The "Official" Diagnosis

Friday, Oct. 23. Jeff and I met with his urologist and got the pathology report from the tumor they removed, as well as the results from his blood tests. Everything confirmed that he had a seminoma tumor. The cancer is stage 1. What all this means for us is that the doctors believe the cancer did not spread anywhere else and that he will undergo radiation therapy to make sure it is all gone. This is good news.

We thought all along that he had a non-seminoma tumor because they tend to be more aggressive in nature and more prevalent in men his age. We also thought he would have chemotherapy, not radiation because non-seminoma tumors do not respond to radiation. Apparently radiation is a better route because it is actually a proven cure, whereas chemo is still experimental and slightly more inconvenient. Seminoma tumors are slower growing and occur more often in older men. This confirms our suspicions that Jeff is just an old man...

His treatments will probably start this Thursday if they can squeeze in an appointment and will hopefully finish before Thanksgiving.

I just wanted to update a little. I promise I will post again...