My cancer diary:
Thursday - May 10, 2001
[total: day 95]

"I get up early as it is collecting the copies of the medical reports today. I begin by driving to S. to get my blood tested. From her office to the hospital's building with the central archive it's a fifteen minutes drive by car. The lady at the archive remembers my name. The pictures of my lungs of 1996 have already been fetched. It's just hello and goodbye, a quick visit.

A short distance walk from the archive to the department of urology. Here everything is well prepared, too. I get the copies I asked for yesterday.

Being back in the car I notice that I must have overlooked a sentence in the second report of the pathologist when I first read it during my hospital stay in March. It says something about my tumor being quite exceptional and that there shall be a second opinion being retained from another pathologist. - A second opinion? Exceptional? Noone has told me before. Especially as the report explains that the tumor mass did not react to AFP antibodies, but to PLAP ones. Why have we focused on AFP tumor markers then?

I must have this report of the other pathologist! Today!

Being back home I call the secretary of the pathologist who wrote the original report. Yes, she will have a look. Minutes later I get a call back. She explains that she couldn't fax the papers due to the information being strictly confidential. And since she didn't know me nor my voice she could only send it to my postal address by mail. I admit that I understand, but that this may be too late for our trip tomorrow. After some discussion she agrees to fax it to the secretary of the private outpatient's department who knows me and who then forwards it to me by fax.

The report just says: There are no further discoveries. The second pathologist fully supports the first one's opinion. It's a blastomatous teratom.

Blastomatous? What's this now?
But as it is just of help for the detailled diagnosis and the why of the cancer, it's not time critical. I decide to ask D. in Heidelberg and the team home next week."

[next day] [top] [diary] [send feedback]

PS: This diary reflects just my very own opinion. - You might be also interested to read further details in doerings.net general section about testicular cancer.