Wendy and girls,
Finally Stan has not bled fro 2 days now.He has started to feel better and in one week he is suppose to start another round of the chemo pills. I just don't know if he will start. I will support him in whar ever decision he makes but I know what I will want him to do.
As I said before he has his colonoscopy on Tuesday.I will let everyone know when we find out.
Hope this note finds everyone doing okay.
We have gotten alot of rain the last 2 days but I am not complaining becasue we need this sooooo bad. And it so much better than snow and ice.
Mary
Glad to hear that Stan is doing better. I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. I know he has a test coming soon. Heres too it all being okay. It could very well be the medication. I know its hard to decide whether to continue with it or not. I hope he can. Please let us know how things go.
I hear ya on the rain. I would rather have that then snow. My oldest son and his girlfriend flew out last night to FL to spend the week with my parents they had 11 hours of delays though. What a time for them. They are there now and hopefully going to get some sleep so the rest of the week is not draining. My dad is on his off weeks of the medication so hopefully he will get out and do a few things with them. I am now waiting for the phramacy to get his 12.5mg med as they are on back order. I hope it doesnt take that long.
Jackie hope this finds you as well doing good. In my thoughts.
I was wondering, how do the Dr's come to the ultimate diagnosis of kidney cancer? I have two larger masses in my left kidney, 7cm and 12 cm. There are some small ones too. also a 3mm spot on my spleen. I have anemia and low WBC count and high lymphocytes. I have blood and protein in my urine. He wants to do a cytoscopy before he does anything else, which is already scheduled. How do they "know" its cancer? Please advise, and thank you
Hello, Well to some what answer your question my father had a full body pet-scan with contrast after having a chest x-ray for his physical. Then he was sent for a ct-scan in which showed something on his r.kidney. Thats when he went for the pet-scan. As the contrast will make things glow. They then decided he needed to have his kidney removed and was told it was "clear cell"
RCC Renal Cell Caranomia. Other words Kidney Cancer. I hope that with the issues you are having that you are seeing a urologist?? As they would have a better idea to what is going on with the kidney. Please let us know how your test turns out. If you need any of us here we will be here for you. Hope all is well and ask any type of questions you may have. In our thoughts.
Hi Wendy, Mary and others. I checked this board out because my son in law has kidney cancer and I couldn't help but read your posts and think how brave you are and how sad it is to watch your loved one going through this. My son in law, Ron, has been on the sutent for probably a couple of years. I don't think the doctors actually expected him to be here, much less be doing as well as he is. He has bad days of course, but some days you would hardly know anything was wrong. He and my daughter live in Jax. Fla. and I'm in south Ga. so I don't see them real often. He has had one kidney removed and surgery on his back to remove tumors and also radiation. He had to quit work and now spends the day at home as my daughter works. Luckily he loves to watch TV. We all went on vacation last July to Clearwater and I was amazed at how well he did. We went to Busch Gardens, on a dinner cruise and a dolphin observation cruise and he was able to participate in all of that and seemed to enjoy it. He's just turned 50 and has been dealing with this for about three years. He has had some really bad experiences with the medical profession. One weekend when my son and I were in Jax. for a visit, he complained of feeling numb in his lower body and went to the ER. After spending aabout 6 hours there he just got up and left. They had told him he wasn't an emergency because his vitals were ok. When he finally got to see a doctor a few days later they immediately rushed him to Gainesville for surgery and they were afraid he was going to be paralyzed. It's hard to believe they would treat someone like that. Especially a cancer patient. His main complaint with the sutent is the pain in his feet. Just wondered if anybody had any ideas what might help that. I read in an AARP magazine that vitamin B6 might help. Didn't mean to ramble on so but I felt compelled to let you all know I feel for you. I lost my husband of 47 years 3 years ago to lung cancer so I know some of what you are going through. He only lived three months after being diagnosed, but he was never in pain, just so weak. When we first found out about his cancer I thought I would just never live through it, but we somehow find the strength and with the help of God and the passage of time manage to keep going. Again, prayers and thoughts are with you. I wish I had known about this board when I was going down that long, hard road.
