BOB JK My diary of kidney cancer (to be continued)
FormerMember
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Hi, My name is Bob and I live in Cambridgeshire. I am married with an 8 yr old daughter and three older step sons. Up untill the end of last year everything was tickety boo having recently moved to a new house which we love. Work was busy but enjoyable. I am Manager of an electrical companys maintenance department and my Wife, Linda was enjoying her job as a Nurse. The three boys are buying there own house nearby and all work locally. In November I went to my Doctors with a small "cyst" on my chest. After a couple of referals and many Xrays, pet scans, bone scans and CT scans I was told the news everybody dreads. My lump on the chest was a secondary cancer of which the primary was in my left Kidney. I was fast tracked to the Royal Brompton, under the expert care of Mr Laddas who informed a long and complicated operation would need to be carried out to remove the bone tumor and surrounding bone which involved two ribs,my collar bone and chest bone. I did not have time to panic, the operation was carried out the next day over 10 hrs. After nearly two weeks in the Brompton I am recovering well from this op but I have since been told that the Cancer is in both kidneys as well as small mets in both lungs. It seems at the moment further ops are out the question and i have been put on the drug Sutent. I am one week into this and so far so good. I do not know what the future holds but I have to remain positive.
Thank you all for your good wishes for my op. Here I am at nearly half past eleven and I cannot sleep for love nor money so have resigned myself to a sleepless night. I have left Linda in bed who is also struggling to settle and am scouring the tv channels for something half decent to watch. Poor old Mollie has followed me downstairs and is lying at my feet and every so often she gives an exasperated sigh as if to say "come on master, go to bed so I can settle". . When I was first diagnosed and things were not looking at all good myself and linda talked about funerals and where we wanted our final resting place to be. In the early days I had thoughts about being buried in one of those woodland burial grounds but every time we went to look at one is was wet, miserable and seemed so uninviting and overgrown. Today again we passed this particular site and so I said to Linda "lets pop in and have a look. Although dry and a bit more inviting it still seems an overgrown mass and if any family in time wanted to come and "visit" me then I think they would be hard pushed to find me. I know of someone buried there and could not find their resting place last time I went there. Also when on the Sutent it was so bloody cold I thought the crem would at least be warm so at the moment that is probably odds on but as Im not done for yet I still could further change my mind.
Yep - I'm still up (12.55am) - wishing you lots of success for your op later today. As a carer,my heart goes out to your loved ones too, because I know what they are thinking/feeling.
After astruggling to sleep for the first half of the night the second half was better and I feel rested and ready. We drive down to London at about eleven this morning. Linda and Julie are planning on staying down tomorrow night so we want to check out location of their accomodation before arriving at the hospital for about two. Then it will be the usual routine of form filling, T P R checks and bowel prep (nice). Then boredem and sleep before my op tomorrow morning. The worst part about going to London is that I will miss my family so, so much but I am in one of the best Cancer care areas so have to compromise. Kate will be going off to school today and I will not see her until Sunday.
We made London in good time and I am settled into my room. I have been put on a fluid diet and am awaiting bowel prep prior to my op which will be first on list tomorrow. Linda is here with me and so far the care recieved is a bit better than before. I havnt seen the ward sister who dissapeared in the middle of doing my dressing last time but I'm ready for her if she appears. I will be glad when I'm on the other side of the operation and recovering once again.
