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.
Hi Bob and All, First of all id like to wish you and your wife Bob happy belated anniversary wishes and i hope you both enjoyed the day.From reading your postings you seem to be doing pretty well infact it tires me out reading what your able to do, which is great for you, Sutent apparently dosent affect your blood as it does mine as ive just about had my worse month since i started on Sutent just over 12 months ago.absolutly exausted, Ive also had a cold and a visit to the dentist, my god the pain, he drilled the nerve out of my tooth and because i has a abcess the anesthetic dident touch it AAAAHHHHHH. Anyway i thought id let you know what happened at my out patients visit on Tuesday, when i arrived i was given the usual blood envelope but the Proff had also asked for a ECG to be done and thyroid as well as the usual weight,( has anyone else put weight on as i have ) BP etc, anyway to cut a long story short my red blood count was really low as in 8,( Proff said its a wonder you can walk ) and also my vitamin B12 was very low, so the outcome is i have to go in hospital at 8am tommorrow for a transfusion of 2 units of blood and also have vitamin B12 injections which i will go to my GP for. I should have started back on Sutant today but Proff said to have a week off to let my body recover with the view to going down to 3 tablets a day instead of 4, i said id prefer to stick to 4 so as not to jepodise my the good results im getting at the moment, so he said it wont but the side effects wont get any better. I go for my scan next tuesday and the following week go for the results and check my blood again. I was so relieved i was so aniemic cos you know what its like i felt so poorly my mind worked overtime. So sorry to hear Caherty Mum had passed away, my heart goes out to her. I hope all goes well with your scan on Friday and you keep up the good work. Love Fay.
As you say I go for a MRI scan tomorrow. hopefully all will be fine. I like you fay do feel really, really tired but I usually manage to push my way through it although at times I find it really difficult and more difficult as time goes on. Its hard to believe it was about a year ago when this all kicked off for me. It started witha cyst (i feel a song comming on).Anyway, time for dog walk and then bed.
My brain, they found it, well done that man . Now the long wait for my meeting with Professor Gore to discuss my future, my god, what a horrible wait. At least I can eat nowso I've just polished off two rounds of sarnies and a jam scone.
Hi Bob, Keeping my fingers and toes crossed for you Bob. I dident get home yesterday untill 9pm as when my blood arrived one letter on my name was wrong so the lab said i couldent have the blood, so they had to do a cross match again and my blood count had dropped from 8 to 7.7 so instead of 2units i had to have 3 taking 9 long boring hours, still its all for the good, ill be running to the shops soon ( I wish ). Had another nice surprise from Jons sister last night she said for our Christmas pressie she will fund us to travel in the motorhome to spain next year, all things being ok with me. night for now, love Fay.
Well worth the wait, brain is clear which is good, I wasn't paticularly confident. After a sleep im off to meet up with some work collegues at ten pin bowling, I will only be watching as I do not fancy "spilling out". My chest scar is still a tad painfull and it would be foolish to put it under too much pressure. Thanks to my darling wife for being with me and "holding my hand".
Fay, are you on a three week cycle of sutent and at what strength?
Another good nights sleepafter a very enjoyable evening at our local bowling alley.It was really good to see a few people I hadn't seen for a while. Although the music was deafening(must be getting old) it was a great social occasion and I bravely managed to knock back a pint of bitter. Once I got home I was understandably knackered and slept like a baby only awaking once to pee what seemed like 5 pints of bitter (why does that always happen.) Today we are of to Tom and Kates area of the country to meet up with the guy re the venue for their wedding. we said we would help them with this part (and no doubt many other parts). Then tonight we will settle down to a dose of im a celebrity, get.......... We love it and are well and truly hooked. The weather here is very cold with a bitter wind but at least it is dry. I took the dog for a walk and do not really plan to do much else. I start on my eigth cycle of Sutent on Monday and after being given the all clear on my brain scan (clear of desease, not brain, before you ask), Ifeel ready to commence battle once more. With the funny going ons with my hands and the gripping spasms, I really thought the worst. I always remember Micky333 on here telling me to watch out for brain involvment as thats what he had and as a result he isno longer on this site. I really miss his interaction as I do Andrewrh.
We got on well with Tom and Kate and sorted out the reception dinner for their wedding. Tonight I went to try and set up the tv which had lost all its settings and as I put my glasses on and squinted at the controller I thought " this is a bit strange, I can only see clearly out of one eye, now whats going on).after closer inspection I realised I had lost a lens out of my glasses and luckily found it in the garage. Feel really knackered tonight and an early night is called for.
