Its all set up now – I'll be heading to MD Anderson in Houston for a referral visit. They said I should plan to be there for a few days as they review all of my stuff and run any tests that they may need.
I'm glad to do this as I think it will give me a little more certainty about all of this. I'm still trying to get results from my last round of tests. Apparently, I must need a Presidential signature to pull this off. I'm going on the assumption that if there were anything bad, they would have called me by now. Hopefully, I'll hear back from them today.
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Finally, school is over. It has been a little over three years – three long years of late nights and early mornings. I guess for me, working through school the first time wasn't challenging enough, so I added a wife and kids to the mix. 
My final critiques went fairly well. Some projects weren't as great, but in the end, they were finished and that was all I was concerned about. I was talking with someone on Saturday and I said that the fall 05 semester just about killed me. So when the spring semester started, I was glad. I was glad because finally I would finish and get back to a normal life. Little did I know what would happen.
The question of the day seems to be, "So what are you going to do now?" Everyone wants to know where I'm going to work, what my plans are and what I want to do. First, I want to get healthy – that's what I tell them. To answer what they are really looking for, I'm not certain yet. My goal is to resolve that by the end of the year. At this point, I am really open to whatever seems to be the most beneficial for me and my family. I don't know what that will mean, I just hope that I can see it when it comes along.
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In eight days, I will be finished with school – again. I am so ready to be done, but I have so much to do between now and then. I know that everything will come together, but man, its stressful when I think about everything that will happen between now and then.
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Everything went well today. While there, I was also x-rayed. For my third drink, I had the banana flavor. It is far superior to the orange, but still nasty.
I talked with the doctor's office and they said I should hear from MD Anderson no later than two weeks. I should also get all of these recent tests results back shortly.
Right now I feel kind of yuck, but I think that's just from the drink/iodine. They told me to drink lots of water, which is what I am doing now.
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I have a CT scan at 10:30 today. So that meant that last night I got to drink one of the yummy Redicat Barium drinks. I'm about to drink another one, then I'll have a third one when I get to the office.
Its not as bad as the first time, but then I only had one large one instead of 3 smaller ones. The worst part is that I couldn't eat or drink this morning so I'll get to enjoy that taste all by itself. :(
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I went back to the doctor today to discuss the next move. It looks like what I will be doing now is going to get a second opinion, most likely from MD Anderson in Houston. I'm not sure when, but it will be soon.
Provided they find everything to be the same as what I have already been told, at this time, I think I am going to go the route of surveillance. If there is no sign that the Cancer had spread anywhere, I just have a hard time convincing myself to go for surgery, when there is no evidence to support it. If they feel differently, then there will probably be a third consult involved.
The surveillance is no walk in the park either though. When reviewing this information, I looked to the Testicular Cancer Resource Center. The protocol listed there is as follows:
Year 1: Tumor Markers and Chest X-ray done every month
Abdominal CT scan done every 2 months
Year 2: Tumor Markers and Chest X-ray done every 2 months
Abdominal CT scan done every 4 months
Years 3-5: Tumor Markers and Chest X-ray done every 6 months
Abdominal CT scan done every 6 months
After Year 5: Tumor Markers and Chest X-ray done once a year
IF Cancer shows up in during testing, we would address it then. The idea of the surveillance is that if you follow your schedule, the success in treatment is exactly the same as if you went the surgery route first.
Its a little easier to say right now, when I don't believe there is any Cancer left. I might feel different if in six months I was to get a bad report. For now though, the next step is to get the second opinion.
In addition, I am making a commitment to take better care of myself. I've never been in BAD health, but I'm not as healthy as I can be or need to be. Weight has been a problem for me nearly as long as I can remember, so that is one of the things I am focused on now. That is, eating better, being consistent with vitamins etc. and getting back to a regular exercise routine. With school nearly over, I believe that I will have more time available so hopefully, it won't be so tough to get up early in the morning, since doing homework til 2 or 3 in the morning will be no more.
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May 17, 2006
3:29 pm
