BOB JK My diary of kidney cancer (to be continued)
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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, well thats ant at the moment, peely walley white and big rosy cheeks !! He did atempt to sit out today after school but decided to fire at us with the water pistol, thankfully his younger bro got it and not me. I did that "i am reading my magazine and you will get it all wet " thing. Mind u yesterday his middle bro completely soaked him and i think he was out for revenge. Canny beat the golden rays for to brighten the spirits !! Hope ure day went well , give my love to the family xx
Cool - a big off roader for all those treacherous roads in the south of GB - lol - just joking and i can hardly take the moral high ground with a MercV8 engine can i?
Thanks Ros and Andy. Im glad Ant is managing to get outside and enjoy the weather, I will read your thread today to see how Ant is doing,OK I hope. Andy you big poser, Merc V8, very nice. Enjoy whilst the sun is shining .
I had a really good day yesterday. I know I did too much but do I care, definately not. I manages to wash car and generally mess around outside all day. When I woke up this morning, my legs were this sickly colour of orangy yellow. I looked as if I had been tangoed. Thankfully my colour appeares to have mellowed. I think today I will take things a bit steadier and just enjoy the sunshine. Over the last two weeks my side effects have not been bad at all and I can honestly say that yesterday I felt really well, in fact probably the best since my operation which is why I was tempted to do so much.
Another glorious day ahead. Yesterday I was in the garden potting some new plants we had bought and also assembling a new table, parasol and chairs. After myself and Linda had finished, we promptly sat down and enjoyed dinner off our new purchase. Day 5, second week of third cycle and I'm still feeling very good. The only side effects kicking in apart from normal fatigue is irregular bowel movements (yuck, sorry about that). Hope everyone else is bearing up. If you can, get some sun (not too much) it really does help.
yes I am a big poser - lol - I just thought if you're going to do it do it big style - lol - so I did.
Haven't been out since I had a bit of a psychotic episdoe over the last two days and not really sure what caused it (details are on my thread "are friends and family ever enough" it you want the full details) I think it was due to mixing meds but can never be sure if its the Sutent so will be asking doc on monday.
Other than that I have no side effects at all this time round not even the fatigue from last time. The skin splits are actually healing up rather than getting worse - I don't think you ever can tell what is going to happen with this drug but, after all, it is a new one so probably the docs don't know everything either.
I am keeping my doc updated each review so he can track side effects and let his other patients know what may happen and he updates me on things he feels appropriate so it works both wats for me.
Anyway, keep on enjoying the sunshine it is very theraputic to me and am sure to you too.
Hi all, well what another fantastic day its been. I think its fair to say that my redness is now caused by my sunburn and not the Sutent, which makes a nice change. Andy I hope you have recovered from the effects of pill mix. Like you, so far, no side effects to speak of. I think after a while your body tolerates the drug better and therefore the symptoms become a bit easier to manage. I still have a fair amount of energy in the day but by the evening fatigue sets in which I think is understandable. Anyway I'm off to apply some after-sun so speak again soon
Well another nice day, spent part of day helping do bits in house and other in garden soaking up the sun. Side effects are now beginning to set in, sore hands and feet, taste changes and tiredness.
Linda and I decided today as my prognosis had been said could be less than year (I fully intend to prove them wrong on that one), and after speaking to consultant at Royal Marsden regarding working my treatment around holidays, that we should get in as many holidays as possible in next year. So armed with all the brochure and finally deciding, i went online and booked our first summer holiday, a cruise in the Med. I also plan to go and see my sister in America this year, so will be looking at flights there next.
Hope everyone else has managed to have a fair weekend.
yes you are doing the right thing, holidays are ghreat not just for the actual time spent with uor family but with the psotive emotions they dispel into your brain. I firmly belive that flooding yourself with good positive stukk helps th e body battle the cancer itself. Iam sure that there is not much hard science in that belief (prove me wrong everyone) but belief is much or panacea's wouldn't work would they?
As for the prognosis, well a year - hmm - thats 12 months of fun or 365 days ang god knows how many houss - lol - sorry koking aside my prognosis is none existent but I still get up every day and do stuff which is pretty much harder tro do dead! So I figure I'm still here just get on with it until I can'y get on with it any more!!!!
From your blog it looks to me that you feel the same way about that sort of thing so lets make a pact here shall we?
"You and I won't give up and we won't give in and we won't let this bloody disease win"
How about it mate?
(Oh and by the way, where have you been on my friday 3.00pm "Dance the C**p out of Cancer" moments? You get to choose a tune and at 2.45pm you tell my thread what and why then at 3.00pm you dance and then at 3.15pm you tell everyone how good it was - see its easy and we want as many people as possible doing it - friends and family are welcome!)
Anyway I just wanted to say the things I have said above - and that you are not alone in this battle because I am going no-where at all with a nil prognosis - so there
