I finished my last dose of chemo a week and a half ago, had my CT scan last Monday and my results today.
The lymph node has shrunk from 2016cm^3 to just 64cm^3, that's an astonishing 97% shrinkage, and the doctor expects it to continue to shtink for 6~8 weeks after the last chemo dose, so fingers crossed it keeps going and gets down to a normal lymph node + scar tissue size, anything under 10cm^3 would be good. It'll never be down to the original size due to the presence of scar tissue. So I'm on surveillance now, with a PET-CT scan booked for 4~6 weeks time to see what the final reduction is.
The ultrasound showed no change in the primary site - evidence that it had burnt itself out there and backed by an absence of blood flow in the shadows. The ultrasound doctor thought it pretty conclusive that it wasn't active, but the oncologist wants to play safe and so is scheduling an orchidectomy for 4 weeks time - that's just surgery as a day patient so I'm not worried about that. I'm hoping they remove the stent in my klidney at the same time as that continues to give me mild discomfort once in a while and is stopping me from getting back into cardiovascular exercise and from doing things like situps. Guess I'll just have to work on my arms and shoulders 'til then.
I'm back at work now fulltime, and after a gentle ramp (and waiting for these results) I resume my full responsibilities next week.
I'll update the blog after the PET-CT/orchidectomy incase anyone else is on the same journey and wants to know the ins and outs of it all, and I also promised to write my top 10 tips for making BEP chemo manageable.
