Krocks In The Kitchen

[Daisychain4]

Yes it’s been a busy time for them … I’m sure Brian would have results by now. Jessica too possibly.
Fingers crossed but I had a feeling Brian would get good results .. let’s see

 

[Turaj]

Yes it’s been a busy time for them … I’m sure Brian would have results by now. Jessica too possibly.
Fingers crossed but I had a feeling Brian would get good results .. let’s see

No doc here but lots of experience getting results from Mayo. Now the biopsy might take a few days for final but those PET and CT scans are usually same day. Jessica always has a consult shortly after. They tend to be Sunday evening vloggers so I expect something coming later today.

 

[LeonorG]

No doc here but lots of experience getting results from Mayo. Now the biopsy might take a few days for final but those PET and CT scans are usually same day. Jessica always has a consult shortly after. They tend to be Sunday evening vloggers so I expect something coming later today.

A new video by the Krocks. It's cancer. I started watching it now. These two have been through so much crap.

Jessica and Brian are very good at explaining things. So different from how the rodent and her blue balls handle things in vlogs. They literally can't put a coherent sentence together when talking about results.

 

[Turaj]

I just knew they would come on today. Boy they can't get a break. Already had the surgery and will find out more next update. Jessica has really got too much on her plate. Hopefully lots of family help.

 

[LeonorG]

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Grade 3 (out of 4).

 

[shragae]

Not stage 3 but grade 3 he said. Not sure what that means prognosis wise.

 

[LeonorG]

Grades of kidney cancer
The grade of a cancer means how much the cancer cells look like normal cells. It tells your doctor how the cancer might behave and what treatment you need.

Clear cell and papillary renal cell cancers are graded 1-4. Grade 1 is the lowest grade and grade 4 is the highest.

The more the cancer cells look like normal kidney cells, the lower the grade. Low grade kidney cancers tend to grow more slowly. They are less likely to spread to another part of the body (metastasise).

The less the cancer cells look like normal kidney cells, the higher the grade. High grade kidney cancers tend to grow quicker. They are more likely to spread to another part of the body.

The main factor for deciding on treatment is whether the cancer has spread away from the kidney or not. This is the stage of the kidney cancer.


...
Brian is in a lot of pain still and he is recovering so they will explain in more detail in the next one.
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Not stage 3 but grade 3 he said. Not sure what that means prognosis wise.

It will depend on what stage it is. As far as I know we don't know its stage. To me it looks like stage 2 as that tumour seems quite big and we weren't told previously that it has spread. I guess he will not need further treatment.
Some information on staging:

Staging and grading of kidney cancer

Learn how kidney cancer is staged and graded, including the TNM and number staging systems, and what low or high grade means.

www.macmillan.org.uk

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Just to add that surgery is the main mode of treatment and also immunotherapy.

 

[Turaj]

can someone remind me how this was detected? Apparently it is usually without symptoms and found in CT etc. for something else.

 

[LeonorG]

can someone remind me how this was detected? Apparently it is usually without symptoms and found in CT etc. for something else.

Just watching it cause I forgot too. So he had stomach sickness about a year ago and he never completely recovered from that. He was still having pain and nausea. They first put him on omeprazole which somewhat helped. Then he postponed seeing the doctor in the middle of all the other chaos and the new baby. Then later he had endoscopy and colonoscopy. Endoscopy showed nothing but the colonoscopy showed a polyp. They couldn't remove it but they took biopsies. Pathology showed the polyp to be completely benign, an inflammation polyp. He comes home and feels cold, then has fever, then stomach gassiness, he is in agony. Pain worse in the morning. They go to the ER. He is given a CT scan. They believe his colon went to sleep after the colonoscopy and anaesthesia. They also told him they found a mass on his kidney. They first thought that it would be a cyst but than the urologist thought that it's cancer cause the mass was solid and had weird edges and it was around 6cm big.

