CancerCompass message board discussion started by chrislol on 3/12/2008 http://www.cancercompass.com/message-board/message/all,21932,0.htm Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://backend.userland.com/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ I wanted to post this in the hope that it might help others.  My husband (60 years old) has RCC, diagnosed and kidney removed in 2004.  It spread to his spine and hip and he had surgery on both, followed by radiation.  He has taken Interferon, Avastin, Nexavar and is currently on a break from Torisel.  He has experienced pain in his legs and feet for a while but it got much worse in the last three months. Finally, after all the times we have asked about what it could be and were told it was neuropathy, they decided to check the circulation in his legs when one of his toes turned black and gangrene started in his ankle area.  They found he only had 25% circulation in one leg and 30% in the other.  They did an angioplasty two weeks ago and opened up arteries in his pelvic and hip area with stents.  We had a followup with the vascular surgeon today, only to find out that he has other blockages in his thigh area that they couldn't stent.  He was given three options - do nothing and take more pain pills, try bypass surgery with a 50/50 chance of working, or amputate above the knee.  We most likely will go for the bypass because it seems like the only chance, but my husband is also getting very tired of surgeries.  He has been through so much but doesn't really want to just give up either.  The vascular doc says the oncologist may not want to restart his Torisel treatment either with the fear of the infection involved with the gangrene spreading because of decreased immunity.  So we have to talk to her before a final decision also. I don't mean to scare anyone with this and don't even know if it is related to the cancer or the treatments and neither do the doctors.  But he has had a lot of radiation in the areas where he now has blockages.  I just know I have read of others experiencing leg pain and neuropathy and think you should ask your doctors to check the circulation.  I just keep wondering if things could have been better if they had checked that much sooner before the gangrene started.  I noticed a little black around his toenail back in December when he was in the hospital with pneumonia.  I pointed it out and they had a podiatrist come in and look and it and he said it was nothing to worry about.  So of course I didn't and now I am just sick about that.  So this is just a head-up for others. chrislol Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT