Final Step

Well it looks like I have beaten this cancer and I can now start to return to a normal life. Yesterday and today I met with two different oncologists to get their opinion on what I should do next. The first oncologist I visited was the same one I saw before the RPLND procedure. He feels that with my pathology report only detecting 3 infected lymph nodes that going under surveillance would be the best option for me, as long as I keep up with appointments to have my blood checked and x-rays done. Today, I visited the same oncologist that James visits each year for his annual checkup. He agreed with my first doctor and showed me some documentation from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network which describes the procedure for someone with testicular cancer. The recommendation from the NCCN is to go under surveillance. Now if sometime in the next few years something does show up on a CT scan or x-ray, there is a 99% chance that 3 rounds of chemo would cure me just as good as if I did the chemo now. The only difference between doing the chemo now would be it would only take 2 rounds instead 3. So this is good news for me, I really did not want to undergo chemo as I have seen the effects it takes on someone. As the years past the chance of reaccurance will decrease and after 5-6 years I will be in remission. Once I reach 10 years, I should be able to discontinue the annual visits. My next doctor visit is on August 29th with my urologist for my final post-op before returning to work. After that I will meet again with my oncologist to setup the appointments every 2-3 months to have my blood work done and x-rays done. This will continue every 2-3 months for the first 2 years. In the 3rd and 4th year I will go every 4 months, in the 5th year every 6 months, and then once a year until the 10th year.

Amazingly enough it's been about 2 months since I first went to the doctors office with this problem, and with all the support from my family and friends, the amazing care I recieved from my Florida doctors and the doctors in Indiana, I am now on the road to a complete recovery. I want to thank everyone for all your support, prayers, phone calls and get-well cards. Jenn and I could not have made it through this without all your support.

Getting Better

Hello all! First off, I want to say thank you to everyone for your cards and phone calls since I have been home, it's nice to know that I have so many family and friends that care. Today I had another visit with my urologist in Winter Park, the same doctor that preformed my first surgery back in June. I was there for the final visit for that surgery, but ended up having the staples removed as well....ouch! All 37 staples were removed with no problem and the doctor was happy with how the incision has healed and says everything looks good. The incision actually looks worse now with all the staples out, although I am sure as the small holes heal, the incision will get better. I am still off work and most likely will be for a few more weeks, I have another appointment at the end of the month for another post op visit.

Next Tuesday I see the oncologist about the next step, I am leaning towards observation over chemo, however, I will have to wait to see what the doctor recommends. After my visit with him and I make a decision I will post another blog. Until then, thanks again to everyone for your support and prayers.

Arrived Home

Well Jenn and I are happy to be home and I am improving with each new day. The airplane ride home was uneventful, no problems with anything. Jill was just a "little" excited to see us to say the least! I received a phone call yesterday afternoon from Dr. Foster about the results of the pathology from the lymph nodes they removed. He removed 23 nodes from my left side and only the 3 of the lymph nodes were infected with cancer. This is good news. There is no evidence of the cancer spreading anywhere else, the 3 enlarged lymph nodes that showed up in the CT scan were not any bigger than before and everything else looked fine. The type of cancer that was found in the nodes was seminoma which made up 80% of the tumor in the left testicle that was removed last month. So, the next step is to revisit the oncologist and see what he recommends. I can either go to surveillance mode now and visit the doctor every 2-3 months for a checkup to see if there is any reoccurrence, which there is a 30% chance, or I can take 2 rounds of chemotherapy now reduce that reoccurrence chance down to less than 1%. I will have to do my research and talk with my doctors before making a decision.

All for now, once I have more info I will post it here. Thanks again to everyone.

Out of Hospital

Hello all! Well after 78 hours from checking in last Friday morning, I have been discharged from the hospital. I saw the doctors this morning and they were very happy with the incision and allowed me to go home. The first two nights in the hospital were a little rough, but with the help of the nurses and the medicine I was able to get through them. Have Mom, Dad, Jenn and James with me all weekend also helped a lot. Getting around is getting easier with each new day, at first just taking a few steps was a challenge, however, now I am able to get up and around with very little help. The actual task of getting up from the sitting down or laying down position is the hardest. Over the next two days I should be able to get around a lot better and hopefully the flight home will go smoothly, will not be any fun if there is any turbulance on the way home. Jenn and I leave Indy on Wednesday at 8:30am, so we should be at home by noon that day. Once I am home, I will post another blog.

