Cancer returned

I was looking in the messages here for people I knew back when I first got my diagnosis back in 2012. I don't see a lot of familiar names. Not sure if that is a good sign or a bad sign.

In 2012 I had my left kidney removed because of a massive tumor. At the time of of removal they told me that I was stage 3A. It was clear cell carcinoma.

For many years, test after test found no evidence of the disease. It effectively had gone into remission for nearly 9 years. That ended in March of 2021 when they detected tumors in many places. Behind the right kidney, Lung lobe, a small spot on the liver and the most painful one in the lower left leg bones.

I am here to tell you that the cancer did a heck of a number on left leg bones. In October of 2021 I was just walking in my living room and my lower left leg bones basically shattered and down I went. It was only then that we knew how bad the cancer come back was. They reconstructed the leg surgically and I can walk, but barely. I have to put a lot of weight on my cane. It is very painful, I have lived in pain every day, every minute since the shatter.

I am now classified as Stage 4 advanced kidney cancer. The treatments have been going well. We did radiation on the leg and other spots. They put me on OPDIVO which seems to be a miracle drug. Most cancer locations have now stopped growing and the Oncologist says the tumors are mostly dead. All but that lower left leg. I am still in agony and they can still detect lingering cancer in those bones, but they too have not spread.

I have been told that I will stay on OPDIVO ongoing as long as it continues to work and I keep tolerating it. However they have also told me that this cancer can't be cured, best we can do is keep it under control. But I do hate being dependent on the OPDIVO as well as the Oxycodone for the unrelenting pain.

I don't know if anyone remembers me in here way back when, but I figured a progress report was in order.

Be well folks,

Joe