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.
After yesterdays exiting day, we spent half the night trying to convince Kates friend that it was OK to go to sleep, but alas she missed her mummy too much and so eventually we relented and she slept in our room whilst I spent another night on the sofa. Today has been much lewss exiting but non the more very enjoyable. After walking Mollie the dog we took Kates friend home and then went on to Tom and Kates. They had cooked us a sunday roast which was very good and my appertite was on its best behavour(in fact too good). Feeling rather stuffed we came home and Linda took Kate swimming whilst I cut the grass and sunk in some paving slabs I had meant to do for a long while. I will be walking mollie one last time and feeding the cats, then beed becons. I hope Kate manages to stay in her bed tonight as Linda is abolutely knackered and does not need me or Kate to disturb her slumber.
Hi Bob, What's your secret Bob ,you seem to have so much energy ;laying slabs,cutting the lawn, taking dogs for walksetc .Are you on your 2 weeks break ? If not I admire your energy ! All the best.
Ive just read your profile and it is very simular to mine. My answer is positive thinking and also pushing myself that extra bit whenever you can. Good luck and please stay in touch. I have another thread for Sutent side effects which may help you and you could also add your own.
Well another very busy day today, Washed two beds,dried and remade. cleaned bar-b-q, washed dog , then made phone calls. After that I figured I had better take a rest, so put telly on and promptly fell asleep. Oh I forgot, I walked the dog and fed the animals. Linda has been out for most of the day so I yhought id tryn and earn some brownie points. Feel pretty good and ready for our holiday. Apart from feeling breathless and tired no other side effects to talk about. Im even a normal colour!!
Today I am paying the price for being "rather active" over the last few days. I feel absolutely drained but content with what I have achieved. Tomorrow I am going to Kate3s school to have my photo taken for the school notice board regarding my role of govenor. I have a dilemma, should I colour my eyebrows to match my hair or should I colour my hair to match my eyebrows.Oh to hell with it, white eyebrows and brown hair it is. It should be an interesting picture and a good topic for the kids to talk about.
Hi charles, really good to hear from you and glad you are following my diary, how are things in oz and how long are you staying there for?
Again today ive felt drained and have just done what is absolutely necessary as appose to what I would really like to do. Linda and myself have virtually finished the packing (well Linda really). One more day to go then we will heading off down south to board our cruiser. I can almost hear the gentle sounds of the waves and the ships horn .(well ive always had a good imagination).After I had put the rest of my clobber in my case I was amazed that it would shut, you would think we were going for three months. Between the three of us we have four rather large cases and several holdalls and bags and rucksacks. Medication wise whist off the Sutent all I have been taking is blood pressure and gut liner tablets, not bad eh ?.
Well finally tomorrow is nearly here. we set off at eight oclock to our destination to board our ship. We are all very exited and hopeing that after all the hype and expectations we will not be dissapointed, Im sure we will not. Ive had another pretty good day today, I am still only on my blood pressure tablets along with the gut liner tablet. On Monday, somewhere in the middle of the mediteranean I start my Sutent again but this time after only 4 weeks I have a rescan to check that the operation is still on and if it is, what form it will take. I think one kidney will be removed at this time alond with the uninvited attatched tumor. Yesterday I had my school photo taken to go up on the notice board, Ive never had so many photos taken for just one picture. Im sure he was so amazed by my now pure white eyebrows in contrast to my brown hair he took lots to send to all his friends. Keep your eye on utube as I will probably pop up on there as well. Today I had my hair cut and the poor girl looked gobsmacked by my appearance but at least she trimmed my eyebrows so I look less like Dennis Healey. (no offence mr Healey). What should be interesting is Customs, Will they believe me because I look so different. We expect to arrive at port by 11.oo am tomorrow and hopefully after lunch board ready for sailing at 5.oo pm. I will not be posting for the next two weeks so I hope everyone on this site is doing OK and please remain as upbeat and positive as possible. I know I keep banging on about positivity but I really do believe its one way to beat this cursed desease. good luck everyone and bon voyage.
Well here I am nearly at the end of my two week cruise and we have had a fantastic time. I awoke really early this morning so I have found myself at the ships cyber centre. The weather has been brilliant and the total break from everything has been just what the doctors prescribed. Myself and Linda have totally relaxed and chilled out while Kate had made lots of new friends and has been busy with activities. We have all eaten really well and up until the latter part of this week my appertite has been really good. More details once I get home but I hope you are all ok and I should be back to my regular postings Friday evening. I am nearing the end of week two, fifth cycle of Sutent and so far so good. Apart from slight loss of appertite as mentioned , no other drastic side effects. One thing I have noticed, as soon as I started on the Sutent my tan went from a golden brown back to near white which I have never had before.