Thanks again for all your support and prayers.

Surgery Complete

Hello all! Well this will just be a quick one since typing with tubes, wires and needles coming out of me makes it a little difficult to type. As most of you know surgery went very well there were no complications. I am right now in my room, private thank goodness, watching golf and talking with my parents. I just wanted to let everyone know that I am doing ok and I am on the road to recovery and again to thank everyone for your support and prayers. Once I am up and around a littl e better I will post another post.

Thanks

A Good Start

Hello all from Indianapolis! Jenn and I arrived with no problem yesterday afternoon and checked into our hotel suite. This morning since we had a few hours until my first doctor visit, Jenn and I took a tour of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway track and actually took a tour bus onto the track surface, it was really cool!!! Anyways, to the important stuff. We visited this afternoon with Dr. Foster, who is really nice, and he discussed what will happen tomorrow with the surgery and the post op. The surgery should take around 2 hours and will most likely start around 8am. I should be out of the hospital in 3 days as long as there are no complications. In his words this surgery is "easy" for him to perform, good to hear from the nations best doctor! However, the best news came after my appointment, I received word from my insurance company that they are going to cover me for this procedure!!! So a good start to this trip, hopefully tomorrow will go just as well and I will be on the road to recovery. I will try to post something as soon as I can, most likely on Saturday. Thanks again for everyone's support and prayers, they have all worked so far!!

Decision Made

I know it's been a while since my last update, but after spending the last week talking to doctors, nurses and my insurance company my family and I have decided that we are going to have the surgery done at Indiana Medical Center in Indianapolis on July 25th. Jenn and I will be flying up there on July 23rd and visiting with Dr. Foster on July 24th. I will most likely be in the hospital 2-3 days and if everything goes well I will fly home on the 30th of July. The recovery process can take anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks, so I will be staying home for that time. Once the procedure is complete the doctors in Indiana will preform a biopsy on the infected lymph nodes and determine if there is any cancer. If there is evidence of cancer in the lymph nodes I will most likely have 2-3 rounds of chemotherapy back in Orlando. If the lymph nodes are free from cancer, then I will just go under servillence and I should be in clear and cancer free.

I want to thank everyone for your support and prayers towards myself and my family, I could not have got through this time without it.

If I am able to, I will post updates while I am in Indiana. Once the procedure is complete and all ok, I will have my brother James send out an e-mail to you all.

Thanks again.

What's Next

Well it's almost been two weeks since my surgery and the only bad news is....my doctor cleared me to return to work tomorrow :-( But the good news is, he was happy with how the incision looked and said everything turned out well. So on to the next step. In my previous update I talked about possibly having this RPLND surgery to remove some inflamed lymph nodes in my abdomen region. After a lot of research I believe I have decided that the surgery is the best option, however, now the question is, where do I have the surgery. My urologist here suggested that this type of surgery is not very difficult for such an evasive type of surgery and he recommended a local oncologist urologist who has done many of these operations before. I was able to talk to him as well and got his insight on this surgery and his experience with this type of surgery. The only piece of information that I am waiting on now is a recommendation from Dr. Einhorn on what he thinks is my best option. Do I have the surgery here in Florida? Or, do I travel to New York or Indiana to have the surgery? So, it's a hurry up and wait scenario now, hopefully by weeks end I will have a decision made on where and when I will be having this surgery. Once I have had the surgery it will take anywhere from 3 to 5 days to recover in the hospital, then about 2-3 weeks recovery at home before I can return to work. Total time from surgery date to 100% recovery is anywhere from 3 to 6 months, all depending on me and how my body recovers. Once I have made my final decision I will update this blog, until then, Jenn and I thank everyone for your support and prayers.

