreso, than I am. While we're ready to say, "Enough, God!", we still plug away - day by day - with the intent on getting through this latest trial. I have a myriad of people: coworkers, family, church, and close friends, who are supporting me. Best of all, due to my complicated health history, I was able to get in to see, and be cared for directly, by Dr. Einhorn himself. This is truly a blessing, and this level of care is well worth the 70min drive to and from Indianapolis for my BEP treatments.
My TC story begins in about February 2006 when I started to notice a slight enlargement of my testicle. I didn't think too much about it. A month or two later I mentioned it to a close friend, who told me, "Well if you don't have any pain, you probably don't need to worry about it." And since I DIDN'T have pain, I kept trying to ignore it. I know. BAD ME! Finally, in May 2006 it was getting uncomfortable to ride my bike - or even just to sit down...so I had an untrasound, which led to a visit to the urologist....and out came the testicle. A few days later, we found out it was "seminoma."
After that diagnosis, I had my first consult with Einhorn. I found out the orchiectomy alone renders the cancer 85% chance of no return. Decent odds. It also turns out that because of my kidney transplants, I am not a candidate for radiation, due to a significant danger posed to the organs. Einhorn also opted not to do chemo in 2006, not wanting to put undo stress on my body. After all, there was an 85% chance I would never need chemo. BUT...if the cancer would happen to come back sometime in the future, then chemo would cure it with nearly 100% certainty. So I was put on surveillence.
And so a year went by. All my scans had been clear for more than a year. I was pretty optimistic. Then, in Sept., the call you don't wsnt. "Brian, we found a 5X2 cm mass in your lower back that wasn't there in May. We want to get a biopsy of it." Grrreeaat. Well, short-story-long, subsequent biopsy showed that the seminoma was back. So ta-daaah! It's BEP time! Coincidentally, this news came less than a week before the public radio station I work for started its pledge drive...which led me to contemplate, which would be worse: begging for money on the air or a nice IV chemo trip. Think about THAT the next time your station does a pledge drive.
At any rate, fast forward to today. I've completed my first week of BEP. I went five days for 4 hours a day. For the next two weeks, I just get a quick influsion of Bleo, and that's it for the weke. Same goes for next week, and then I start my second cycle on Oct. 29th. So far I have not had any nausea (they load you up with plenty of drugs ahead of time to prevent that), and only periods of moderate fatigue. I've had a periods of a red-face/flush reaction to the Etoposide, but it was better after they slowed the drip a little. I am also a little irritable, and I'm not sleeping that well. But overall, I'd say I'm feeling surprisingly well right now. I know, of course, that my symptoms/side effects could change at any moment. After all, this is just week one. I've got eight more weeks of this. But, I'm hopeful and optimistic. I've been through lots of medical stuff. I've been known to be pretty resilliant.
Dr. Einhorn is also keeping a very close eye on my kidney transplant, since the cisplantin carries a risk of kidney damage. Luckily, all the sailne they give me in the treatments hyrdates the kidney quite a bit. And they are checking my kidney labs (Creatinine) every day, to make sure the kidney is filtering okay. So far, so good.
So, that's my story...in a nutshell (haha).
You all were a huge help to me when I first started reading about TC and BEP, and I appreciate this site being here. Hopefully I can get to know some of you in the coming weeks/months.
Blessings,
Brian
I have been lurking on the boards here for a couple weeks and thought I'd finally post a quick intro. Most of the details are in my profile. But for the sake of introduction, my name is Brian. I'm 36yo and I work as a Production Manager and announcer in Public Radio....at our NPR affilate at Ball State University (how appropriate, huh?
). I am no stranger to health problems. I have received 2 kidney transplants in my lifetime...the first when I was 12 (from my dad), which lasted 20 years and then another one from a dear friend from church on 8/6/04. I am also visually impaired and do not drive a vehicle. But I drive people crazy, I'm told. When I was 8 or 9, I had surgery for undescended testicles. I've also taken steroids for years due to the immuno-suppresion for the kidney transplants. So both of those things put me in a higher-rick category to develop testicular cancer. Still, when the diagnosis comes, it's never easy and always a shock....particularly for my mother, who has struggled with cancers of her own, the death of her husband, and mutiple health problems with me. She is as much the patient, if not moreso, than I am. While we're ready to say, "Enough, God!", we still plug away - day by day - with the intent on getting through this latest trial. I have a myriad of people: coworkers, family, church, and close friends, who are supporting me. Best of all, due to my complicated health history, I was able to get in to see, and be cared for directly, by Dr. Einhorn himself. This is truly a blessing, and this level of care is well worth the 70min drive to and from Indianapolis for my BEP treatments.
My TC story begins in about February 2006 when I started to notice a slight enlargement of my testicle. I didn't think too much about it. A month or two later I mentioned it to a close friend, who told me, "Well if you don't have any pain, you probably don't need to worry about it." And since I DIDN'T have pain, I kept trying to ignore it. I know. BAD ME! Finally, in May 2006 it was getting uncomfortable to ride my bike - or even just to sit down...so I had an untrasound, which led to a visit to the urologist....and out came the testicle. A few days later, we found out it was "seminoma."
After that diagnosis, I had my first consult with Einhorn. I found out the orchiectomy alone renders the cancer 85% chance of no return. Decent odds. It also turns out that because of my kidney transplants, I am not a candidate for radiation, due to a significant danger posed to the organs. Einhorn also opted not to do chemo in 2006, not wanting to put undo stress on my body. After all, there was an 85% chance I would never need chemo. BUT...if the cancer would happen to come back sometime in the future, then chemo would cure it with nearly 100% certainty. So I was put on surveillence.
And so a year went by. All my scans had been clear for more than a year. I was pretty optimistic. Then, in Sept., the call you don't wsnt. "Brian, we found a 5X2 cm mass in your lower back that wasn't there in May. We want to get a biopsy of it." Grrreeaat. Well, short-story-long, subsequent biopsy showed that the seminoma was back. So ta-daaah! It's BEP time! Coincidentally, this news came less than a week before the public radio station I work for started its pledge drive...which led me to contemplate, which would be worse: begging for money on the air or a nice IV chemo trip. Think about THAT the next time your station does a pledge drive.
At any rate, fast forward to today. I've completed my first week of BEP. I went five days for 4 hours a day. For the next two weeks, I just get a quick influsion of Bleo, and that's it for the weke. Same goes for next week, and then I start my second cycle on Oct. 29th. So far I have not had any nausea (they load you up with plenty of drugs ahead of time to prevent that), and only periods of moderate fatigue. I've had a periods of a red-face/flush reaction to the Etoposide, but it was better after they slowed the drip a little. I am also a little irritable, and I'm not sleeping that well. But overall, I'd say I'm feeling surprisingly well right now. I know, of course, that my symptoms/side effects could change at any moment. After all, this is just week one. I've got eight more weeks of this. But, I'm hopeful and optimistic. I've been through lots of medical stuff. I've been known to be pretty resilliant.
Dr. Einhorn is also keeping a very close eye on my kidney transplant, since the cisplantin carries a risk of kidney damage. Luckily, all the sailne they give me in the treatments hyrdates the kidney quite a bit. And they are checking my kidney labs (Creatinine) every day, to make sure the kidney is filtering okay. So far, so good.
So, that's my story...in a nutshell (haha).
You all were a huge help to me when I first started reading about TC and BEP, and I appreciate this site being here. Hopefully I can get to know some of you in the coming weeks/months.
Blessings,
Brian
I get a visual of us attcking Brian and him chasing us with a giant swatter...kinda like that last picnic I went to!
Comment