Cancer treatment: Phase 4 - Chemotherapy

I went to see a consultant oncologist at Cheltenham general hospital late yesterday afternoon, and I have now reached the point where the proper treatment can begin.

Firstly I need to have an operation under general anaesthetic which will enable a number of things to take place. My catheter will be removed (woo hoo!) and uretary stents inserted to allow proper drainage of the kidneys into the bladder. It's effectively what the catheter is doing, but having a catheter presents a greater risk of infection during subsequent treatment. The surgeons will also remove my infected right testicle whilst they are poking around in there. This will hopefully happen within the next week and will only mean a maximum of one night in hospital.

After all that has been done I can go for my pre chemo tests. There is a lung function test, a hearing test and a kidney test, all done to create a base level of health against which they can measure any deterioration during treatment. This is all outpatient stuff.

Then I am in for 9-12 weeks of chemotherapy, apparently the best way to tackle my particular type of cancer. There are many different types of chemotherapy, and mine is called BEP, named after the initials of the drugs used (Bleomycin, Etoposide & Cisplatin, which contains Platinum). The treatment itself runs over a three week cycle. In the first week I will have three days of chemo as an inpatient - Day 1, Etoposide & Cisplatin; Day 2, all three; Day 3, Etoposide. Six days later (day 9) I will have Bleomycin as an outpatient, then a week off, and on day 16 Bleomycin again as an outpatient. Then a few more days off before the cycle starts again. After two cycles my progress will be examined and a third cycle undertaken. The fourth cycle isn't always necessary, it depends on the effectiveness of the rest of it.

The good thing is that my cancer is sure to disappear after the treatment. The bad thing is that all the treatment has to be done in Cheltenham which means a lot of travelling, but the NHS provides a transport service for cancer patients which I'm sure will prove invaluable. There are of course many potential bad things about chemo, given the list of possible side effects, but that's not something I intend to dwell upon as I may yet experience none of them, or some, or all - who's to know. I shall cross that bridge when I come to it.