Stage 2 Testicular Cancer

Hi Mike,

Sorry to hear about your mum, cancer can be so cruel to us all.

We all have odd lumps, bumps, shadows etc. and its good to hear the bloods and CT scans are clear. Its fair to say we all become over vigilant and interpret every malady as sign of its return - be that coughs, trapped wind, back aches etc. It would be extremely unusual even for TC to go from a clear CT scan in January to enough spread in March to cause discomfort. Extremely unusual. When is your next check-up - are you on 3 months or 6 month ticks now?

Greg

Hi Greg,

Thanks for the reply. 

Next check up is at 3 months which is now due on the 13th April - bloods only.

I see your point regarding growth, espeacially considering seminoma grows at a slower rate than non-seminoma. However, how reliable are these check ups do you think? 

Bloods seem relatively inaccurate unless your cancer produces the protein hormone. Example,  my bloods came back normal when I still had the 42mm tumour, so my confidence in this method is relatively low.

As for CT scan... the doctor wants to minimise my exposure to radiation. So the ct scan only checks my abdomen only? Therefore, if it had grown in my groin it would never have been found at my 3 month ct scan.

Sorry for the essay.

Thanks,

Mike 

Hi Mike, 

My husband received the same treatment as you for a testicular seminoma. This was in 1988. He was followed up in outpatients with blood tests every 6 months for 5 years. He is now 56 years old and has had no further problems. Hope this helps , Finny.

Hi,

Checks are pretty reliable - I think you can trust the results. My surveillance CT scans included pelvis and up to my sternum (I have 3cm diameter lymph node of scar tissue they keep an eye on), I think for you they'd do pelvis to belly button at least - but not lungs or head. If they make you drop your trousers down a couple of inches you know they're scanning that low.

Greg

Thanks for the reassurance Finny and Greg.

I have my next bloods in a month so I will provide an update of the results and if symptoms remained etc.

Stay healthy!

Thanks,

Mike 

Hi all,

I hope everyone is well and enjoyed the new year break... here’s to a great 2019  

So by way of update i had my one year abdo scan in September 2018 with an all clear... wooo! 

A few weeks after my scan I felt a weird feeling in my back around my lower left rib cage. It almost feels like someone touching you from the inside, maybe you can call it a sense of pressure.

I went to see a chiropractor as I thought considering I’ve just had a one year all clear it can’t be cancer related. 

Anyways 4 / 5 months on and the feeling is still there in the same location every day. It’s not always constant with sometimes little pressure and sometimes really noticeable. 

Any experience anything like this before? I know some may say I’m paranoid but I genuinely felt fairly relaxed about it all after getting the all clear after a year. 

Thanks

Mike 

Hi Mike - I hope this finds you well. My husband is post 11 months orchetomy (left side) and within the past 5 days his latest scan has unfortunately just showed an increased lymph node 2.3cm close to his kidney. Which moves him from what we hoped would remain a stage 1 seminoma to stage 2! He has been experiencing exactly the same pain that you have described but both his oncologist and urologist have all stated that this is likely muscular or something completely unrelated to his cancer, as no other spread can be seen on CT and a 2.3cm lymph node would not cause this type of ache. Can I ask if you were ever able to determine the source of this sensation for you?

warm wishes

Tracey

Hi Tracey,

So following this, I visited to chiropractor a few times and it didn’t seem to resolve the issue. Upon my two year scan I relapsed with two enlarged lymph nodes. I had treatment and now I’m in 3 years into remission. I had an MRI of the spine to see if we could determine the cause of the sensation which didn’t show up anything. It appears to come and go, and I doubt it down to general muscular / skeletal pain. 

I think once you get cancer you become ultra sensitive to every ache and pain and fear the worse through the Power of association to cancer.

It’s unfortunate that your husband has relapsed,  however your husband type and staging of cancer still has an excellent prognosis, with cure being the expected outcome. 

thanks

mike 

Hi Mike - thank you so much for getting back to me so quickly, the one positive in all this is finding great communities, with support and information from people like you. Thank you for continuing to share your experience - this means a lot. While a real shock this week with lots of sleepless nights - Jeff & I are staying optimistic and we remain encouraged by the very curable nature, treatment options and positive outcome for this type of cancer. We hope that the now very dull pain, which has moved around a little this week, is nothing serious. Perhaps we should be grateful that it prompted an ED visit on Sat, which resulted in a scan before his routine scan next year. Since Sat Jeff has had other more comprehensive scans, so at least we know it is just the one lymph node, currently showing enlargement. His treatment will be discussed at an MDT meeting this Thursday and we will take it from there. I’m so pleased to hear about your ongoing remission and we wish you continued health and happiness. Warm wishes J&T

No problem at all. I am very sure Jeff will be absolutely fine and will be back in remission very soon. Try and find some time to relax and enjoy yourselves and let the treatment work it’s magic! Take care. Mike