Ideas for post surgery?

Hi

I'm 47 and I had my orchidectomy about five weeks ago now.  Has your husband had any kind of unrelated surgery before?  I'd had five previous unrelated operations prior to this, and because of those experiences (and the fact that this operation is clearly unpleasant, but certainly isn't complex or risky) I wasn't too worried about it.  If this is the first time your husband has gone through surgery there might be a level of anxiety, but I don't think it will be massive.  

I felt completely healed and normal after just two weeks, but I don't think that is the same for everyone.  During recovery I found just small thoughtfull things my wife did were really helpful, like removing trip hazards, and other small rearrangements to rooms to make things easier through recovery.

Do you know if your husband is concerned physcologically about losing one of his testicles?  If he is, then reading around the subject and talking about it does put your mind at rest. 

Regarding chemo; I was stage 1 and elected to take a single cycle of Carboplatin as a precaution.  If your usband is stage 2 then I assume he has been told he will need 2 or 3 cycles of chemo, and not just be offered it as a choice.

I had my chemo 6 days ago now.  I'm starting to feel a bit brighter today at last.  Whether or not I made the right choice in taking the chemo is the biggest thing playing on my mind.  I'm also being overly paranoid in worrying about long-term side effects.  Your husband probably won't have a choice to second guess, but I'm sure everyone is concerned about the long-term side effects.  The people he talks to in the run up to chemo will be very good.  I made sure I wrote down the questions I had in advance of discussions and consultations to ensure I didn't forget to ask anything.  

I still get caught thinking back to the day of the chemo, and that itself causes some anxiety.  I wasn't really prepared for the day and some things caught me by surprise.  Get your husband to ask early on about how the day of chemo will play out; how many other patients? How long will it take, etc?  

At my hospital about 80 patients per day receive chemo - I wasn't prepared for that scale.  If your husband is at stage 2 with testicular cancer he is still in a far better position than pretty much every other patient he will see at the hospital on the day.  I noticed that really quickly on the day and it made me feel really guilty.  There were a lot of really sick but happy and chatty people there, which made it a very surreal experience.  He won't see any huge suffering, but he will see or hear massive bravery, which itself can be a bit overwhelming.  On the day I struggled with the fact that I was feeling absolutely fine, but was about to take a treatment that was going to make me feel dreadful for a while. I would suggest you plan all of the adjustments you are going to make to your living arrangements with your husband well in advance of the chemo, but make sure you don't lose sight of the fact that those changes are only temporary and that things are going back to normal in a realtively short space of time, so don't make any changes that arent reversible.  Then just listen to the doctors, do what they say, and have confidence in them - they're brilliant.

Best wishes

Gary 

Forgot to say; there will be a gap between healing from surgery and being scheduled for chemo - get out and take advantge of it.

Hi Tia