Getting Ready for Chemo

We had one week until Judd started chemo and a lot of doctor's appointments to cram into that week to get everything in order before he started.

He had appointments to freeze sperm in case the chemo had long term effects reducing his ability to have more children in the future. Because he had rheumatic fever when he was little, they were worried there may be some scarring on his heart that may be worsened by chemo so he got an echocardiogram. Judd had also been having a lot of headaches the week before. He wasn't sure if it was just because all of the stress with his master's program, work, and starting chemo or if the headaches were related to the cancer. The doctor's believed it was very unlikely the cancer had spread to his brain, but to be sure they did an MRI. Judd's echocardiogram and MRI both came back perfect with no concerns! We were obviously very worried about the MRI results and it was a huge miracle it had not spread given the nature of his type of testicular cancer. We feel SO blessed we were able to catch the cancer before it spread to his brain.

We attended a Chemo 101 class where the infusion nurse gave us a tour of where he would get treatment and go over what to expect. That was very helpful and helped calm some nerves!

He also had to get his port placed. A port is a small disc made of plastic (about the size of a quarter) that is surgically inserted under the skin on your chest and a small tube connects the port to a large vein. Then to access the port a needle is poked through the skin into the port where they attach an IV and give the chemo. They can also draw blood from this. The benefit of having a port inserted is that it does not destroy your veins like a normal IV in the arm would. With a port the chemo is inserted into a vein where the blood flow is 16 x more than in your arm so the drugs dilute into the blood faster minimizing the damage done on the veins.

Judd and his brother, Jake, while waiting to be taken back for port placement.

Before

After -- The doctors don't put patients completely out for port placement. Judd says he remembers the nurse turned on some Garth Brooks for him then he and the doctor sang their hearts out and it was over before he knew it. I wish I had another funny video to post! haha. While we were walking out Judd still had some medicine pumping through him and he was feeling so good he thought he might go golfing with Jake. Once the drugs wore off he decided he'd just drive the cart instead. :)