Hello Guys.
First of all I would like to say how helpful I have found the Macmillan community. You are a wealth of useful information and helped to put my mind at ease on a number of occasions.
My partner was diagnosed with stage 3 TC in April. It came as a bit of a shock as he is only 28, but we now know its most common in younger men. I wanted to share our experience in case there are any points covered that may help others.
He had a fairly late diagnosis, having done what far too many people do and sat with his symptoms for almost a year. Once he went to his GP he was immediately fast tracked to see a consultant. His tumour was around the size of a clementine (sorry, closest comparison I could think of!) He saw the specialist the following Tuesday, got his diagnosis immediately and was in surgery by the following week. The surgery itself went smoothly but he developed an infection in the wound and ended up on antibiotics around 2 weeks after later.
He started BEP chemo around 6 weeks after surgery. I have to say, this hasn't exactly gone smoothly. He goes to the Churchill in Oxford as a day patient. The nurses and other staff at the Churchill are top notch. I can't recommend them enough.
Severe nausea set in after the first two days of his cycle. No amount of the anti-nausea medication seemed to help and it took around 4 days before it was under control. At the end of day 3 he started to experience shortness of breath. We were told to call A&E. This in turn meant sitting in an isolation unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital for 4 hours while they did observations but * all else. They sent him home saying his bloods were fine and his vitals ok so nothing more they could do.
When he went back for his day 9 treatment in Oxford he was still short of breath so they did the sensible thing and scanned his lungs. On the day they couldn't see any issues so carried on his dose of bleomycin. Two days later there was a visit with the consultant who said the scans showed a chest infection and that there was a risk the bleomycin may have permanently damaged his lungs. Needless to say they gave him a course of strong antibiotics and have pulled all future bleomycin treatments so now he is on a EP course (rather than BEP). This does mean that he will be having an additional cycle and the overall chances of success are reduced by around 10% or so.
For cycle 2 he still had persistent nausea which was actually worse than his first cycle. Once again we ended up in Stoke Mandeville for an injection of cyclazine. The out of hours doctor was actually really sensible and pointed out that the anti-nausea medicines probably weren't working because he was being sick before they could be absorbed. He gave us bucastem, which is placed on the gums and absorbed that way. It worked a treat.
He is supposed to start cycle 3 this week but has developed a tooth infection. Of all the times for his wisdom teeth to decide to come through!! His neutrophil count has dropped to 0.01 so he has been hospitalized while they give injections to bring the count up.
Now scheduled in for a tooth extraction on Wednesday and supposed to be having his chemo on Thursday. Not sure how this will all work out but will keep you updated on how we get on!