Latest Update

At this point a final decision has not been made on which option I will be going with, however, after a few days of research about my condition and this RPLND procedure, it is looking very likely that I will be choosing to do the surgery. Unfortunately, there are no experts here in the state of Florida for this procedure. I am sure that are urologists that can perform the surgery, but for something like this, I think I want the best. From what I have found out there are four hospitals in the country that perform this procedure regularly and have the experts. Two of them are in the state or Oregon, one is in Indiana and the fourth is in New York City. The doctors in Indiana are the same ones that preformed Lance Armstrong's surgery, and the hospital in New York is Slone Kettering, where my brother went. After making some phone calls yesterday, I have a tentative appointment to meet with the doctor in New York next Thursday morning. I have also contacted the doctor at IU Medical Hospital to try to meet with him. Since it's now the holiday weekend, I will not find out anything new until Monday, hopefully by then, I will have decided on which hospital I will be attending. This surgery is certainly no walk in the park, hence the reason I am searching for the countries best doctor. Once I have decided which hospital I will be attending I will update this blog, until then I again thank you all for your support and prayers.

Thanks again!

Visit with Oncologist

Today I meet with the oncologist, Dr. William Grow at Florida Hospital. He explained the types of treatments that are available for me and gave his recommendation. The three options are, 1) Observation, for the 1st year I would visit the doctors office every 1-2 months to have blood work and a chest x-ray to check the enlarged lymph nodes, I would also have a CT scan every 2-3 months for the 1st year. As the years progress, as long as there is no change, I would continue to visit the doctor once every 2 months in the 2nd year, 3 months in the 3rd year and so on. 2) Surgery, a procedure called retroperitoneal lymph node dissection, where the urologist would remove the enlarged lymph nodes from my body. This is a more evasive surgery than the first one and the recovery time is longer, however, the possible infected lymph nodes would be removed and from testing the lymph nodes they would know for sure if there was cancer in the lymph nodes. 3) Chemotherapy, I would have 3 treatments of chemotherapy to try to kill the possible cancer in the lymph nodes, however, if the lymph nodes do contain a cancer tumor and that tumor is teratoma the chemotherapy would not kill the tumor and surgery would have to be done anyways. The recommendation from the oncologist was to have the surgery. This option is the only sure way to find out if the lymph nodes are affected by the cancer and if it is, most likely the surgery will remove it and I should be in the clear after that. The other two options may work if the lymph nodes do not increase in size or the chemotherapy can kill the cancer if it is cancer. So, what am I going to do. First off, I am going to meet with another oncologist at MD Anderson hospital to get a second opinion, if that doctor suggest the same thing, then most likely I will have the surgery. So after I have met with the second doctor I will post what my decision is and what is going to happen next. I have posted a website below that explains the possible surgery I may have.

Thanks again for all your support.

http://www.acor.org/TCRC/rplnd.html

Type of Cancer

I received a phone call today from my Urologist that preformed the surgery last week. He told me that my cancer is a mixed germ cell cancer and the cancer that I have is two different types. The first type is called seminoma and the second is called embryonal cell carcinoma. I will meet with an oncologist next week to determine what treatment is required to get rid of the cancer. The results of the CAT scan that I had showed evidence of some lymph nodes around my left terri aortic artery near my kidneys, they are not certain that these lymph nodes have been affected by the cancer. As of now, I am feeling fine and no major side effects from the surgery, I have been up and around and not feeling too much pain...good drugs!!! Thanks again for all your support.

Link for info on embryonal cell carcinoma: http://www.medcyclopaedia.com/library/topics/volume_iv_2/e/embryonal_cell_carcinoma_testicular.aspx

Health Situation

As some of you know over the past few weeks I have been visiting different doctors and it has been determined that I have Testicular Cancer. On June 24th, I underwent minor surgery and had my left testicle removed in order to do a biospy on it to determine the extent of the cancer. As of today, June 25th, the cancer type is Seminoma, a type of testicular cancer that is very receptive to raditation and has about a 95% cure rate. I decided to create this blog to keep everyone informed of my current condition and allow you to ask me any questions and a way pass along your support for myself and my family. Once I have more information I will post it here for everyone to read. Again, I thank everyone in advance for your support and prayers, without them, this period would be very difficult for me.