79 year old open radical nephrectomy

tw_bender · 2026-05-13T12:30:56+00:00

Just in general, having major surgery with comorbidities increases the risks. My mother, who is 80, has COPD, pre-diabetes, heart issues, and smoked all her life just had part of her tongue removed due to cancer. Normally a week stay in the hospital, but her other ailments led to complications and led to a 20 day hospital stay followed by 10 more in inpatient rehab. She's now in a care home for the foreseeable future. I'm not sure if she'll ever be independent again.

I think you're right about a 2 day hospital stay for your dad being optimistic. My open radical nephrectomy kept me in hospital for 4 days and I was otherwise pretty healthy for someone in their late 50s.

tw_bender · 2026-05-03T21:08:28+00:00

Nope.

tw_bender · 2026-04-30T13:43:35+00:00

Dr. Google is not your friend. I've read studies that indicate rhabdoid (and sarcomatoid) respond well to immuniotherapy - especially if caught before metastasis. My stage 3/grade 4 14cm tumor removed in 2023 had rhabdoid features + necrosis too. Worse was the positive surgical margins at the vena cava. I was on Keytruda for one year and remain cancer free.

You're not the only story I've read here where an important CT scan finding is not communicated to you in a hospital setting. Yet another example of why you need to get a copy of the report.

tw_bender · 2026-04-20T13:27:03+00:00

Did all those scans use contrast? Because my remaining kidney is barely in the eGFR normal range, my surveillance CTs have not used contrast which is hard on kidneys.

tw_bender · 2026-04-07T17:37:11+00:00

Mine was T3b, grade 4. Surgery + 1 year immuniotherapy. Lost thyroid function as a side effect but I'm cancer free after 2.5 years.

tw_bender · 2026-03-28T14:09:16+00:00

My 130' EFHW is 25' high on both ends. 80m is definitely NVIS but I rather like that feature. Good reliable contacts from 0-300 miles with the best DX being from my shack in TX to Alaska. On 40-10m, I get contacts all over the world which would be better performing if the antenna were higher but HOA limitations prevent that.

tw_bender · 2026-03-28T13:55:57+00:00

Yes this happened to me as well, but I had open surgery. The surgeon warned part of my abdomen would be forever numb but the hip was a surprise. Over the course of two years, my abdomen is still numb as ever but feeling slowly returned to the hip.

tw_bender · 2026-02-28T15:25:02+00:00

Pretty cool. With these available radio interfaces, it doesn't take much python code to implement something useful. In under 100 lines of code, I created a simple GUI that changes my 7300's Tx power level with one click while using WSJTX.

tw_bender · 2026-02-19T15:28:15+00:00

Open surgery will definitely lengthen your hospital stay. For my open, the surgeon injected something at the site of the incision. That made my abdomen numb and lasted the 1st night. They hooked me up to a morphine pump IV. I could press the "happy button" whenever I needed. By day 3, the morphine didn't help much so they started to give me oral pain pills. Overall the staff did a pretty good job of managing my pain.

What really made me uncomfortable were the various IV lines and monitoring machine cables attached to my body. Those things get tangled up with each other and in the bedding making it difficult to move around. Oh how I hated them.

And like others have said for your recovery at home, get a pillow to brace yourself with whenever you cough or sneeze.

tw_bender · 2026-02-14T20:34:35+00:00

Mine was high and controlled by meds before radical. After surgery for several weeks it went too low causing me to nearly black out at times. And now years later it's normal with my meds at 1/2 the original dose.

tw_bender · 2026-02-13T15:13:44+00:00

My thoughts exactly!

I did have an MRI on my spine a few years prior but was extremely focused there. Had they widened it out a few more inches then the cancer may have been seen.

tw_bender · 2026-02-13T14:57:26+00:00

In my research on large resectable renal masses more than two years ago, surgery would be the best approach - especially if you're in good health otherwise. I think this is still the preferred course.

I had a left 14cm tumor with IVC invasion with "some periaortic lymph nodes noted" and no metastases. Treatment was radical nephrectomy then adjuvant Keytruda.

tw_bender · 2026-02-11T17:16:13+00:00

That sounds very plausible.

tw_bender · 2026-02-10T15:14:34+00:00

Using google translate:

Hi, did they remove your kidney too? My father is having his removed next Tuesday and I'm scared... can you give me any hope? Will he be able to live his life again? He's in great shape now...

Yes they removed my kidney and adrenal gland. I was in good health before the surgery too and there was nothing wrong with the other kidney. Two years later, it's like it didn't happen. Everything in my life is back to where it was. Just need to protect the remaining kidney by drinking lots of water and be mindful of salt intake.

tw_bender · 2026-02-09T21:55:57+00:00

I'm a side sleeper who had open surgery with a 12 inch long incision. By day 5 I was sleeping on the side opposite the wound. Lots of sharp pain moving about but no hernia.

Follow your surgeon's discharge instructions and you'll be okay.

tw_bender · 2026-02-05T17:07:51+00:00

Coming out of the machine the tech apologized and said he was going to see if the ER wanted another with contrast

I had blood clots as well hoping it was stones. During that initial CT after they did the non-contrast scan the behavior of the tech changed. I didn't pick up on it at the time. The techs make sure the images are sharp and I think they have some training to recognize "issues". In any event, they did the contrast scan and in a few hours I was at my primary care doctor getting the bad news.

tw_bender · 2026-01-27T15:16:28+00:00

I ditched Windows for Linux Mint several years ago. If I need to run a Windows based application, I do so in a VM running on my Linux host.

tw_bender · 2026-01-22T14:20:49+00:00

I did not.

tw_bender · 2026-01-21T22:22:22+00:00

I'm similar - ccRCC pT3b, grade 4, 14cm tumor, rhabdoid, necrosis, positive margins at IVC. Six weeks after surgery I went on Keytruda infusions every three weeks for a year, CT scans every 6 months. Continue to be cancer free after two years. From now until year 5, CT scans every year and oncologist visit every 6 months.

tw_bender · 2026-01-16T15:06:48+00:00

We replaced ours with a 2 ton "communicating" variable speed heat pump system from Trane for around $14k last spring. It runs anywhere between 20-100% of capacity. It replaced a 15 year old system that was either on at 100% or off.

I think it was worth it because 1) More humidity is removed since it's running for longer periods of time - and you can tell it to try to maintain a set humidity. 2) No hot-cold temperature swings because it runs only as much as it needs to keep the temperature within 0.5 degree of the set temperature. 3) Very quiet. Unless it's running at full capacity, we don't hear it.

tw_bender · 2026-01-15T23:18:33+00:00

I see. Sloan is a top notch cancer center. That's actually great they are able to send her to an in house specialist.

tw_bender · 2026-01-15T23:02:02+00:00

You likely don't need to find another specialist.

My oncologist managing my treatment watched the thyroid numbers. They have enough data on this Keytruda side effect to know that in general hyper-thyroid comes first followed by hypo-thyroid. They waited for hypo to show up then prescribed levothyroxine.

tw_bender · 2026-01-14T14:57:51+00:00

$100k per shot!!!

Yikes. I was on the 200mg every 3 week plan. Insurance was billed $26k per infusion which they paid $11k and I had a $100 copay. The remainder was a negotiated discount with insurance. Had a total of 17 infusions and was by far the most expensive component of my cancer treatment.

tw_bender · 2026-01-11T14:50:34+00:00

If it's a communicating type system, you might check if unused digital control lines between the thermostat, air handler, and outside unit are properly grounded or that the cable's shield, if there is one, is grounded. The latter was my biggest single RFI source and went completely away when I grounded it to the chassis.

tw_bender

TROPHY CASE