Anyone have any experiene of Kidney damage on chemo?

[Merlin7]

Butch went in for his 1st chemo (Cisplatin & Fluorouracil) last Wed, unfortunately in early hours of Sat morning he experienced breathing problems and chest pains they took him off chemo and through a CT scan ruled out blood clot but found he had an infection, put him on antibiotics. They them discovered that his kidneys were damaged and he's been on a water drip ever since. He lost his appetite as he says he has a a foul smell and taste in his mouth and whenever he tried to eat just wanted to vomit, he improving day by day and is having a bit of food here and there. Has no problem with the stent anymore and is not in pain like he was when he first went in. He should have come home last Sunday, not even sure if he will be home this Sunday, they say until his kidneys stabilise he's better off on the drip which I agree with. He feels depressed which is natural I suppose. They are now talking about fast tracking radiation treatment and possibly other chemo. Feeling the stress a little now but my two sons have been a godsend. Any info would be appreciated as hospital will not commit to telling me if kidneys will recover completely. Hope everyone is coping well and staying strong. Chrissy

[Hidden]

I honestly do not know, but chemotherapy drugs are powerful and can have all sorts of side effects, and my guess is that it will indeed take a while before they can see their way forward. It is not unusual for taste buds to be wrecked, but they often recover after a while.

It may be that he is one of those people who do react with extra sensitivity to the chemo; let's hope that this applies to the tumour as well (which seems possible if his swallowing is improved).

The infection will have complicated things, and might explain quite a lot of what he has been feeling, but they should be able to sort that out.

It is very natural and normal to feel absolutely awful during this process. The treatment seems worse than the original disease. The only consolation is that they are very experienced at dealing with these reactions, and I am sure that they will have some alternative strategies up their sleeve. Sometimes they do cut short the chemotherapy - it is the effect it has that is important rather than officiously taking the whole of the planned course.

Cling on to the little bits of improvement he is making. Sometimes you find extra reserves of resilience you never knew you had.

We give you all our very best wishes during this worrying time.

Alan

[Merlin7 in reply to Hidden]

Hi Alan, thanks again for taking time to reply. I know some people who have been on this combination of chemo and have had no problems at all, and I was hoping that Butch would be amongst them but not to be. The infection did complicate matters as I believe that an infection will effect the kidneys anyway so he was doubly unfortunate. Just hoping and praying that flushing his system out will put right the problem, though they did say that his kidneys wouldn't be as they were before chemo but wouldn't commit to saying how bad the damage was - a bit worrying. Chrissy

[Westoncromwell]

When I had my 2 sets of chemo that lasted 9 weeks each set (3 x 3 weeks)when I would attend for the first session of each set they would flush out my system for about 1 hour with the intake of a lot of fluids before the drugs. I was told that this was to protect etc the kidneys I seem to recall.

Hope this helps

Kind regards

Brian

[Merlin7 in reply to Westoncromwell]

Hi

Yes this was done on the Wednesday when he first went in to start treatment. Chrissy