Hey Nikki,
Sorry to make such a deal of the sperm banking, its just that you only get one shot at it. I had BEP at the same time as another guy who missed the opportunity and he became a bit upset about it. He hadn't had kids though. He had 4 rounds of BEP (he had Stage 3C) and it was sucessful for him too.
If you want an inspiring story about BEP check out Lance Armstrong's, he had something like 10 tumours in his lungs, 2 in his brain and a blood bourne form of testicular cancer and it cured him. He actually had VEP but its pretty much the same - VEP has nastier side effects but doesn't damage the lungs so much.
My son was just over 2 when I went through treatment. He'd also got to see my dad go through chemo and pass away and my wife go through treatment for thyroid cancer prior to then, so we were really worried about him too. We're still really worried about the effects of all that to be honest, but it hasnt' seemed to have had a big impact on him. Going to the hospital is a pretty routine and boring thing for him. At the time of treatment I was advised to modify my activities with him so that I could still play with him when I had no energy or was feeling sick. So instead of doing active things, I spent a lot of time doing indoor things like reading books and doing drawings. I don't think he noticed the difference to be honest.
So with BEP, I'm not sure how much you've been told and I'm not sure if the routine has changed since I had it (it probably has), but here's some tips (I'm assuming its 5 days in hospital, then 2 weeks at home):
- ask for a list of all the drugs he's meant to be receiving and when (e.g. 12 hourly), make sure you get the drugs like clockwork and that none are missed. The nurses are usually really great in oncology wards (it takes a pretty special person to work there), but they can get really busy and sometimes being overdue for a dose of something by half an hour can make all the difference.
- take your own food and try to eat lots of small meals if your feeling sick, also try to drink a lot of fluids (but only in small amoutns). He may also need extra food because he may eat more (see below).
- take lorazepam and ask for some to take home. Lorazepam is a sedative and anti-nausea agent that is part of the BEP routine, although they might offer it as optional. Its fairly mild and it really helps take the edge off things. Ask for it early on the first day. One of the other anti-nausea drugs they give is called Dexamethasone and it can be a very powerful stimulant for some people (like me). It made me feel great and eat like a horse (I put on 20 kilos during 9 weeks of chemo - luckily that was about how much I'd lost when I was sick). He will probably need the lorazepam to balance out the dex and he may need to continue taking it at home for a few days after his last dose of dex to be able to sleep. I couldn't sleep for 3 days after my first round of chemo and I was absolutely wrecked. We all thought it was stress until I spoke to one of the nurses about it and they said 'didn't you take any sleeping tablets home?'.
- he will probably lose his hair during the second round, but if he's got hairy arms you might want to consider shaving them. He'll surely end up having plety of things stuck to his arm with surgical tape and it really gets annoying having to rip it off all the time.
- bleomycin always gave me a fever (which felt like chills) about 4-6 hours after I had it, which would last about about 2 hours. I always needed a good sleep at about that point too. Dont' plan to do too much on the days when he's having bleomycin.
Good luck with everything on tuesday, let us know how it goes. Feel free to send me a personal message if you want.
Steve
