F*** You, Cancer! Catch all

LtWarhound, I'm just short of a year in but that's what I'm hoping for too. Congratulations! Celebrate! Warrior strong, hey?

Aaand the hits keep on coming.

My dad's kidneys have failed, and he is in the ER on his way to emergency dialysis.

So sorry mudbunny.

Wow!
I want to say hang in there but its just so inadequate that it is borderline cracking a joke.
I am so sorry mudbunny.
Hug someone. Hug lots of someones...

Into the ICU for emergency dialysis.

He’s awake, aware and not in pain, which is a good thing.

Spoiler:

His blood pH was high, as was his potassium. They were worried about a heart attack because of the potassium. Drugs seem to have taken care of things for the time being.

Dad update

His kidneys have pretty much shut down, probably due to the cancer, but they aren't certain. They did an MRI on monday, and the cancer doc hasn't looked at it yet.

They put in the ports for the dialysis, and it worked for about 2 hours, then his blood started clotting and gunning everything up. They injected some medication into the port to dissolve the clot, and will do dialysis tomorrow morning again. They said if they were worried, they would have started the dialysis immediately after injecting the medication.

He is breathing much better than he was earlier today.

ICU visiting hours are 3 hours a day, in 4 x 45 minute blocks, so back home to stew and worry until tomorrow morning.

I really appreciate all the well wishes. They mean a lot and helped a lot.

Hoping for the absolute best, mudbunny.

Hopefully the short term stability turns into longer term stability soon.

Hey mudbunny,
wishing you, your dad, and the rest of your family lots of strength, good luck, and great support through this ordeal, that the treatment takes, and that the doctors not only don't worry, but give you guys lots more good news soon.

All the love to you, Mudbunny and fam.

tl;dr - Scary moments, but all is good now.

Medical stuff spoilered for those who don't want to read it.

Spoiler:

Some things are scary.

Then there is a level of terror I have never experienced before. I got a call at 3:15 thursday morning that I needed to come to the ICU right now, as my dad's health had taken a turn for the worse. I live 4 minutes from the hospital, so it wasn't too bad. It turns out the kidney shunt and biopsy had caused bleeding, and my dad's BP had plummeted to the point they were getting ready for angioplasty (or whatever it is when they go in and cauterize blood vessels).

The nephrologist (??) looked at it and they decided to wait to see if the blood vessels would clot on their own, as the cauterization would be pretty stressful on his body. Luckily, it did clot on its own, and my dad is feeling much better now.

Still some liquid in his abdomen/lungs, and there is still lots unknown about the cancer (end-stage colon), but he is feeling much better. Kidney function seems to be returning, and he is no longer being asked to make decisions where one of the paths is "you'll be dead in 2 or 3 days".

And he has been moved from the ICU to a regular floor.

Sweet fabjulous day.

So happy to hear the happy news!

Wow! That's great news!

Fantastic!

Dad update the whateverth + 1

100% kidney functions have returned!! The doctors were hoping this would happen, but were not expecting it realistically. He is walking a lot now, 3-4 times a day, which is doing wonders for his mental health.

The 100% kidney function means no dialysis needed.

Now they need to figure out why his kidneys crapped the bed to begin with. I suspect (as do the Drs) that it is due to the cancer, but his oncologist is very hard to get a hold of.

This is wonderful news!

The no dialysis really is so amazing!

Woohoo!

Real happy for you guys, mudbunny!

Fantastic.

That is amazing news, Mudbunny!

My dad is going home this afternoon.

Awesome!

And I should say home where he lives, not home in the religious meaning. (I scared a friend by accident)

Glad to hear good news, mudbunny. The best news!

I've posted elsewhere but I'll add here that my wife was recently diagnosed with Stage 3 in a nearly identical area. She starts chemo Monday. It's going to be a rough year ahead with Chemo, Radiation, & Surgery but hoping for a full cure at the end of it all.

Best of luck/hope/wishes to you and yours Jolly Bill.

Jolly Bill wrote:

Glad to hear good news, mudbunny. The best news!

I've posted elsewhere but I'll add here that my wife was recently diagnosed with Stage 3 in a nearly identical area. She starts chemo Monday. It's going to be a rough year ahead with Chemo, Radiation, & Surgery but hoping for a full cure at the end of it all.

All the love to you and her, Jolly.

Such good new Mudbunny!

Got to ring the Bell after last treatment on Friday.

CONGRATULATIONS!! Way to go!

It was indeed a good time. Apparently, everyone in the room clapped, and someone in an area down the hall yelled "Yaaaay!".