Collecting Duct Carcinoma and Cannabis Oil

Hi all,

I'll introduce myself a bit, I'm a 45 year old male previously in good health although a smoker and drinker I was diagnosed with Stage III CDC on May 25th 2016. Initial prognosis was not good, the number of lymph nodes involved and their location made it inoperable. At 44 years old, with a 10 year old daughter and a 1st grandchild expected 3 months later, life was grim.  Then I did some research into CDC and life got even grimmer.  My brother had recently had a friend unfortunately pass after a short fight with Renal Cell who swore that cannabis oil helped him so I started looking into it.  I was of the belief that cannabis is a very harmful drug that caused pyscosis and mental health problems and wasn't to be touched, because that's how we're brought up.  Anyway, with nothing to lose I though I'd try it, this is my journey.

July 2016 - Biopsy confirms CDC.  I also started taking very small doses of Cannabis oil at this time.  The first thing I noticed immediately was that my horrific night sweats stopped immediately, although they retuirned if I forgot my dose, and my sleep returned to something close to 6-7 hours uninterupted. The pain I was experiencing also subsided and I stopped using Co-codamol.

August/September 2016 - 3x21 day cycles of Chemotherapy, Gemcitibine/Cisplatin regime. I suffered horrendously with chemo, I have irreparable tinnitus in both ears, problems with my stomach and continued nausea.  It had zero affect on my tumours.  All this time I was increasing the amount of oil I take up to 0.3ml per day. CT scan end sept

November 2016 - 15 sessions of Radiotherapy on to destrot my right kidney in place and try to reduce the tumours. CT scan end Nov. It has some beneficial effect, my scan results showed a reduction in mass in my kidney from 58x55mm to 55x50mm

December 2016 - Oncology appointment, after discussing the scan I asked how long do you think I have left? This is my watershed moment.  She looked me in the eye and said "I didn't think you'd make it this far so the truth is, I just don't know" I left the hospital that day thinking what's stopping this disease from spreading because the truth be known, ever since the end of my chemo I'd been getting better each day.  I submerged myself in the belief that it was cannabis oil so I increased my dose to minimum 0.8ml per day.  This is also where it gets silly expensive, 0.8ml of oil is about 40 quid, a day!!  I'm lucky enough in my career to have saved a few pennines for a rainy day, well, the rain clouds had gathered. Over the next 8 months we would spend 15,000 quid on it.

Jan, Feb, March 2017 - Wean myself off Dexamethasone, Metochlopromide etc.  No prescription drugs being taken by March.  Life continues to improve, my energy levels increase.  I'm able to start playing golf again, in a buggy at first, walking the course by April

April 2017 - CT scan on the 4th and appointment with my oncologist.  My world is temporarily shattered, I have hot spots in my T5 vertabrae, breast bone, pelvis and liver.  I question the effectiveness of the oil now and stop taking it because if I'm honest I'm sick of taking it. 2 days after I stop I'm in agony down my spine and in my kidney.  4 days later I can't sit or lie comfortably in bed. Day 5 I start taking it again for it's painkilling properties if nothing else.  It takes a futher 8 days for all the pains to go away and I suffered night sweats for the first time in months. Kidney Mass 45x35mm

May, June 2017 - Absolute hell.  I convinced myself this was it, I was on my way. I asked my oncologist for another scan to put my mind at rest because the uncertainty of the hotspots was driving me insane.

July 2014 - CT scan 14th, oncology appointment 28th.  I was convinced I was about to be told you've got weeks left to live so what actually happened was so crazy I still cant comprehend it.  The hot spots in my bones need a bone density scan to determine what they are but probably not cancer.  The hotspot in my liver is probably a liver cyst, definitely not cancer. The mass in my kidney has reduced to 35x24mm. Lymph node reductions from 32mm to 20mm, 16mm to 12mm, 24mm to 18mm.  1 pesky tumour in my abdomen grew from 18 to 28mm, other than that everything shrank by approx 25%.  My quality of life has gone through the roof along with my mental state. Can I beat this incurable disease?  I'll give it a go

I only wrote this because, other than a very occasional story, CDC always ends in misery. So far I'm bucking the trend for non surgical survivors. 

Here's the disclaimer.  I'm not encouraging or promoting anyone to do what I have done, I live in the UK where Cananbis is still an illegall drug, which makes me sick, I'm just here to tell you my story.  Apologies if this falls foul of board rules, I did a search and found other references to cannabis on the site so thought it would be ok to share.

Peace out people

Les