Results update - and consultant teamwork

2 minute read time.
We are back from the hospital with mixed news from the kidney consultant. Obviously he was not going to give us any information regarding the histology report re: The Cancer. It was funny though, he kept trying to explain about the added pressure on the urinary system as a result of "the mass/the .. area/ the swelling/the lump" in the end I thought I'd better help the poor guy out as he seemed to run out of adjectives ..... so I told him,"It's okay to say Cancer you know, we know what it is!" He looked relieved, and I was happy he didn't have to get out his thesaurus in order to keep going, although I was a bit disappointed he didn't resort to "tumescence". ;-) Anyway. The upshot is A's kidneys are not doing quite so well, and they aren't really sure why. It could be a result of the pressure that built up with bladder retention as a result of ... The Cancer Tumour (see, I can write it without any trouble), or it could be to do with A's diabetes, or indeed a bit of both. He did refer to the scans a lot and said that there was absolutely no evidence of any spread anywhere else (this is the good news bit) but that there may be problems with the chemo/surgery options because of the kidney malfunction (the bad news bit). In particular Cisplatin, one of the main chemo drugs for bladder cancer would not be tolerated as it contains platinum, which with A's kidneys in their current shape would be all kinds of BAD. Hey ho. Now we have to (guess what) .... wait til Friday for the results with the Urology specialist for the aggressiveness results and then I suppose we have to wait to see an oncologist to discuss chemo options in the circumstances, and if the results have consequences regarding planned surgery. Is all this waiting making me a more patient person ....... ? NO. ;-( I need to lasso a tame Urologist, Kidney Consultant and Oncologist together and not let them loose til we know some answers. I stupidly didn't take a notepad with me today although I remembered lots of pertinent questions when we were in the room, I suffered my usual problem of thinking of another twenty questions to ask the minute we were out the door. I must do better than this on Friday. We did have a brilliant dinner last night, courtesy of our favourite allotment clad friends, who furnished us with super fresh spring greens, beetroot, courgettes, broccoli and broad beans. Delicious.
Anonymous
  • FormerMember
    FormerMember

    Sorry to hear that you are having wait for any positive details of treatment.  It is always the way when two medical disciplines are involved.  No one is prepared to discuss the other’s speciality.  In our area, they have even have multi disciplinary teams.  Sound good, but the reality is that it takes over two weeks for anything referred to the team to be discussed, and then we have to wait another month or so while they give us an appointment to see whoever has finally taken responsibility for further treatment.  Heigh ho, I sometimes think its only anger with the system that keeps me going.  Seriously, though, I hope you get some positive news on Friday.

    At least you know you can have rant on this site and others will understand how you feel.