Hi,
Subject: My father age: 83
My story is a long one. About 10 years ago my father's kidneys stopped working and he was put on dialysis. He was put on a list for a cadaver donor. Four years ago his beeper went off and he had a donor. When they went to put the transplant in (left side) they were surprised to see a very suspicious looking left kidney. They took out the old kidney and put the transplanted kidney in the left hemipelvis. A few weeks after the transplant he was informed that the kidney they took out was grade 3/4 cancer. That was it. The cancer was never brought up again. All attention was on the transplant kidney. My father just wanted that to keep working. Well this past June he was constantly complaining of being tired, having a fever (without flu or cold), pain in the abdomin and complaining of a lump in his left side. He was sent for a CT and they found a large irregular lobulated nacrotic mass 7.2 cm. A few weeks later he went back to the transplant surgeons and they did their own CT and they found an irregularly bordered peripherally enchancing mass 6x6x9.2 cm in the left renal fossa, that abuts the tail of the pancreas, the transplanted kidney and psoas muscle. There is no visible fat plane between the mass and the new kiddney or psoas muscle. There is also 2 small nodules in the lateral portion of the right lower lobe of the lung suggesting metastasis. He had a biopsy done with a needle/ct but they could not get enough live tissue to see what stage the cancer was at. So all they could tell us was he has recurrent renal cell carcinoma with possible mets to the lungs. They have told him to have surgery is out of the question. Of course his anti-rejection medicine was fueling this cancer so they put him on Rapamune. The side effects of this new medication are numerous. All my father is concerned about right now is that he does not loose the function of the new kidney. He feels tired all the time, has a fever everyday. He tries to go about doing his daily chores. But by midday he is wiped. My mother is fully dependent on the man for everything and both of them seem to be in denial about the cancer. They won't mention it or talk about it. I have tried to go to all doctor appointments with them but all my father talks about is sports and fishing with the oncologist. Not what he's there for or what to expect.
Can anybody tell me what I can expect? We have heard it could move fast. What does that mean? It could be slow, but they don't think so. Changing the antirejection med. bought him time. How much? According to my father he felt this lump in his side two years ago! He thought it was his new kidney. I think of nothing else, day and night. My mother told me not to sugar coat anything I learn on this, but when I answer her questions point blank she poo poo's me away and blames the vitamins or the weather for his fevers and feeling tired. He is starting to have fainting spells and I do not know if this is all part of the process. Thanks for listening and sorry for any spelling erros.