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Hello once again all.
I have not posted in a while. I've been busy battling my 3rd and final round of BEP. I have just the two tuesdays coming up and I'm done. Needless to say the 3rd round was a doosey, and I'm still feeling the effects pretty hardcore. Mostly in the way of fatigue and naseua. Aside from hairloss and a little heartburn, my side effects have been few to speak of. But the fatigue and naseua...oh mama...lol. The good news is that the chemo seems to be working. I was diagnosed with Stage I non-seminoma in Feb 05. My path report said the tumour was primarily yolk sac with other mixed agents. My AFP's before surgery were 356 or so and my HCG was 25. After the surgery my AFP went to around 4.4 and my HCG undetectable. A few months later we found a 13mm nodule on my right lung. CT showed all other organs including lymph nodes clear. HCG normal and AFT went up to 7.4. Started chemo 7/11/05. After round 1 my AFP dropped to 4.6 and after round 2 of chemo my AFP went to 3.6. Now I'm finishing my 3rd round. My last CT scan shows that the tumour is displaying a cavity, as my oncologist put, which means essentially that it is liquifying and dying. This sounds like great news, but as with me, I am always a bit skeptical. I was hoping a few of you might have some insight to a few remaining questions I had as I don't see my oncologist for another 3 weeks or so.
1. Hair loss....I shaved my head face and chest. I still have basically all my arm, armpit, and leghair. Unless I tug at it good, it stays in. My question is...do I need to shave this? If not securely affixed to my body, as the chemo leaves will the folllicles repair and strengthen the hair that remains in the follicles. Or do I need to shave and start from ground 0?
2. AFPs....Are these supposed to be at 0? Do they fluctuate. Do they fluctuate alot?
3. What if this comes back again. What is the next line of defense. Is it over or are the odds still good for folks like me with a re-re occurrence, should ever happen......what are the statistics for a re-re occurrence.
Thanks again to all of you for you kind and continuing support.
Erik.
I have not posted in a while. I've been busy battling my 3rd and final round of BEP. I have just the two tuesdays coming up and I'm done. Needless to say the 3rd round was a doosey, and I'm still feeling the effects pretty hardcore. Mostly in the way of fatigue and naseua. Aside from hairloss and a little heartburn, my side effects have been few to speak of. But the fatigue and naseua...oh mama...lol. The good news is that the chemo seems to be working. I was diagnosed with Stage I non-seminoma in Feb 05. My path report said the tumour was primarily yolk sac with other mixed agents. My AFP's before surgery were 356 or so and my HCG was 25. After the surgery my AFP went to around 4.4 and my HCG undetectable. A few months later we found a 13mm nodule on my right lung. CT showed all other organs including lymph nodes clear. HCG normal and AFT went up to 7.4. Started chemo 7/11/05. After round 1 my AFP dropped to 4.6 and after round 2 of chemo my AFP went to 3.6. Now I'm finishing my 3rd round. My last CT scan shows that the tumour is displaying a cavity, as my oncologist put, which means essentially that it is liquifying and dying. This sounds like great news, but as with me, I am always a bit skeptical. I was hoping a few of you might have some insight to a few remaining questions I had as I don't see my oncologist for another 3 weeks or so.
1. Hair loss....I shaved my head face and chest. I still have basically all my arm, armpit, and leghair. Unless I tug at it good, it stays in. My question is...do I need to shave this? If not securely affixed to my body, as the chemo leaves will the folllicles repair and strengthen the hair that remains in the follicles. Or do I need to shave and start from ground 0?
2. AFPs....Are these supposed to be at 0? Do they fluctuate. Do they fluctuate alot?
3. What if this comes back again. What is the next line of defense. Is it over or are the odds still good for folks like me with a re-re occurrence, should ever happen......what are the statistics for a re-re occurrence.
Thanks again to all of you for you kind and continuing support.
Erik.
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