Kidney Cancer – Page 2

2nd February 2016

IL-2: My Experience With The Cancer Treatment

I try and relax during my treatment with a visit from close pal Sam.

When I was first referred to a professor at The Christie Hospital in Manchester and told about a treatment called IL-2, I didn’t really want to know much more. There could be loads of pieces like this already over the internet, laying out what it’s like to have IL-2, but ignorance was bliss. I didn’t want to know what I was getting into.

But now I’ve experienced it I thought it would be worth jotting down what’s happened so far. If it helps one person prepare for it then I guess it’s worth it.

Only two hospitals in the UK administer cancer treatment Interleukin-2 and it’s not too hard to see why. It’s seriously expensive for a start, but it’s also quite new and very intense.

14th November 2015

Kidney Cancer’s subtle symptoms and why you should listen to your body

I will always remember when it dawned on me that doctors were taking my case seriously. It was the end of September 2014, and I had just been admitted into hospital. I was three weeks into a brilliant new job as news editor of the ambitious Stratford-upon-Avon Herald, and in my mind I was desperate to make a good impression – even if my body wasn’t.

When I had accepted the job I really did think I was fine. Yes, I had lost weight and was struggling with my energy levels – but I just thought I was unfit. So it was a big shock when the call from Warwick Hospital came.

I certainly didn’t think I warranted the ensuite room they had given me. It was situated next to dozens of old and frail people who all looked genuinely ill, while I was sat in bed all day happily watching DVDs and reading magazines. Nevertheless, the doctors seemed worried. A couple of days of blood tests followed before a CT Scan eventually revealed a four-inch tumour in my right kidney.

10th October 2015

My shocking sugar intake and why I transformed my diet

One of the first – and biggest – things I did after being diagnosed with cancer was completely change my diet. For years I was a a chocolate-loving, fizzy drink-gulping sugar fiend, and it soon became clear how that lifestyle could have caught up with me – especially for someone who has never smoked or really drunk much alcohol.

A few months on – after employing the help of a specialist nutritional therapist – I’m now a sugar-free, organic-loving water drinker. I’m definitely not perfect, and I’ve succumbed to temptation on more than one occasion, but at least I’m giving my body a break from the massive sugar and carb-fuelled hangover it used to deal with.

It all started in October 2014, a few weeks after diagnosis, when my consultant told me surgery would clear the visible tumours but not catch any other cancer cells that were hidden elsewhere. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy weren’t on the table and, although surgery would see the tumours removed, he was firm in his belief that the cancer would probably return.