Chemotherapy began with a consultation with Dr. Bate, an oncologist, on Thursday, April 6. We met up at the Mercy Cancer Center at 5:00 pm. At that point no one was in the Cancer Center except for one woman receiving a treatment. Ironically, it was very peaceful, relaxful, and inviting in the Cancer Center. For a place with so much sickness and suffering, the Mason City Cancer Center was nice. I got to meet with Dr. Bate in one of the private consultation rooms along with my wife and parents.
Dr. Bate explained that this regimen of chemotherapy was very routine and there was nothing that I needed to worry about. In a way it was nice that he was so comfortable that the treatment would work but on the other hand it was kind of disconcerting that he wasn't as concerned about the cancer as I was.
During that initial consultation Dr. Bate told me that I would be going through 3 rounds of BEP. BEP is a series of drugs (Bleomycin, Etoposide, and Cisplatin) that work in combination to destroy the cancer cells. The drug that adds the punch to this drug cocktail is cisplatin, in fact, before this drug was added to the three drug combo, testicular cancer was almost always fatal if it was not caught early.
Each round would last three weeks, week one I would receive treatment everday at via IV at the Cancer Center. I would be receiving the Etoposide and Cisplatin during week one. During the second week I would go up on Tuesday and receive my injection of Bleomycin. On the third week, I would repeat the routine of week two with another injection of Bleomycin. After that week was done the whole process would begin again.
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