Last Stages Of This Terrible Disease

My husband is in the last stages of the disease.  Torisel is the last resort.  He got his first infusion yesterday.  He is very very ill and I am very very upset.  The doctors told us that if this drug does not work then he will have to have hospice.  Right now he is getting blood transfusions twice a month and is very very cold and listless.  He often gets delirious and talks to people in the room. There are times when he is incontinent due to the tumors in his spine.  I am afraid he is approaching death and don't know what to expect and it frightens me very much.  He understands what the doctors are telling him but he has a tremendous will to live and still wants to fight but they are telling us there are no more drugs.  He has had IL2, Sutent, Interferon and Avastin and now Torisel.  He has had sepsis and has a port line.  His cancer started as only left kidney involvment.  They took it out in 2000 and he was told he was cancer free.  They didn't tell us that he had to have CT scans yearly.  So in 2005 he had some problems and after scanning they found the cancer had spread to his lungs and adrenal glands.  Now, 2 years later it is in his throat, his bone, his liver.  He is in extreme pain and the pain meds make him so weak as well as his low blood counts that he falls easily.  He is 6' 8" tall and is my "big hunk."  But I am watching him deteriorate and it is killing me inside.  Can anyone tell me what to expect in the end with kidney cancer?  The unknown frightens us.  

I am so sorry for what you are going through, I too have RCC and i'm taking torisel as well. I will have a cat scan soon to see if it is working, I had a scan after treatment 4, and it showed some shrinkage in one of4tumors the others were stable. So, there is hope. I lost my partner to lung cancer one year ago. I was glad to have survived kidney cancer so I could help him through to the other side. He too was my big hunk but only ever weighed about 130lbs. He weighed 80 lbs when he died. I can only tell you it is hard as hell, but over the last months we became as close as we had ever been.

Richard

Call in hospice. They will help you learn what to expect--what happens depends on where the cancer is. Hospice will help you as well as your husband.