 

[Turaj]

Just watching it cause I forgot too. So he had stomach sickness about a year ago and he never completely recovered from that. He was still having pain and nausea. They first put him on omeprazole which somewhat helped. Then he postponed seeing the doctor in the middle of all the other chaos and the new baby. Then later he had endoscopy and colonoscopy. Endoscopy showed nothing but the colonoscopy showed a polyp. They couldn't remove it but they took biopsies. Pathology showed the polyp to be completely benign, an inflammation polyp. He comes home and feels cold, then has fever, then stomach gassiness, he is in agony. Pain worse in the morning. They go to the ER. He is given a CT scan. They believe his colon went to sleep after the colonoscopy and anaesthesia. They also told him they found a mass on his kidney.

I would say that "sleeping colon" was a blessing. I mean from that view they showed that was a good size mass but seemed to still be contained in the kidney so hopefully no spread. I think he got lucky. From what I read of this more common in men but older than Brian.

 

[LeonorG]

I would say that "sleeping colon" was a blessing. I mean from that view they showed that was a good size mass but seemed to still be contained in the kidney so hopefully no spread. I think he got lucky. From what I read of this more common in men but older than Brian.

Very much. Thanks to that sleeping colon he was given that CT.

Wait a minute, so his stomach issues which started last July weren't because of the kidney cancer? They were caused by the inflammatory polyp?

The CT scan showed no other masses so hopefully no spread.

Stage 1 kidney cancer
The cancer is 7cm or smaller and is inside the kidney. It has not spread to the lymph nodes or other organs.

Stage 2 kidney cancer
The cancer is bigger than 7cm and is inside the kidney. It has not spread to the lymph nodes or other organs.

Stage 3 kidney cancer
The cancer is growing into the large around the kidney, or into one of the major veins close to the kidney (the renal vein or the vena cava). It is not growing through the capsule that surrounds the kidney. It may or may not have spread to the lymph nodes.

Stage 4 kidney cancer
The cancer has grown through the capsule that surrounds the kidney and into nearby areas. Or the cancer has spread to other parts of the body further away from the kidney.

 

[Turaj]

Very much. Thanks to that sleeping colon he was given that CT.

Wait a minute, so his stomach issues which started last July weren't because of the kidney cancer? They were caused by the inflammatory polyp?

The CT scan showed no other masses so hopefully no spread.

Stage 1 kidney cancer
The cancer is 7cm or smaller and is inside the kidney. It has not spread to the lymph nodes or other organs.

Stage 2 kidney cancer
The cancer is bigger than 7cm and is inside the kidney. It has not spread to the lymph nodes or other organs.

Stage 3 kidney cancer
The cancer is growing into the large around the kidney, or into one of the major veins close to the kidney (the renal vein or the vena cava). It is not growing through the capsule that surrounds the kidney. It may or may not have spread to the lymph nodes.

Stage 4 kidney cancer
The cancer has grown through the capsule that surrounds the kidney and into nearby areas. Or the cancer has spread to other parts of the body further away from the kidney.

he mentioned 6cm so I think he is stage 1. I do think that in order to have things function well with the one kidney he will be forced to lose weight. I think he may take one of the drugs. I think with his body weight it would be too much stress on one kidney. Lots of changes for Brian.I don't think the stomach issues or any of those symptoms were due to the RCC. I hear this kind of story often...go in for one thing and find another. CT scans are a great diagnostic tool.

 

[shragae]

Brian looks thinner to me in the latest video. They both seem so nice. Them both suffering from cancer is shocking.

 

[AlwaysScience]

Obesity has been linked to a lot of cancers including breast, colorectal, kidney, liver, uterine.

 

[Turaj]

Brian looks thinner to me in the latest video. They both seem so nice. Them both suffering from cancer is shocking.

I think he dropped some lbs going thru the surgery and hospital stay. Also as I have said before my guess is he will be taking one of the weight loss drugs as I don't think he will do well with just eating and diet. I think he is one of the cases where a dr would prescribe it in a risk vs benefit scenario. He has to lose the weight.

