Living with Kidney Cancer

My husband, 68, was addicted to Coke Zero for years; Diet Coke before that. I don’t know if this caused his cancer but he drank 5-6 Coke Zeros for several years. During this time, he ate a lot of chips and almost no vegetables or fruit. Lots of hamburgers. He thought diet sodas would help him lose weight but they never did. He never exercised or walked. I turned into a nutty vitamin freak and began reading about herbs and supplements; spent money on them. This has been ongoing for five years?

He would not listen to me about the phosphoric acid and aspartame in the Coke. I tried.
About 3 months ago he drained the hot tub. I feel like it helped remove toxins thru his skin because this is when he became sick.

The nausea started. Day and night with vomiting about ever other day. This sent him to the ER. With no biopsy the doctor said, “you have renal cell carcinoma.” He had 2 cat scans and they took lots of blood. The condition of the other kidney remains a mystery. But it isn’t good.

He spent one night in the hospital with no food or liquids and was dismissed, being told by a urologist they would dig down into his abdomen and remove his kidney.

For the past few weeks, he has seen an RN, a “diabetes specialist” who first put him on Levemir shots. He thought they made him vomit so she added Humulog? shots. I don’t know if he has stomach cancer or gastritis or gastroenteritis or a bezoar and not one of 4 doctors will discuss it. He has been weak for months. Today he vomited Jello. So I’m sure he will start losing weight. He is scheduled to have , they hope, one kidney removed laporoscopically on Jan. 4 or 5.

His father died at 79 of pancreatic cancer but he was a heavy smoker. He has no siblings.

His surgeon thinks he can avoid dialysis and he will Try to do the surgery laporoscopically but his stomach is very large.

My daughter, a nurse, claims they can’t tell if it’s cancer or benign without a biopsy and the ER doctor is “lousy” she said to have told us it’s RCC.

What a Christmas Eve this is. He has been so gentle and sweet about it all.