Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Chemo Ninja is Growing
Sunday, September 2, 2012
I recently had a friend who just completed treatment for Testicular Cancer and I wanted to share his story. I asked him to tell me a little bit about it and here it is. Here he is sporting some Save the Twins Gear!
Cancer story of Jason Bergeron.
Today I am three weeks finished with chemotherapy and there doesn’t appear to be any cancer left according to the latest CT scan. Lord willing; I am cancer free and healed.
I am writing this on the tail end of the four month trial of dealing with Stage IIc metastatic testicular cancer.
I went into the hospital on April 24, 2012 with serious abdominal pain thinking that the worst case scenario was appendicitis; best case was a bad case of gas and the embarrassment of being a wuss. After taking some pain medication and receiving a CT scan the doctors informed me that they had found a tumor in my abdomen. It was located behind my stomach and sandwiched in between my aorta and vena cava, two of the largest blood vessels in the body and ended up measuring 4cm x 3cm x 8cm long. The doctors could not tell much from the CT scan and could not narrow down any of the possibilities on what the tumor might be. It was not good news any way you looked at it. I had an MRI done later that week to try and learn more about the tumor. We met with two surgical oncologists the next week, both of which were puzzled by the CT and MRI scans. We decided to have Dr. Steven Trocha at Greenville Hospital move ahead with treatment. Because they could not conclusively tell what the tumor was, and that tumor would need to be removed ultimately regardless of what it was, we opted to have surgery to remove the tumor. I had this surgery on May 15, 2012 and it was probably the worst part of the whole ordeal. It was a major surgery due to the location of the tumor. My incision runs from the bottom of my sternum to an inch or so below my belly button. They had to get into the center of my body so although none of my GI tract was operated on, it was shifted and moved around a good bit. The tumor ended up being attached to the vena cava but was removed without damage to the vein. The surgery was successful and the tumor was sent to the pathologists. I spent close to a week in the hospital recuperating and another hard week at home until I was feeling ok. The muscle wall of my stomach is still healing and sensitive to a degree almost four months later. Skin heals quickly but it takes months for muscle and connective tissue to fully heal.
We learned right after the surgery that the tumor was mostly dead or necrotic tissue. This blew my surgeon’s mind as he had never seen anything like it unless radiation or some other specific treatment had been given to kill the tumor. To have a tumor die like mine did, on its own, is highly unlikely and really unexplainable except as a miracle (which is what we believe). Because this was so unusual, it took the pathologists a week and a half to dissect the tumor and issue their report. They ended up finding a small piece of the tumor that was still viable and were able to determine that it was metastatic testicular cancer. This had been a possibility from the beginning but neither of my testicles had any real noticeable growth on them. Looking back, it probably would have been smart to have an ultrasound done on my testicles to rule it out and know more before the surgery, but there’s no sense in second guessing things at this point. They found and removed the tumor and nearly a month after going into the hospital for the first time, we finally know what we were dealing with.
After having an ultrasound and confirming that I did have cancer in my right testicle, we moved quickly in meeting with our surgeon, an oncologist who would handle the chemotherapy, and a urologist. I had the orchiectomy and port for the chemotherapy done on June 1. After the big surgery, this one was no fun, but a walk in the park relatively speaking. This surgery went well and confirmed that there was cancer and that mine was 98% seminoma and 2% terratoma. We learned that it’s not uncommon to have several types of cancer.
The doctors originally thought that my cancer was 100% seminoma and were planning on a 12 week regimen of chemotherapy using two drugs, etoposide and cisplatin. When we found out that there was some terratoma in the mix, it moved my cancer to the non-seminoma category. As a result of this change, my chemotherapy was changed to a nine week regimen of etoposide, cisplatin, and bleomycin. Three full weeks of the etoposide and cisplatin every day with two weeks off, and bleomycin every Tuesday. We really tried getting a second opinion before the chemo started and didn’t have much luck on our own because things were moving so quickly but got confirmation on the decision when our oncologist talked to Dr. Einhorn in Indiana who pioneered much of the current treatment of testicular cancer. He confirmed that we were doing the right thing. Some doctors shy away from the Bleomycin because some of the side effects are worse than the others but Dr. Einhorn felt it was right to add it and that the benefits outweighed the side effects. It was the worst of the three but I did not have some of the more serious side effects like serious lung damage. I started my chemo on June 11.
The chemo experience was not fun but not terrible. I believe that the drugs they give you to counter act some of the side effects have really improved over the past years. I received steroids and anti-nausea medication with every treatment and also used the prescription anti-nausea/anxiety drugs with good success. It was hard knowing what to expect starting the chemo and I quickly learned that it was dangerous to set expectation on how I would feel from day to day. It really was a roller coaster with some decent days and bad days. The full weeks of treatment were the worst but the bleomycin seemed also to be unpredictable on how it would make me feel. I would usually feel decent for a day or two after treatments but feel worse on the third day when the steroids would stop working. I was able to work some days but took most of the time off.
I finished the chemo on August 7 and still have some of the lingering side effects three weeks later. My finger tips and the bottom of my feet are still sensitive and hurt, my stomach still feels funny like it up in my throat sometimes, my hearing is still a little funny, and my energy level is still not back to normal. This may not sound great, but I feel like I’m doing wonderfully, all things considered. They say that it can take months to fully heal from the damage that the chemo drugs do to the body. I am feeling better every day and getting ready to start the GHS moving on program which will include a 12 week work our program to help me with gaining my strength and endurance back. I am looking forward to it.
