Hi...i thank you for your valuable feedback..i agree with you wholeheartedly that the question of nephrectomy at 94 is impossible to answer...your comment regarding asking the treating doctor is well taken, however, this doctor has been negligent in treating dad which damages his crediblilty and the other doctors have not been taking care of dad...and of course one has to assess the risks vs. the benefits which is where we are at now...dad's anemia is not from blood loss or iron deficiency and now that i have taken over as primary caregiver, i will see to it that we diagnose the anemia and treat it appropriately...and change doctors if we have to.
dad's anemia was around 9 in august then it dropped to 8 in october then 6.8 by dec 10th...he willbe receiving about 2 pints tomorrow...and dad functions INCREDIBLY well for being this anemic...
right now, it looks like the cause is the kidney cancer so either we eliminate it through a nephrectomy or dad has to deal with transfusions probably for the rest of his life...i thought it would help to hear from elderly people who have gone through a nephrectomy to see what the recovery is like ...i had a kidney biopsy and i screamed bloody murder when i had to pass blood clots because they couldn't stop the bleeding and i was only 49...
i know what dad is made out of ... dad is a soldier and a positive thinker with an incredible faith in God...dad was scheduled to be transfused today but it is rescheduled for tomorrow so dad went for a half mile walk along the beach instead and said he felt fine...dad has taken care of himself and has jogged or walked almost daily for over 40 years...he is in his right mind most of the time and dad says he is going for 100 and some doctors think he could be right if he wasn't dealing with this anemia which is about the only symptom he is having with his kidney cancer which was diagnosed about 3-4 years ago...he has no pain and the lesion is now 3 cm and growing quite slowly...
thanks for any additional feedback and i will look into the questions you raised..very valuable ..i thank you and have a great day...
Hi, I think that is question is almost impossible to answer unless you ask the doctor looking after him. There are a lot of contributing factors. How fast is his blood loss? How old is the blood he is being given? How many units of blood is he going to have? How well does he function at a certain Hb level?
68 is certainly low, but if the decrease has been gradual and he has been adapting to the level as it dropped then he may not require much blood to get him up to a level which makes him much more comfortable. A low Hb at age 94 would be a worry as it could put a bit of extra strain on the heart but as transfusions are so safe these days, it's a very good fast fix.
Good luck