My husband has cancer in both kidneys. He was diagnosed in 2014 and 5 months later put on votrient (Paz?) never could spell or pronounce it. It slightly shrank the cancerand stopped it from spreading. He had side effects but the main one was loss of appetite. He was not as fit as he was before the treatment but he was still able to participate in some forms of work and socialising. After 3 years and experiencing more side effects especially diarrhoea he was told the treatment wasn’t working anymore. They then put him on immunotherapy in November 2017 which picked his appetite up a bit but after 5 months he had very bad health problems for a solid month and after 4 visits to A & E and being told nothing was wrong I refused to take him home and I asked a doctor to get him to A &E at the hospital where he was treated for cancer. As it happened there was an acute oncology ward there especially for cancer patients with serious health problems. It turned out his cortisol hormone had stopped working that was believed to be a result of the immunotherapy treatment. Hence he now has to take steroids every day. By November 2018 he was having serious diarrhoea problems and it was thought it was the treatment so suggested he had a break from it. After a couple of months of no treatment he became very shaky on his legs, sleeping most of the day and absolutely no energy. Also diarrhoea problems still. He also experienced urine retention a couple of times over the last few years and so has had a catheter for some time culminating in urine infection after infection. Anyway he had a meeting with his cancer doctor in August 19 and was told that they weren’t putting him on any more treatment as he wasn’t fit enough. He was also referred to the local palliative team and his GP. He has gradually got worse and For the last 2 weeks he has slept nearly 24/7 hardly eaten or drinking and gets confused sometimes. He is always saying that something else must be wrong and they’ve given up on him as he’s now 75. So we have talked with the doctor that came to see him today and my husband and I both agreed that he was far better on the treatment and that the side effects that the doctor thought was caused by the treatment are still present. Because of this we have asked the duty doctor who called today to see if we can have another referral back to a cancer specialist to resume treatment.
I’m sorry I have nearly written a book about my husbands health problems but I feel so helpless and hate seeing my once very fit healthy hubby reduced to what is now a terrible quality of life.
What I would like to know from this community is:
1. Has anyone else had this prolonged ill health and non quality of life or is it the cancer taking its course?
2. Has anyone stopped treatment and then resumed it again?
3. Any suggestions of anything I am missing or should be doing would be very much appreciated as I getting near emotional melt down.
If you got this far thank you x
