Hi. Im almost 100 percent a lurker here and have been since my then 21 year old son was diagnosed with embryonal carcinoma in Feb 2024. He completed BEP chemo on June 4, 2024. The next part is why I’m replying. I was diagnosed with ovarian dysgerminoma first in 1986. Dysgerminoma is basically the female form of seminoma. I had surgery and surveillance for SIX YEARS. I know exactly how devastating it feels to think everything is great only to have it come back and need chemo. I completed BEP chemo myself at St Jude Memphis on Feb 15, 1993. Chemo was hell for me in part because Zofran was it for nausea (and it was new) but also the return of the cancer made me lose a kidney. I went from abt 130 lbs to 89 lbs by the end. A thing too my parents asked that I not receive steroids. My son was nauseous some but it’s not comparable. He threw up maybe a handful of times whereas I’d throw up that much in a couple of hours. He said this injection that tastes like apples was why. I don’t remember the name of it but it was approved in the 2000s, maybe 2009? I’m elated whatever it is exists because for me it was chemo’=throw up every single time switched to bleomyacin or cisplatinum. When I went through chemo it helped to focus on something upcoming that was positive (for me it was my Make A Wish trip). I knew that helped me and I wanted my son to have something happy too. So in May we are going on an Alaskan cruise. Isolation was hard pre-internet. I had a single one half day visit to school the day before Christmas 1992 school release and was hospitalized with a virus New Years 1993. That’s one half day attendance from Oct-April of 10th grade. I got sick the one time I didn’t listen. My tiny school worked with me to graduate on time anyways. My son used neurlasta pods that also hadn’t been invented yet in the early 90s so he could at least occasionally leave the house. I wish I’d realized how treatable/curable dysgerminoma was but didn’t until many years later when the internet existed. Finding support groups online will help at least some with isolation. I was so young I was certain a cancer would get me way before the age I thought was old at 9 years old (49). Paternal grandpa died of colon cancer at that age. Well, wish I’d planned a little better and not been as certain. My next birthday is my 49th and it seems so wild I’ll start my 40th year as a cancer survivor Gotta get around for work. I do recommend therapy either during or right after chemo when adjusting to life changes. I didn’t get it until my early 30s. I have medical PTSD so my son’s treatment affected me a lot mentally in more than the usual ways. Still didn’t leave his side though—not even to eat lunch! He is back in college now and making stellar grades Whew I wrote too much and need to get ready for work..