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.
Today I have been very tired but ok. One of the dreaded drains is out and hopefully the other one will be out tomorrow. I found out that whilst doing thr surgery they nicked one of my lungs and had to reinflate it. Whilst I was waiting in my room to be taken to xray to make sute it had reinflated properly, I thought I saw a huge black cat crawling accross the floor, Further investigation showed it to be a mop being pushed by a rather bemused cleaner. I dont think I beed any more Morphine tonight. I am so tired and am now in bed hopeing to be asleep soon.
After surgery I kept seeing huge black spiders running round the room - and men lurking behind curtains............even though I knew there was no-one there!!!!!!!!!!!! So I asked the nurses to cut back on all the painkillers to the bare minimum!!!!!!! Really strong stuff knocks me out for days!!!!!!
Hope everything is OK with your lung now................good luck with your recovery..........stay focussed on getting home soon.......
Thanks Dot, I am hopeing the drugs can be cut back in a couple of days and then I shouldnt feel so drugged up. Poor Linda and Julie have been here all day again after spending the night in hospital acommodation and look absolutely shattered. It cannot be much fun for them looking at me sleeping hour on end. Today I have been down for an xray to check my collapsed lung is ok and I assume I will hear more about that tomorrow. Tomorrow Linda is back with Justin and Kate and it will be great to see them both again. All the nurses have been reading her artical in our local magazine so I suspect she will be a bit of a hero tomorrow. She will always be my hero anyway for the way she has dealt with this.
Bob. Great to hear that you have come through the other side of the op and that your care seems to be better this time around. Try and take it easy but I know that is the last thing you intend doing! x
Things are going nicely. Im off the morphine drip and instead have started taking Oramorph alternating with Tramadol plus topped up with intrevenous paracetamol. I have also had my first taste of proper solid food and it went down real good.. Looking out the window the sun is shining and I have sent Linda, Justin and kate of to get some food. Its really good to have them here again today and I so appreciate it,, especially when it takes two hours to get here. I have a lovely family and I am so lucky.
So glad to hear that your op went well and that your recovery this time is going a lot better. You will be back home with Linda and Kate before you know it. Take care and rest easy.
Quite a restfull night althoufg it sounded like a retirement party in the room next door up untill 11.00. No worries, I nearly went and joined in. I have just had another cannula removed and also my catheta so I only have i cannula left plus a drain. Hopefully both will come out once the surgeon has done his round. The team are trying to wean me off the oramorph which is fine as long as the tramadol controls the pain. Certainly this morning I have only taken Tramadol and its not too bad apart from when I hiccup or cough. Linda will be here later on. I did try to pursuade her not to come here as she is so tired but she is having non of it, god bless her. Sally in America rang for the second time last night and we had a good chat, we did try and skype but the hospital wi- fi was having none of it.
