We've just returned from Indianapolis after a visit to Indiana University's Cancer Center, where we had an appointment with Dr. Richard Foster, a urologist who is a master of the RPLND (the big operation where a surgeon opens you up, stem to stern (almost), and pulls the lymph nodes out of your midsection. We mainly went for a second opinion, but also to see what the IU hospital is like, since if we decide on surgery, we'll most likely use IU.
Dr. Foster's answer wasn't much different from Dr. D's (our local urologist) - wait and see what the final CT (after the conclusion of chemo) shows. However, he suspected surgery would be required, based on the fact that there was teratoma in the primary tumor that was removed in my first surgery (teratoma doesn't respond to chemo and can morph into chemoresistant cancers). Based on the tumor's location in relation to my kidney, there's also a slight possibility that I might lose my left kidney, but they wouldn't know until surgery (I seem to be getting rid of my spare parts, so what's another part lost? Maybe I'll start to lean to the right to compensate). Dr. Foster also went into the specifics of nerve damage that may result, again a slight possibility, but a possibility nonetheless. So other than the kidney thing, nothing that we already didn't know, but it was good for peace of mind.
Anyway, that's all for now.
Frank
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I had active Teratoma in my original tumor which morphed into a Sarcoma tumor in a nearby lymph node. So if there is a chance that you have active teratoma in your nodes, you're better off having the surgery. Best of luck with the CT results.
-Andrew
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