There are two main types of germ cell tumor which can occur in the testicles.
1 Seminoma
2 Non Seminoma
Here’s actual knowledgeable info about them https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/testicular-cancer/types but basically a stage one Seminoma is what I was aiming for. This type is far less likely to spread as is generally non aggressive with a good chance the surgery alone could resolve the matter. Also this type is actually the more common I beli.
I had tried to stay positive in the week since the last appointment and despite a pain around the kidney area I tried to focus on living life (as best as could be done during corona lockdown) and imagined the cancer was gone.
Unfortunately It had not. The follow up appointment I met a different consultant. On my first appointment I was the only person wearing a mask but by the time of the second it was now policy for all the doctors nurses and receptionists to wear aprons, gloves and masks also due to corona. Whilst this at least meant I was no longer getting awkward looks I did ridicule the staff for copying my style. Anyway the doctor proceeded to tell me I had a Non Seminoma made up of 99 per cent embryonal and 1 per cent teratoma and that the cancer had spread to my Lymph nodes in the abdomen. Embryonal is a fairly rare type but is a highly aggressive quick spreading cancer. I was classified as a stage 2B which means it had effected 5 or more local lymph nodes but had not spread any further than the area local to where it started and my lungs and other organs were still all clear. We then discussed that I would need a session of chemotherapy called BEPx3 and we proceeded to go through all the possible and all lovely side effects of this and sign a bunch of consent forms. As the doc said there really wasn’t much of choice and I for one didn’t take much convincing. The day just felt like a bombardment of information, non of it pleasant and I just sat there taking it all kind of feeling numb. I didn’t really have any questions to ask at the time as it was mostly jargon way above my head. I wouldn’t understand any of what was said to me until I came home and began the research and asked the guys on the TC-Cancer.com forum and pieced together exactly where I stood. Definitely not the news I was aiming for but I figured I had won the lottery of cancers getting what is considered one of the most treatable forms of cancer, thanks to the pioneering work of the American doctor Dr Einhorn who you will see referred to as Dr E on the forums. So I figured it would be greedy to win the lottery twice. Also the doctor said my treatment was with the intention of the outcome of curing the cancer. I am sure people daily get given much worse news than me and it only knocked me for six on the actual day and I felt it would be an injustice to the people who get actual bad news to mope around feeling sorry for myself and as of the next day I resumed the positivity. Again I would say the hardest part was telling the old man the bad news.......again.