0: Mom's blog entry

October and pink ribbons, what immediately comes to mind? Breast cancer awareness month, of course.  During October, breast health is at the forefront of everyone's mind.  The news, social media, billboards, pretty much everywhere you look, we, as women, are encouraged and taught to do monthly breast self-exams. 

The month of April, royal blue ribbons or are they orchid or gold, what immediately comes to mind?  Do you need a minute or two? 

I would have, if my life was not turned upside down on January 9th.  You see, that was the day my youngest son was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Only about 1 in 250 men will develop testicular cancer. Of course, that statistic is irrelevant if you, or someone you love, are THE one.

From that day forward it was a mad dash - from freezing sperm on January 14th and 16th (my son had never seriously considered becoming a father, but he didn't want cancer making that decision for him) to a radical inguinal orchiectomy on January 17th.  I suppose most people would be glad for time to rest and recover.  Not me.  While waiting for him to go into surgery, I looked at his pre-op tumor markers on the screen, the numbers were sky high.  That, coupled with the continued flank pain after surgery, pretty much solidified the fear that the cancer had spread.  After a few administrative issues and one cancelled appointment, things were finally moving along.  Fast forward to February 5th, there was a quick trip to the hospital for an abdominal CT. Finally, on February 6th, my son met with his oncologist.  I know that is only 28 days from the date of diagnosis, but to me, it felt like a lifetime. The news was, as expected, the cancer had possibly metastasized to the retroperitoneum. More labs were drawn to obtain current tumor markers.  There was to be no waiting for those results to determine the stage his cancer would be assigned.  A treatment plan was agreed upon.  Port placement, then 4 cycles of aggressive chemotherapy known as BEP (Bleomycin, Etopocide, and Cisplatin).  This is a highly effective cocktail but as his oncologist said "If you rate chemotherapy treatments from good to bad on a scale of 1-10, this one is definitely a 9-10".  Side effects include hair loss, nausea, fatigue, neuropathy in the hands and feet, mouth sores, ringing in the ears, lung toxicity, neutropenic fever, low white blood cell count, kidney damage and an increased bleeding risk. Chemotherapy will begin on February 18th.  Each cycle will last 21 days.   If his white blood cell count stays above 1, there will be no breaks in between the cycles.

As a mom, I am terrified for my son. To be honest, I am also a bit terrified for myself.   I will have to watch my son suffer and there will be nothing I can do to make it go away.  Thankfully, I am blessed to work for a company that has become my family, from my team, to my peers, to my manager and above.  The compassion and support that they have shown has been amazing.  Because of their support and offers to help in whatever way they can, I can be right by my son's side as he begins this fight.   I can't begin to thank them enough for all they have done and continue to do, and knowing that they will walk every step of this journey with me while my son kicks cancer's a**,  brings me great comfort.

So back to my above question.  Do you know the answer yet?  Royal blue, orchid and/or gold ribbons are used for testicular cancer awareness.   As no one can pick just one color, you know this is a cancer that is not talked about enough.  April is testicular cancer awareness month, but I am pretty sure you won't hear that much about it.  So please ~ talk to your husband, your significant other, your son's, your father's and any other male you know about the importance of monthly testicular self-exams.