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Kidney Nephrectomy

Rosieroo52
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I am due ( final blood and urine test permitting) left kidney/adrenal/possible spleen removal on 21st May.

About a week ago I began to experience moderate pain under my armpit (no obvious swelling or lymph) and also soreness going down from armpit, sore ribs.

Rang cancer Macmillan nurse at hospital who said as op is booked unless pain is acute there is nothing that will be done. Spoke again just said take pain killers.

Pain level increased so rang NHS111, 3 days ago  Doctor rang back and prescribed lowest dose pregabalin, which has done nothing.

A week to go and trying to get as fit as I can for op, but pain has affected my appetite and ability to walk for long 

Any advice would be appreciated 

  • Hi Rosieroo52,

    Thanks for getting in touch and a warm welcome to our online community. My name is Suzanne and I am one of the cancer information nurse specialists here at Macmillan.

    I can see you are a member of our Kidney Cancer Forum and hope you are finding this supportive as you approach your surgery.

    As you mention, it so important that you get the right help to be as fit as you can to prepare for your treatment .

    The pain around your armpit and ribs must be affecting you in so many ways, and I’m sorry to hear your current treatment is not helping at all.

    Unfortunately, we are not able to provide specific advice from this platform as we have no access to your clinical records.

    However, as the pain medications you are taking just now aren’t helping, and your pain appears to be worsening, we would advise you to seek another medical review straight away. This can be either by contacting your GP, Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS), or 111 again if need be. They can then assess your pain further and try either an alternative management approach, or possibly change the dose of your pregabalin.

    Should the pain become severe, or you develop chest pain or any breathing difficulties you should not hesitate to call 999.

    It may help to read our information around managing cancer pain and complete the pain diary provided at the end of the booklet. This should help the person reviewing you to get a clearer idea of the pain, how it is affecting you, and how best to alleviate it.  

    I do hope this information is helpful Rosieroo52. Waiting to have treatment can be challenging so please do reach out again whenever you need to.

    It may also help to give us a call or chat to us on the support line . We are here every day from 8am-8pm and can often support you better over the phone.

     

    Best wishes and take care,

     

    Suzanne, Cancer Information Nurse Specialist

     

    You can also speak with the Macmillan Support Line team of experts. Phone free on 0808 808 0000 (7 days a week, 8am-8pm) or send us an email.

    Ref/SF/DK

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