Treatment post surgery

Hi Jen, I had a total nephrectomy and am seeing my surgeon soon, they think that they got all of mine too but I will know more when I have the consultation. 

So whilst I don’t know if I am the same as your dad, I just wanted to say hello and welcome to our lovely friendly group. I am sure that there will be someone on the site who is in a similar position.

Its good that your dad has got you to look out for him and it’s really positive that you have joined the group.

One thing that did immediately come to mind is that when determining treatment, it is generally a multi disciplinary approach and they have a team meeting to discuss whether or not treatment is required and also the frequency and type of surveillance required. Generally there is an oncologist at the MDT Meeting.

Wishing  your dad and you all the very best.

Big hugs, Jules xx

Hi 
I'm no expert but . . . . . A standard treatment for kidney cancer which hasn't spread is to remove the tumour or kidney and then monitor with CT scans every 3 months.  There's some trials ongoing at the moment for adjuvant treatment - I think it's pembro, anyway, one of the immunotherapy drugs.   

Jen S said:

why are they not testing his blood for a complete blood count to check the types of blood cells circulating his bloodstream?

There's no correlation between blood tests and detecting cancer . . . . . yet.   Is there?  

If it helps, when I got my diagnosis it was from my Urologist.  He referred me to Oncology because kidney removal wasn't on the radar.

Edit:  Re the blood test, are you thinking of the prostate cancer blood test perhaps?  It's not very reliable.  

Hi Jules, thank you for such a lovely friendly welcome. I think I got myself in a bit of a worry spiral yesterday. I hate the unknown and not being able to help or be in control of answers (I know this is pretty much every situation in life in general) I know how lucky we are that they found my dads cancer so early, and the treatment followed so quickly, they didn't even need to take the whole kidney. But I think the thing that has thrown me is that the tumor popped, and I'm confused as to why they cant check if its running in his bloodstream now? because surely that increases the chances of it spreading exponentially. Maybe I'll write down my questions for him to ask at his scan appointment.  It worries me that he isn't looked after by a 'cancer Dr' but maybe this is the norm reading from other peoples responses. Thank you for the info at the end there about the multi team. That helps too. I think when we first found out Dad had a tumor it seemed positive answers because treatment was so fast, it hadn't spread, no need to remove the whole kidney, so then the news of it popping wasn't the information we were expecting after such a positive start. Thank you again for your reply and such a warm welcome xx

edit -  sorry Jules, I didn't even ask how you are? I hope your recovery is going well and you feel ok, I hadn't realised what a big op it is. I hope your appointment with your surgeon goes well x

Hi Mmum, thank you too for your reply. It really helps knowing others have had a similar story to my dad and knowing the parts that are normal and he's on the correct path of being looked after. How are you doing? I hope your recovery has gone well. I replied to Jules there saying I know how lucky we were with my dads diagnosis and incredibly lucky with how his treatment has gone. My query on the blood tests was purely because the tumor popped. I had read somewhere, I can't remember if it was Cancer Research UK or MacMillan where I read about blood tests, which my Dad did have bloods taken to check the function of his Kidney, but I think I thought they could take a Full blood count to find out more. Thank you again for you reply x

I wonder what the surgeon meant by "the tumor popped"?   I think this is causing the confusion here.    It sounds like you are thinking it's popped open and spilled out its contents perhaps.  I think it's just a figure of speech and the surgeon is just saying "got it out"?  

The surgeon said as he cut it to remove it, it popped and leaked, but he had something (gauze or something possibly) in his hand and so he thinks he 'caught' it all. He very much meant it popped open and spilled its contents.

Edit - Has anyone else heard of this or had it happen? xx

As far as I know there are no "cancer" surgeons. It depends what body part they are dealing with. In my case like yours that means urology.