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.
its really good to hear from you and glad you have a few weeks off from hospitals and needles, I know how much you hate both and you are doing so well, big hugs back.
we had a real good day decorating yesterday and managed to get done what I thought was a weekends work done in one long day. It loks really good and im well pleased with the results. I am hopeing that Linda will let us decorate our bedroom today as all the boys are over and its the last biggish room to be done.
Things are slightly better on the "down below" subject. I am hopeing the new pill regime that Linda has suggested has kicked in and I am feeling the benefits. I am very lucky in that I have no real pain to speak of, only inconvenient toilet habbits and other painless signs and syptons like feeling the cold and colour changes. The other unwelcome return is severe fatigue which is possibly my worse gripe as I do like to keep busy and at the moment that is quite hard. I still do not sleep all through the night which does not helpmatters at all.
Well this Thursday its off to the marsdon to have my usual 12 week scans and blood tests and then I go back on Friday to get the resultsI will be talking over the inplications of the latest spread of brain mets with my Oncologist and see where we go from there. It will be great if the Sutent is working on the rest of me and if I have to go for a brain zapping exercise every few months then so be it. I finish my second cycle of Sutent this Tuesday so ill be off the Sutent and ready for my next Gamma knife session next Thursday.
Well I did manage to get round linda and today we have decorated the bedroom. An exellent days work by Justin especially, he has done a brilliant job. Rest is the order of the rest of the day as I am hopeing to get round Linda and get to work tomorrow. Apart from being a bit knackered and needing to take a couple of rests during the day I have done pretty good. I ate a lovely roast for lunch and have also just had tea so appertite still good at the moment.
well it looks as if work is on providing I can confidently move away from the loo. had a good nights sleep and feel very good after the weekends hard grafting.The decorating looks real good.
Will be thinking of you on Thursday. As for the sore parts Tony used Aloe Vera gel and found it was very soothing. If you can't get hold of an actual plant then you can get it from a good chemist.
My rear end is improving and has been a lot better today. I managed another good day at work and am planning to go in tomorrow and wednesday morning then that will be it for the week as the rest of it is taken up with hospital appointments. I am a bit tired now but apart from that all is good on the western front, or should I say the western backside !!
Tonight Linda picked me up from work and we met Justin in Cambridge and we went to Comet as he wanted to buy himself a laptop and needed a bit of advice. I have spent the last hour setting it up for him. Linda is in bed as she has a migraine, Kate is hopefully asleep or reading quietly knowing her hopeing I will not notice.
A fair nights sleep and after an early start downloading policies for tonights govenors meeting I am ready for the day ahead. I have tried taking all my pills a bit earlier in the hope that by the time I get to work, any "reactions" will be well and truly over. It is a matter of tweaking the pills untill we get it just right then im sure I will be a lot better. Linda seems a bit better this morning and Kate is having her breakfast ready for the school run. I plan to go to work straight after dropping off Kate and then from work straight to the govenors meeting but we will see how it goes. I think the govenors role is one I am going to have to review as I find it difficult to summon up the energy to go out in the evenings, especially after work. I plan to see how it goes tonight and if its a non starter I will offer my resiegnation.
