Dana Farber - Day One

Finally some answers and a plan. For two months there have been unknowns about what Joe exactly has. Today we started finally moving forward. For those who do not know, my boyfriend of over two years, Joe Merry, was diagnosed with testicular cancer in the beginning of March. About two months ago, Joe went to his doctor with a lump on his right testicle that he had been watching for the past year and half. His doctor instructed him to get an ultrasound and set up an appointment with an urologist. The urologist found a mass, at this point they felt it was non-cancerous but advised Joe to have his whole right testicle removed. After receiving a second opinion, Joe went ahead to schedule a surgery for removal of his right testicle on February 23, 2009. Overall, the surgery was an outpatient procedure (went in and out of the hospital on the same day) and went very well. The mass was sent out for pathology to determine if it was cancerous or not. At this point, the doctor's  had characterized the growth as a "mass" and felt it was not cancerous. However, two weeks later the pathology showed that cancer was found in Joe's testicle.   I found out right before an interview and felt like I had been punched in the stomach. At this point, personally I was frustrated, but hopeful that possibly they had removed all the cancer. Joe of course was very optimistic and upbeat and made a cat scan appointment to see if the cancer had spread, but was confident that they had got all the cancer removed. Fortunately, there was no wait for cat scan results. Unfortunately, the next day we found out the cancer had spread, to two lymph nodes and possibly his lungs. I cried, scared and upset that Joe (who HATES being sick) had to go through this. 

Today, we met with an oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the Genitourinary Cancer Treatment Center.  Although, Joe forgot the CD with his CT Scans on them, we got an idea of the battle ahead. As of today, the plan is to have three, 3 week cycles of BEP (chemotherapy). The start date is March 30th. Tomorrow we find out how much the cancer has spread and the actual stage of his cancer. Joe is ready to start his battle, I just hope there is no more bad news.