My husband was diagnosed with kidney cancer last November. Biopsy showed it had spread to lymph nodes and he started treatment in January. He has lost weight and struggles to eat and drink enough. I don’t know what to do to help him. He is tired all the time. Has anyone else experienced this?
Morning
So sorry to read about your husbands diagnosis and weight loss - You both must have had a tough time since November :-/
A lot of people struggle with eating and drinking during treatment, do you think your husbands lack of appetite is down to taste loss and texture change as a side effect of chemotherapy or his diagnosis ? My wife found everything tasted metallic and a bit like tasteless soggy cardboard during chemo and for a while afterwards. We ended up living off spicy or highly flavoured foods for around 6 months.
If he is eating very little serve smaller but high protein portions, that can be bulked up with butter, cheese, cream, fish, meat and eggs etc. If you can find foods he actually enjoys, you can make extra to freeze ? If you overload a plate a large portion can be off putting so try and serve little but often.
Taking on enough fluid is a toughie, especially as they recommend 2 litres a day, for most this is trial and error finding what still tastes nice and is enjoyable. There are plenty of flavoured still and fizzy bottled waters on multi buy offers in supermarkets, or a beer now and again if he used to enjoy 'a pint' - Failing that an alternative could be flavoured build up drinks like Ensure or Fortisip some of which are available for prescription, but it could take a lot of trial and error to find one he prefers.
If he is mobile exercise can be helpful, even if only walking around the garden can help with muscle loss.
Macmillan produce a Building-Up Diet booklet - I'll place it below; to download / read just click the cover image.
Hope this is of some help, take care, G n' J
Morning and
Fatigue can be a 'biggie' If the cancer itself doesn't cause tiredness the treatments or side effects from them probably will.
My wife had breast cancer which may have been less of an impact on her body than a cancer that actually affects one of the organs but she still suffered from tiredness post surgery and throughout her 18 weeks of chemo.
Her sessions were 3 weekly and she had some wiped out duvet days and on other days was almost back to her usual self (Duracell Bunny) Within 6 weeks of her chemotherapy being completed her good cells that were also wiped out renewed themselves and sleep patterns gradually returned to the 'new normal'
I don't know if your husband or your father CJC is on a set number of chemotherapy regime sessions or if long term (until it stops being as effective) and can see the light at the end of this tunnel ? Short term is more do'able as you have a date to make it through to, but long term chemo can be more of a challenge :-/
Tiredness / Fatigue can also be a sign of other problems that may need checking out like Anaemia, Diabetes, Underactive Thyroid, Depression etc - Most of which can be checked for with a simple blood test or a short course of low dose meds to lift their mood.
Macmillan produce a booklet covering 'Coping With Fatigue' - As above, just click the cover image to download. It is a big read (over 60 pages) so you may want to cherry pick the sections to read from the index.
I had a quick look through old posts in the Kidney Group you can read a 4 page discussion about tiredness post kidney surgery clicking here. You could also type fatigue or tiredness into the kidney group search bar to find newer messages 
Fingers crossed you find a way to get their mojo back.
Take care, G n' J
