Posts by Carol Cook58

So, I just finished reading up on this medication... and it says here that it’s designed to block those tumor cells from spreading. But honestly, looking at my dad's situation—he had kidney cancer, they managed to cut it all out, and there aren't any metastases to speak of—I can't help but wonder if there's actually much left for this stuff to even block. It feels a bit redundant, doesn't it? So, I guess what I'm really asking is, what does therapy even look like in a case like his?

neonpanther12 said:Hey, look, my mom went through the exact same thing. It was totally out of nowhere—they found kidney cancer, they took the kidney out, and everything seemed like it was going great. But then, six months later, she goes in for a routine checkup and boom, metastases showed up in her liver and lungs. That’s just how this nasty disease operates; it hides until it's ready to strike. Right now, we're fighting an uphill battle trying to get her on Sutent because it's supposed to be incredible, but the problem is the chemo isn't doing squat at this stage, and Sutent is expensive enough to cost a fortune every month $16000 I don't mean to bring you down, seriously, just hang in there and try to stay hopeful, but what I'm trying to say is that you need to show up to EVERY SINGLE APPOINTMENT if they call you in for follow-ups
STAY STRONG, I'M PULLING FOR YOU AND HOPING EVERYTHING TURNS OUT OKAY 👍👍👍

So, about that Sutent drug you mentioned—how does it actually work? Like, does it shrink the cancer, kill it off, or just stop it from spreading further?

neonpanther12 said:Hey, my mom went through the exact same thing. They stumbled upon kidney cancer by total accident, so they just took the whole kidney out and everything seemed fine at first. But then, six months later, she goes in for a routine checkup and—bam—metastases showed up in her liver and lungs. This disease is just sneaky like that, it plays games with you. Right now we’re fighting to get her on Sutent because it’s actually effective, but unfortunately, the chemo isn't doing squat at this stage, and Sutent is pricey enough to cost a fortune every month. $16000 I didn't mean to bring you down, just stay strong and keep hoping, but I really wanted to emphasize that you need to show up to EVERY SINGLE appointment if they call you in for follow-ups.
WISHING YOU THE BEST AND HOPING EVERYTHING TURNS OUT OKAY 👍👍 👍

God dammit... I am so sorry...
But I honestly don't get it. This is all pretty new to me, so maybe I'm missing something, but shouldn't they have spotted those metastases during the initial CT scan of the kidney and the other tests? They even sent him to get his lungs scanned before the surgery and everything looked totally clear. To me, it sounds like he was in a good spot—the doctors told us it was well-contained and localized, and the surgeon said there was zero chance it had spread. It was tucked away in some part of the kidney near where there aren't many other organs or whatever. Look, I'm just a layman when it comes to all this medical stuff... 😉

slyseal28 said:When you're dealing with kidney cancer, chemo is basically useless; you have to go the immunotherapy route instead. The heavy hitters that actually show results are Sutent, Nexavar, Avastin, and Torisel.
Out of those four, only two are even approved here in the States (Sutent and Avastin), but even then, neither one is covered by Medicare for kidney cancer.
Right now, there's this massive fight going on just to get Sutent added to the Medicare coverage list, because we're talking about a price tag anywhere from $37,000 to $18333 depending on the dosage.

All they gave him was some Novocef to swallow... and that's it. They basically told him to just rest, stay hydrated, and call it a day. What are those drugs you mentioned even for? Look, I don't care about the cost—I just want him to recover, no matter what I have to do to make it happen.

I’m honestly glad someone finally opened up a thread about this kind of thing...
My dad was diagnosed with kidney cancer just about a month ago, though looking back, the whole thing was a total fluke. The doctors are telling us everything looks fine right now—that it’s localized and hasn't spread anywhere—because we caught it purely by accident. He was seeing a cardiologist who ordered a CT scan of his kidneys, they spotted something suspicious on the imaging, sent him for follow-up tests, and boom, there it was...
Anyway, he went in for surgery about ten days ago to have the kidney removed, and they actually cleared him to come home after just five days. He’s still in that slow recovery phase, but I’m holding out hope that everything stays on track. We’re currently playing the waiting game for the pathology reports on the surrounding tissue; those should be in about two weeks, and hopefully, that’ll be the end of it, especially since the surgeons mentioned they didn't see any signs of spread while they were actually in there removing the kidney...
I was wondering, though, for someone his age—he’s 52—how long does a full recovery typically take after a major procedure like a nephrectomy? And thank God that with kidney cancer, you don't have to deal with the nightmare of chemotherapy...
One more thing... if they managed to get it all out and it truly hasn't metastasized (which is what everything points to), does he actually have better odds than someone who wasn't even diagnosed in the first place when it comes to the risk of it ever coming back somewhere else?

And yeah, they’re actually asking for a CT scan too...

So my old man just went in for a kidney ultrasound, and while the right side looks totally fine, they spotted something weird on the left. They couldn't quite pin down what it was, so now he’s being sent off for a CT scan to get a better look...
I'm honestly wondering what kind of stuff they actually find with those scans. The doctor who did the ultrasound scribbled down some notes that are basically impossible to decipher—it's all just messy handwriting. I think it says something about the left side having a mezoredno okrugla, dorbo ogranicene fatalne leznje(reznje) maybe around 5cm, followed by some bizarre little symbol "
. I can't make heads or tails of this report, but if there's a doctor in the house or someone who actually knows their way around medical jargon, maybe you could tell me what we're looking at here...
Thanks a million...

Yeah, I’m right there with you on that one.😉

This absolute garbage has been messing with me for two years straight and I can't catch a break... one minute things settle down, then suddenly everything goes haywire again, just building up all this nasty buildup until it finally clears out, and it’s just this endless, exhausting cycle. I actually went to see a GP once, but she just tried to push some antibiotics on me, and honestly, I just couldn't bring myself to take them, so my partner and I are still basically best friends with this mess.😉