Joan
Hugs everybody. I am trying to learn all I can. They found my "areas" with a CT scan, but havn't had one with contrast. What bothers me is I had a CT scan over 3 years ago because of pain and blood in my urine, and they found these areas, but much smaller then. The Dr. said not to worry, I was young and the blood in t he urine just meant I had a leaky kidney. Now here I am womdering what this all means. I think the waiting is the hard part, of course, that is ALL I know right now. I will keep you posted and keep checking on everybody.
Hello and glad to meet you. I hope you know your words will give us all hope. I know any type or form of cancer is an awful thing to go through let alone watch a loved one deal with it. I am sorry about your husband and hope you continue to move forward. I am also sorry to hear about your son in law. I will pray for him to continue on his road to beat this.
I hear you when you explain the way Ron is with this disease. My father is alot like that himself being hes on sutent as well. He has not had any issues with a visit to the ER. Thank god. He does not look forward to his next cycle of the medication but he knows he has to do something. I have read somewhere about a cream that some have used to help with the foot issues. Not really for the pain though just the dryness. I will look and see where I found it and post later with it. By the way you are not rambling on. Thanks for coming on in. I look forward to talking to all that I can. It helps me to be here myself to just listen for the others dealing with this. I am grateful that you are all here when i need someone to listen to me. Besides it helps me get through an understand alittle more how it affects us all.
Once again glad we have now met. We are here for you to continue to chat.
Welcome aboard Babysitter!
As for finding out about Stan's cancer, he was havinf alot of pain in his left lower back and had started having numbness in his groin are. We went to the ER and he had a MIR and they found a suspicious looking area on his spine. He was admitted and they finished the MRI the next morning with CT scans and found a large tumor 8inches in diameter on his left kidney which turned out to be Stage 4 Renal Cell Carcinoma. They removed his left kidney a week later and he had 10 days of radiation and now chemo pills because it is now on his liver.
He told me last night that he may quit the chemo pills because of the side effects.
I am asking the Lord to give me the strength to get through this. I told him it is his decision to make and I will stand beside him with what ever he decides to do.I also know how hard it has been on him these alst 2 weeks and he wants to live not being sick bleeding and in pain. I can't blame him.
He will make his final decision after the colonoscopy on Tuesday so everyone please be praying for us and for him to make the right decision.
Love to all of you my new friends..... Mary
Hey Mary, My name is Mary also. I will definately be sending my thoughts and prayers your way. You sound like a strong woman. I feel better just talking to everybody on here. Bless you all. Mary
Hey Girls.
Finally good news. The dr. didn't find anything to be worry about with Stan's colonoscopy. He did remove a very small polyp but he fells that is nothing and he does have hemmoroids but everything looked good.
So it probably is the chemo doing all this to him. He had me call his oncologist to see if the dosage can be lowered, if it can he will continue on for another month to see how it effects him. If not then he has decided to stop all treatments and have no more test and let God handle it from here on out. We will get a call tomorrow about what his dr. feels to do.
Untill then we are just relishing in the good news.
I will write more when I know.
And whoever has wrote me about the alternative treatment please tell me lore about it. I will be greatly appreciative.
Love Mary
So glad to hear that Stan's test was great. He is still on the 50mg right?
Dad could only take that for a few months then he was on a break (his decision) for about two months. He then started a lower dose and has been fine since. It also comes in a 25mg and a 12.5mg. So his doc has put him on them both 37.5mg and he has been doing good on that. It is holding him stable at this time. I hope that Stan will continue and try the lower dose. We dont know how it really makes them feel. I just think its better to keep fighting this beast. However you have to support whatever he may decide. We are here to do the same. My thoughts are with you both. Let us know what the doc decides to do with his medication.
Just want to let you all know since this thread has now reached 100 post I will be starting a new one. I hope it makes it easier for us all. I will start the new one right after this one with the title being Kidney Cancer Warriors. Then we know its the new one. Hope all is well with you all.
Will talk to you all soon.
Jackie
Mary
Ellen
and of coarse our new friends are very welcome to join us. Also anyone else that needs a good shoulder to lean on dealing with this beast.
They would not lower the dosage so long story short he is going to try the Sutent 50mg again for another month and I PRAY fro no bad side effects so he can continue on.
I have been feeling very sad because I think alot of times he is ready to give up and I don't know how to help him through this but by just being there and lettting him know how I feel and that I am always thee to support him. The dr. said the lower dose just won't help for him. Mary
Re: Kidney Cancer 
I will keep you posted and keep checking on everybody.
