Kidney Don't Fail Me Now!

Chapter 2 has started. Not that I thought I would ever open this book. Immunotherapy started on Wednesday. As I mentioned in the last post, I'll be driving to Duarte every three weeks for the next year.  The routine will be: Show up for labs (this time it was only three vials of blood) Visit with the doctor to look at lab results and discuss any active side effects Visit the infusion session for about an hour to get poked and prodded  The first session was uneventful. The only sensation was the feeling of something cold being infused into my arm. Hoping that portends things to come! Note: As I complete this write up 4 days after the infusion, I *think* I'm starting to have a side effect. Either that, or I slept in itching powder last night. Oh well. It certainly beats the alternative!

I've had to be patient entering the "next chapter" in my care. The chapter started with a transition from my surgeon (thank you Dr. Yamzon!) to an oncologist who specializes in kidney cancer, Dr. Sumanta Pal. Dr. Pal is the reason that we chose City of Hope in the first place. He has quite the CV and reputation as an expert in renal cell carcinoma. My initial consult was on October 11. We talked about the pathology report in some detail. The final pathology results is that I have a type of cancer called Clear Cell Renal Carcinoma. Apparently, I have some type of genetic mutation that is found in a lot of people who have this type of cancer. The prognosis is that there is a 30-40% chance the cancer will reoccur as Clear Cell Carcinoma in other areas of my body (lungs, brain, lymph nodes). The current standard of care for my situation is immunotherapy using pembrolizumab (Keytruda). Immunotherapy uses drugs to boost a patient's immune system to attack and destroy cancer