Questions on Recurrence

[justinsmom]

WOW, it has been awhile since I've been on here, I think over a month!! My work was really suffering so I had to withdraw for awhile. My son Justin 22 now, was initially diagnosed (6-29-05) with non-sem; embryonal carcinoma and teratoma, had 4 X BEP then full-bilateral RPLND. But now something has shown up on his last CT scan although his tumor markers were negative; repeated on Wed. & negative again (praise God!) anyway, 2 spots showed up on his lung and 2 "prominent" lymph nodes (which I thought the surgeon said they took all his abdominal ones) so his onc. has scheduled a needle lung biopsy on Tues. (22nd) Questions: are the odds ever more in his favor since the tumor markers are negative? Do they not take all the abdominal nodes in a full-bilateral RPLND? Would he have salvage chemo if the biopsy finds more cancer? And I REALLY appreciate your prayers.....although I really have peace that they won't find the spots on Tues..... so they will just cancel the biopsy and we'll go to the Olive Garden for lunch!!!! Thanks in advance & God Bless! (& thanks Dadmo for the info you sent me on private, although I have yet to act on it..)
Lanette ><>

[dadmo]

Oh Lanette ><>
They almost never, if ever remove all of the lymph nodes. The nodes are in a string like pearls, the doctor will remove all that are abnormal looking plus a few on each end. The frozen section will tell him if he removed enough nodes to insure that all affected nodes have been removed. Have they talked about the chance that it might be teratoma? If it's anything dangerous he will certainly receive second line chemo. Are your doctors in consultation with any experts?
As far as my private PM, you have acted well beyond anything you could imagine. Patrik is still with us.

[justinsmom]

What's better than a negative biopsy?

NO BIOPSY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I posted this once but apparently lost it in space)

Bill I hope you read this it might blow you away!!! Well, we drove 1 1/2 hours to the hospital for the lung biopsy & met my son & his wife last Tues. the nurse went over all the particulars including how Justin was to not go weight lifting that night but could go eat as he hadn't been allowed to that morning. The Dr. came in & showed us the CT scan with a rather prominent spot in Justin's lung & explained how the procedure worked that they would give Justin conscious sedation, then a current CT scan to know where to biopsy, they would keep him 4 hours then x-ray to check for collasped lung.....at this point Justin wanted to know if his oncologist could do the procedure as his odds (1%) for collasped lung were better than the radiology Dr. (10-20%)!!! But we decided not to switch Drs. as the odds were against the oncologist even having a clue how to do the procedure!!! Anyway long story short....we go out to the waiting room to "set up camp" as my husband calls it (hey you get smart at packing for these things right?...books, food, water ect.) & no more than get comfy & the nurse calls us back, says she has good news, we "can go to lunch"....we weren't that thrilled as we really weren't all THAT hungry...then she says he "cancelled the biopsy", the spot is GONE!!!! But............ she says "the Dr. wants to tell you" ....she already had!!!!!!!!!! And Justin got to leave right away because she says "funny thing, I didn't even give him any sedation yet cause we were running behind, so he doesn't have to stay at all"........So guess what we did Bill??????????? I didn't even ask the kid's we just headed to the Olive Garden to celebrate!!!!!
Lanette ><>

[Scott]

Lunch must have tasted pretty darn good. Congratulations on your excellent news!

[jaybird]

That's awsome!

[Karen]

Lanette,
Whewww!!!!!! Quite a scare but what a fantastic outcome! Did the doc think the spot and nodes could have been an infection?

[Already Bald]

NO BIOPSY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I posted this once but apparently lost it in space)

Bill I hope you read this it might blow you away!!! Well, we drove 1 1/2 hours to the hospital for the lung biopsy & met my son & his wife last Tues. the nurse went over all the particulars including how Justin was to not go weight lifting that night but could go eat as he hadn't been allowed to that morning. The Dr. came in & showed us the CT scan with a rather prominent spot in Justin's lung & explained how the procedure worked that they would give Justin conscious sedation, then a current CT scan to know where to biopsy, they would keep him 4 hours then x-ray to check for collasped lung.....at this point Justin wanted to know if his oncologist could do the procedure as his odds (1%) for collasped lung were better than the radiology Dr. (10-20%)!!! But we decided not to switch Drs. as the odds were against the oncologist even having a clue how to do the procedure!!! Anyway long story short....we go out to the waiting room to "set up camp" as my husband calls it (hey you get smart at packing for these things right?...books, food, water ect.) & no more than get comfy & the nurse calls us back, says she has good news, we "can go to lunch"....we weren't that thrilled as we really weren't all THAT hungry...then she says he "cancelled the biopsy", the spot is GONE!!!! But............ she says "the Dr. wants to tell you" ....she already had!!!!!!!!!! And Justin got to leave right away because she says "funny thing, I didn't even give him any sedation yet cause we were running behind, so he doesn't have to stay at all"........So guess what we did Bill??????????? I didn't even ask the kid's we just headed to the Olive Garden to celebrate!!!!!
Lanette ><>

Lanette, that is fantastic news! So glad to hear the spot is gone!
Now I just need to ask my docs, why didn't I get sedation during my lung biopsy?? It was agony!!

[justinsmom]

To Scott..................It was!!! & thank you
To Jaybird................Yes it is!!!
To Karen..................Not sure-I would think so, Justin called his oncologist & he told him just to go back to his 2 month blood work, 3 month CT's so we may never know
To Already Bald.........Yah, I was glad to hear he would get "drugged" cuz my husband chose not to (little did he know) for a liver biopsy-said it was the worst thing ever!!!!!!!!!

And even though we got the BEST news that could be-so many others have gotten bad news ( the same week as Justin's scare, I had a friend diagnosed with a brain tumor, & another whose husband died of lung cancer, now has her 2nd go round with ovarian cancer & my dad died from melanoma & my father-in-law from colon cancer) So life is a roller coaster & I just continue to place my hope in a life free from death & disease!!!!
John 3:16-17 God Bless-Lanette <><

[dadmo]

Lanette <><
That's great news. I don't know how or why we were chosen for this but it certainly is one heck of a ride.

[petep]

great news...the xrays and scans are phenomenal tools...but very prone to show things when there is nothing...even a slight movement during the scan can mess things up...

very happy for you...I was on edge reading through the thread.

pete