 

[AlwaysScience]

I think he dropped some lbs going thru the surgery and hospital stay. Also as I have said before my guess is he will be taking one of the weight loss drugs as I don't think he will do well with just eating and diet. I think he is one of the cases where a dr would prescribe it in a risk vs benefit scenario. He has to lose the weight.

Agree. With those drugs available now doctors are able to help a lot of people get down to safer weights and the positive health effects of that weight loss are huge. Long term I think we will see a decrease in heart disease. It should also be a big help to their mental health since there is so much shaming of people who are obese.

 

[Turaj]

Agree. With those drugs available now doctors are able to help a lot of people get down to safer weights and the positive health effects of that weight loss are huge. Long term I think we will see a decrease in heart disease. It should also be a big help to their mental health since there is so much shaming of people who are obese.

Given not much is known about long term use of the drugs I can't justify taking it to lose some weight...but tempted. I think for people like Brian it will be a godsend.

 

[suzeq]

Just starting to watch their latest video.

I can't recall, do they usually lag between events and posting? I'm just noticing he said the biopsy was May 2nd and nephrectomy was May 9th. They posted the "going for a biopsy" on May 12th, so, they not only already knew the results of the biopsy when they posted it, but the nephrectomy was also already over with. So, this most recent video of May 19th was 10 days past the actual surgery.

I recall there were weeks' lag when they were going to visit their surrogate/cousin and Elsie's arrival and when they'd post about it. I'm just not recalling this lag during Jessica's medical journey.

Have they always had such a lag in turnaround time?

Happy the surgery went well and he is very comfortable with his medical team. Am interested in how @Saydee interprets his results.

 

[Saydee]

I hope Brian doesn't have a recurrence after his nephrectomy. Life with just one kidney will mean he needs to look after it.
Sadly I see so many younger people with RCC have a recurrence a few years down the line. RCC is very sneaky type of cancer.

I'm not excited about the fact that he may be stage 1. His prognosis will depend on if there's been microvascular invasion, if the tumour can be removed with clear margins, where about the tumour is sitting (which pole), how close the tumour is to the renal vein. The biopsy states clear cell RCC , but the tumour itself may contain papillary cells as well as clear cell.

My husband was grade 3 too.
It's a sneaky cancer. Why is RCC sneaky? There's no markers for this cancer, it doesn't show in blood tests. Many patients don't show any symptoms at all. RCC is resistant to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Treatment is immunotherapy or tyrosine kinase inhibitors (tablets taken daily but the cancer becomes resistant to tki's quickly). It often takes years for metastatic spread to show up on scans because it's a slow growing cancer with slow dividing cells.
Many patients (even stage 1, grade 1's) can be living their life after nephrectomy feeling they have been cured, and bam 4 - 5 years down the line a lung nodule or bone met appears, despite them having clear margins.

I hope Brian's oncologist will look into mutations. Personally, I think doing a biopsy was too much of a risk. Biopsies carry risks of seeding. Oncologists say that there's only a slim risk of seeding @ 1%, but someone is that 1%. If the tumour/mass had to come out anyway, it would have been sent to the pathology lab.

 

[Turaj]

Just starting to watch their latest video.

I can't recall, do they usually lag between events and posting? I'm just noticing he said the biopsy was May 2nd and nephrectomy was May 9th. They posted the "going for a biopsy" on May 12th, so, they not only already knew the results of the biopsy when they posted it, but the nephrectomy was also already over with. So, this most recent video of May 19th was 10 days past the actual surgery.

I recall there were weeks' lag when they were going to visit their surrogate/cousin and Elsie's arrival and when they'd post about it. I'm just not recalling this lag during Jessica's medical journey.

Have they always had such a lag in turnaround time?

Happy the surgery went well and he is very comfortable with his medical team. Am interested in how @Saydee interprets his results.

They are pretty timely in their videos. That biopsy result took much longer than expected and then surgery was next day...I think they probably intended to do a results on biopsy video but did not have any and then recovery from surgery. Considering what they are juggling I can understand if timing is not perfect.