Friday, May 9, 2014

End of chemo




Well, chemo is over, at least for now. My last session, scheduled for last Tues, was canceled. I  woke up last Sun with a temp of 102, well past the 100.5 that should trigger a trip to the hospital. Karen made the calls, and took me to the hospital. Short story, I was there until Tues afternoon.... many drugs, fluids, and 2 pints of blood later, I was deemed to unhealthy for the last chemo infusion. Guess that they got tired of keeping me alive, only to make me deathly sick again.

It is not discernable what benefit the last infusion would be, but getting me healthy enough to survive kidney surgery was considered more important.

On Tues, I met with the surgeon (Dr. Daneshmand, USC Norris cancer hospital) who will remove my kidneys.... seemed like a good guy, and is one of the best in the world regarding kidney cancer. I consider myself fortunate that he is available. The surgery itself is similar to the bladder removal in its recovery period. Once again, it feels like I have signed up for a train wreck.  #5 open abdominal surgery, should have put in a zipper.

The next agenda item is a fistula (needed for dialysis), and a “port” to use while the fistula matures (1-3 months). This should happen in 2-3 weeks.

I am still tired and sick from the previous chemo. I will report more when some energy returns.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So glad chemo is over and one (miserable) leg of your journey is complete. Love you, brother. Praying for you.
J

JC said...

Thanks Jude

Anonymous said...

Are you feeling any better?

JC said...

Yup, feeling better but still out of breath most of the time. I will get my blog up to date soon.