Finished BEP x3 as D1 Baseball Player - RPLND Next
I have gained a lot of information from everyone’s posts here so I figured I would share my experience as a division 1 pitcher. I am 23 years old and was diagnosed with stage 2a pure embryonal carcinoma. I opted for 3x BEP and unfortunately will be needing RPLND as one lymph node remained at 1.5cm. All my tumor markers are now normal so I am in biochemical remission but not complete remission due to the lymph node. Here is my experience with BEP and how I tried to remain active during it.
January 18th: Found the lump.
January 19th: Ultrasound.
January 20th: Orchiectomy.
Feb 19: Start chemo
Cycle 1: For me this was the second worst cycle. Because of when my port got put in, my chemo would start at 10pm lasting until 1am usually. Because of this, I would mostly just sleep through the chemo and then the rest of the night as I was inpatient for the first five days. As for side effects, mostly just tired with a little bit of nausea as well as a lot of hiccups and burps through all cycles. I started to feel way better and have more energy after day 6. On day 8, I had my bleo and then ended up with a fever that night so had to go to the emergency room. The doctors figured it was caused by the bleo and no other reason so they gave me fluids and then I went home. They gave me a steroid every bleo session after this to prevent it from happening again. The rest of the cycle went pretty smoothly, felt better each day. For baseball and exercise, I began throwing on day 10 to build up a little bit before the next cycle started. I also went to the gym a few times on the third week. I also began to lose my hair this week. My hcg was negative after the first cycle.
Cycle 2: This was the worst cycle for me as I was the most tired and most vomiting. For the first day I had a lot of vomit even though I wasn’t really nauseous and through the rest of the five days I was just super tired and out of it. I also began to have a slight ringing in my ears but it wasn’t constant. Like the first cycle, I felt significantly better once the five days were up and I began to throw again on day 8. I built up to a bullpen which I threw on day 20 and actually hit 94 mph (might be the world’s hardest chemo pitch lol.) I was also back in the gym on week 3 again.
Cycle 3: This was actually the easiest cycle. I experienced very little nausea and no vomiting. My appetite came back faster however the ringing in my ears is now constant. My hair has almost completely fallen out now. I began throwing on day 6 and built up to a bullpen on day 19 (only got up to 92 mph this time.)
Overall my main side effects only happened on days 1-5. This includes: fatigue, nausea, vomit, loss of appetite. Hiccups and burps happened for the first half of each cycle. Hair loss was gradual throughout. I now have a slight constant ringing in my ears but only notice it when it’s really quiet or I think about it. I did not experience any neuropathy.
For exercise, do as much as you feel like. I decided I felt good enough to push it on those bullpen days and did not see any downside to those. Just listen to your body.
I am now looking into options of RPLND to see what is best for me. Would you guys recommend robotic?