I'm sorry about your boyfriend's diagnosis. I had my right kidney removed in April. I was in hospital for 5 days and in a lot of pain. When I came home and got moving properly things began to change. I started by walking to the end of the road and a bit further every day. I can do 10 miles now. 

I often wake up panicking about the cancer and have learnt that rather than staying in bed I must get up and move. So if you can keep him moving I would. It doesn't have to be a lot at first, it all builds up. 

Hi Chelsea76,

Sorry to hear about your boyfriend, he's very young to have had kidney cancer as it usually affects people in their 50's and 60's. I had a partial nephrectomy in 2011 and was in hospital also for 5 days. Whilst in there I was on morphine for pain relief. I really struggled to walk after a few days but the excellent physio made me do it, and it really was for the best, so if your boyfriend can try his best, it'll benefit him greatly.

On discharge, I was given Tramadol for pain relief, and I can make two points about that:

1. It provided really good pain relief, made me feel quite detached from everything. But, the downside was ...

2. It was very hard to come off. It took me a week and the withdrawal was really hard. 

It would've been far easier to carry on taking it, but I knew that it wasn't good t be on such a powerful pain killer for a prolonged period.

So there it is: Tramadol is excellent for pain relief, but beware of it's addictive nature. It is possible to come off it, but it's hard. In summary, I suppose it comes down to how bad your boyfriends pain is and whether he's happy to take this trade-off.