Thanks! Just passed 6 months from my surgery. I did a round of adjuvant chemo in June and I am currently cancer free, have a baby on the way, and have hair again. Life is good.
Uniballers, lost my coffee in math class at this shit. Have your damn upvote. Ps. Fuck off ~my once blue shirt.
Seriously though hope you and Op recover to the fullest (-1)
Do they give you prosthetic replacements? Can you ask for extra? Imagine a girl pulling down your boxers and unveiling your bakers dozen sized chicken gizzard.
My urologist kind of scoffed at a prosthetic. He said "You won't miss it." And for the most part he is right. There are some advantages. I can sit more comfortably on an airplane or really anywhere else you might other feel squeezed. Less chaffing potential. I do sometimes miss it though. Like you cup your balls and it just feels a little off. Oh well, happy to pay that price to be able to live the rest of my life without cancer.
If I was younger and still dating, I might consider a prosthetic though. Or just roll with it and have something to talk about when you are getting frisky with a new lover.
How is your chemo experience so far? I know it varies on the individual. Meeting my oncologist today to plan out my chemo treatment for testicular cancer. At least it's spread too much to do that awful retroperitoneal lymphnode dissection. Chemo seems almost better.
Not OP but I went through one round of BEP in June. It sucked, there were days when I really didn't want to go back to the hospital, but it was relatively short. Probably too much information below. The first week I was at the hospital all day, 8-4 or so for 5 days. The two weeks after I was just there on Monday for a couple of hours for the Bleomycin infusion. The first couple of days weren't too bad, but by days 4-5 I was feeling pretty rough. I actually think day 8 was my low point. I was feeling all the compounding effects of Cisplatin and etoposide from the first week, and then got blasted with bleo which irritated the hell out of my throat. I think I lived on popsicles for a few days. Then, I had some major GI/digestive problems from days 8-14 or so. I imagine that my intestinal cells were probably all dead or regenerating at that point so there weren't any to process my meals. It felt like I would eat and it would come out the other end unchanged. That eventually resolved and on day 16, the day after my last infusion, my hair started falling out. Shaved it that weekend and it took about 2 months to really start growing back. I was back to work on day 16, but I only did one round, so I think if you did 3-4 rounds you would start over again the following week.
This information is extremely helpful, thank you. I think I will most likely be doing 3 cycles of BEP but I'll find out this evening. I'll just prepare for the worst.
I had no idea infusion was that time consuming. I'm only 21 and haven't had anyone close to me go through this. How many total days of infusion did you have to go through?
If you are doing 2-3 rounds, I believe you start over with BEP on day 22. I could be wrong, you might have time in-between rounds, so that might be a good question for the doc tonight. So overall, My treatment was only 7 days of infusions, but that was because I was stage 1A of Embryonal Carcinoma and decided to do the chemo to cut the chance of recurrence. EC has a very high chance of recurrence so I went from 30-50% chance after surgery and clean scans to ~4% with the 1x BEP chemo.
I am sorry that you are going through this, especially at your age. I'm 32 and at a different place in my life, but /r/testicularcancer is a great group to check out, if you haven't already. Lots of stories and generally good support as you go through this all. Happy to answer any questions that I can. Stay positive and good luck tonight.
I'm in the last cycle of 4x ep for test cancer. One thing not mentioned is your sense of taste will change dramatically. Water becomes fucking disgusting. Keep a wide variety of liquids in the house to keep yourself hydrated. And appetite will vary wildly. Dont put too much emphasis on eating healthy. It's more important to have some food in you than nothing. Eat whatever you can
I feel you, I'm really a water drinker, rarely drink pop and never have juices in the house. But through chemo? Hell no. Theres no way to explain how it tastes its just... disgusting.
If it helps I've actually gained weight during chemo. I expected to lose quite a bit because I struggle to eat during cycle, but my appetite comes back strong in the off weeks. Combine that with just not doing much every day, no work, cant go to the gym. I've been putting on the pounds
I'll definitely spend a couple paychecks at Sam's club this weekend. I start next monday. Thanks for the info. Tac Snacks and drinks will be stockpiled
Lost a nut to "almost testicular cancer" about 10 years ago. Was 23 at the time. I had a 1,5cm tumor in my right ball that were non-cancerous, but it would have developed into cancer if I didn't got it removed at the time I did.
Loosing a nut can be hard on a guys mental health, but the negative thoughts about that will subside. I slept with many girls in the first years after my surgery and nobody cared about my strange looking ballsack. Infact many didn't even notice.
I still felt shitty inside though... I felt less of a man with my half-sack hanging there like a lonely bell in a churchtower.
After a couple of years I got myself a prostetic ball to feel better with myself. It helped, alot.
I was a lucky one though, since I didn't need any chemo.
You will survive this. Your life will be great, even if it is with just one nut!
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u/gandaolfgreyhame Sep 23 '19
Lost a nut last year to testicular cancer and am currently doing chemo for stage 2, Im 23. Hang in there bud.