Lost! What's next?

[cmj85]

My best friend had a small bump on his behind he thought it was a hemmoroid then it got bigger and began to ulcerate the doc said it was thrombosed and infected and needed to be removed. After making an appointment with a colon and rectal surgeon they told him it wasn't a hemmoroid and did a colonoscopy and biopsy. They said his Colon looked good but the biopsy on the mass showed kaposi sarcoma and that this is a cancer that occurs mostly in AIDS patients and he need to do blood work. That was last week this week we r going in for blood work and r being refered to an oncologist. I'm nervous for him but also want to know what happened a next we have yet to get a blood test and they said the oncologist would call us to set an appointment he just ran out of pain meds and his tumor hurts to sit down and walk with the area it's in and he's began having night sweats. Not sure if he should have met with a specialist already to treat this and I'm tired of seeing him in pain physically and emotionally and just don't want him getting sicker.

[zach]

neither of you are hiv+?

we're not doctors, we don't know what's next for your friend

this is a group for people living with hiv, why are you here?

[Jeff G]

Did your friends doctor not do a rapid HIV test ? I guess we are not clear on if your friend has tested positive or not. I am moving this thread into the Someone I care about has HIV forum for the meantime. 

[cmj85]

im very sorry if my post was confusing this is all new to me and we both arent sure what we are doing or dealing with. the dr did not do a rapid test at least not that we know of he went in for a biopsy on a growth that a GP said was an infected hemorrhoid and was suppose to be removed by the colon and rectal surgeon but that didnt happen. next thing he knows they want to do a colonoscopy which they said was good and a biopsy on the mass and get called back in before the next appt He had scheduled saying its kaposi sarcoma and that he has hiv. they said he need to go  in for blood work to confirm but that they dont treat hiv and the dr was refering him to an infectious disease dr who will be calling to set up an appt. Also that he needed to start chemo. i am taking him for blood work tomorrow and the dr that called is an oncologist/ hematologist and the appt for that is in 2 weeks but no infectious disease dr called. We arent sure if the oncologist is handling his HIV or if we should start looking for an infectious disease dr on our own and no one seems to have time to answer our questions in the mean time he has started sweating a lot at night and wants to sleep a lot and we are not sure that this is being handled correctly and just want to know the normal coarse of appts and time between them and with who or if we are waiting too long and just some information not a diagnosis from here but we r gonna stop by the AIds center here and get some help after the blood test to find out cuz no one seems to be able to help us

[zach]

first step.... a confirmed positive test result from the ID doc... then blood will be drawn for a variety of tests; viral load, cd4, genotyping

those are the primary three to pay attention to, they draw a base line where this is starting from

good luck with the KS