Howdy my friend and fellow combatee....You are very right, the best doctor you have is ourselves, we read everything there is to know about RCC, most of the time I stay ahead of my doctor concerning treatment, they just don't have time to research all the newest reatments like I do....I was the 1st patient to get nexavar in the whole state of Nevada, why??? because I knew everything about it before it became available to the public, it worked well for 10 months ,even at half doseage most of the time...since then I have gone through almost everyone of the new treatments one after another...Just had my L4 vertabra removed because of a large met to it and the whole area around it, the pain was terrorable befor surgery,now its gone, but I still must deal with its aftermath, I am still able to walk and thank god for that too....Good luck with your treatments...Mel from Northern Nevada