Hi all,
I have recently been diagnosed with TC and had my orchiectomy 2 weeks ago. Had some provisional histology back and looks to be Mixed germ cell tumour, mostly embryonal carcinoma. I'm a Brit living in Canada and just wanted to compare timings for the follow up bloods post op. A rough timeline of my treatment is as follows;
30/9/2021 - Found a lump and managed to get it checked out the same day.
1/10/2021 - Ultrasound scans revealed 2.5cm mass in testicle, HCG raised (340) and AFP slightly raised (19), CT's and chest X-ray clear.
5/10/2021 - Meeting with urologic surgeon
6/10/2021 - Right radical orchiectomy
20/10/2021 - Provisional histology (mixed germ cell, mostly embryonic carcinoma, no visible LVI and nothing of note up cord). Waiting on more histology being done by specialist pathologist.
Recovery has been ok, I've had a bit of a stomach ache since before the op, I suspect this is just anxiety related but obviously my paranoid mind is convinced I can feel my Lymph nodes swelling!
My main question is the timing of the follow up bloods, the urologist has given me several different answers on when these need to be done. Most recently he has suggested waiting until 5 weeks post op before running them again. Does this tie in with the experience of others? Anyone else have relatively low markers at the point of diagnosis? What were your experiences with them? Did they normalise for you / did you require full chemo? I'm torn as if I require extensive treatment I'm likely to come home for this which would be pretty heartbreaking (just moved here with my fiance on a 2 year visa!).
Any advice / experiences greatly appreciated.
Hi scree and a very warm welcome to the online community
I can't answer your question but I noticed that you hadn't had any replies from the others in the group yet. Replying to you will 'bump' your post back to the top of the discussion list where it might be more easily noticed.
While you're waiting for replies it would be great if you could pop something about your diagnosis and treatment into your profile as it really helps others when answering or looking for someone with a similar pathway. It also means that you don't have to keep repeating yourself. To do this click on your username and then select 'Profile'. You can amend it at any time and if you're not sure what to write you can take a look at mine by clicking on my username.
If you don't get any replies here you could phone the Macmillan Support Line and speak to one of the specialist nurses. The phone number to call from abroad is +44 207 091 2230 and the nurses are available 7 days a week from 8am to 8pm. Although it's free to call Macmillan from the UK there are call charges if phoning from abroad.
Another way to contact the nurses is to use the chat facility and the availability of that is the same as the Support Line.
Wishing you all the best.
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