This has not been a fun experience and I wouldn’t have wished it on anyone but my wife and I feel blessed in many ways. Testicular cancer is one of the more treatable cancers with typical cure rates of 96-98%. We ran into many people who were dealing with more serious and sometimes terminal cancers. This made us very grateful that my situation was not worse. We also were blessed by God in too many ways to count during this time. From the miracle of killing the tumor in my abdomen and keeping the cancer from spreading any further, to the hundreds of people praying for and loving us, it was an incredible time. I know that God will use and has used this time in my life to shape me and mold me into a better person. Isn’t it funny that we are most affected by the trials and the difficult times in our lives? We don’t like them or want them, but they do have a grand purpose in making us the people God wants us to be.
Today I am three weeks finished with chemotherapy and there doesn’t appear to be any cancer left according to the latest CT scan. Lord willing; I am cancer free and healed.
I am writing this on the tail end of the four month trial of dealing with Stage IIc metastatic testicular cancer.
I went into the hospital on April 24, 2012 with serious abdominal pain thinking that the worst case scenario was appendicitis; best case was a bad case of gas and the embarrassment of being a wuss. After taking some pain medication and receiving a CT scan the doctors informed me that they had found a tumor in my abdomen. It was located behind my stomach and sandwiched in between my aorta and vena cava, two of the largest blood vessels in the body and ended up measuring 4cm x 3cm x 8cm long. The doctors could not tell much from the CT scan and could not narrow down any of the possibilities on what the tumor might be. It was not good news any way you looked at it. I had an MRI done later that week to try and learn more about the tumor. We met with two surgical oncologists the next week, both of which were puzzled by the CT and MRI scans. We decided to have Dr. Steven Trocha at Greenville Hospital move ahead with treatment. Because they could not conclusively tell what the tumor was, and that tumor would need to be removed ultimately regardless of what it was, we opted to have surgery to remove the tumor. I had this surgery on May 15, 2012 and it was probably the worst part of the whole ordeal. It was a major surgery due to the location of the tumor. My incision runs from the bottom of my sternum to an inch or so below my belly button. They had to get into the center of my body so although none of my GI tract was operated on, it was shifted and moved around a good bit. The tumor ended up being attached to the vena cava but was removed without damage to the vein. The surgery was successful and the tumor was sent to the pathologists. I spent close to a week in the hospital recuperating and another hard week at home until I was feeling ok. The muscle wall of my stomach is still healing and sensitive to a degree almost four months later. Skin heals quickly but it takes months for muscle and connective tissue to fully heal.
We learned right after the surgery that the tumor was mostly dead or necrotic tissue. This blew my surgeon’s mind as he had never seen anything like it unless radiation or some other specific treatment had been given to kill the tumor. To have a tumor die like mine did, on its own, is highly unlikely and really unexplainable except as a miracle (which is what we believe). Because this was so unusual, it took the pathologists a week and a half to dissect the tumor and issue their report. They ended up finding a small piece of the tumor that was still viable and were able to determine that it was metastatic testicular cancer. This had been a possibility from the beginning but neither of my testicles had any real noticeable growth on them. Looking back, it probably would have been smart to have an ultrasound done on my testicles to rule it out and know more before the surgery, but there’s no sense in second guessing things at this point. They found and removed the tumor and nearly a month after going into the hospital for the first time, we finally know what we were dealing with.
After having an ultrasound and confirming that I did have cancer in my right testicle, we moved quickly in meeting with our surgeon, an oncologist who would handle the chemotherapy, and a urologist. I had the orchiectomy and port for the chemotherapy done on June 1. After the big surgery, this one was no fun, but a walk in the park relatively speaking. This surgery went well and confirmed that there was cancer and that mine was 98% seminoma and 2% terratoma. We learned that it’s not uncommon to have several types of cancer.
The doctors originally thought that my cancer was 100% seminoma and were planning on a 12 week regimen of chemotherapy using two drugs, etoposide and cisplatin. When we found out that there was some terratoma in the mix, it moved my cancer to the non-seminoma category. As a result of this change, my chemotherapy was changed to a nine week regimen of etoposide, cisplatin, and bleomycin. Three full weeks of the etoposide and cisplatin every day with two weeks off, and bleomycin every Tuesday. We really tried getting a second opinion before the chemo started and didn’t have much luck on our own because things were moving so quickly but got confirmation on the decision when our oncologist talked to Dr. Einhorn in Indiana who pioneered much of the current treatment of testicular cancer. He confirmed that we were doing the right thing. Some doctors shy away from the Bleomycin because some of the side effects are worse than the others but Dr. Einhorn felt it was right to add it and that the benefits outweighed the side effects. It was the worst of the three but I did not have some of the more serious side effects like serious lung damage. I started my chemo on June 11.
The chemo experience was not fun but not terrible. I believe that the drugs they give you to counter act some of the side effects have really improved over the past years. I received steroids and anti-nausea medication with every treatment and also used the prescription anti-nausea/anxiety drugs with good success. It was hard knowing what to expect starting the chemo and I quickly learned that it was dangerous to set expectation on how I would feel from day to day. It really was a roller coaster with some decent days and bad days. The full weeks of treatment were the worst but the bleomycin seemed also to be unpredictable on how it would make me feel. I would usually feel decent for a day or two after treatments but feel worse on the third day when the steroids would stop working. I was able to work some days but took most of the time off.
I finished the chemo on August 7 and still have some of the lingering side effects three weeks later. My finger tips and the bottom of my feet are still sensitive and hurt, my stomach still feels funny like it up in my throat sometimes, my hearing is still a little funny, and my energy level is still not back to normal. This may not sound great, but I feel like I’m doing wonderfully, all things considered. They say that it can take months to fully heal from the damage that the chemo drugs do to the body. I am feeling better every day and getting ready to start the GHS moving on program which will include a 12 week work our program to help me with gaining my strength and endurance back. I am looking forward to it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
