In addition to David's spot on advice, I want to add a couple items.

Your brother needs to begin networking and lining up helpers. He will need a caregiver, preferably a full time one. Anyone who offers to help he will want to tell them when the time comes he will let them know what they can do. He needs to write down every single person who offers their help and that persons contact info. This can be especially important if your brother lives by himself.

I would suggest calling The American Cancer Society and asking for some help there too. Your brother will eventually need someone to drive him to treatments. When taking heavy duty pain meds its not safe to be behind the wheel. The ACS has volunteer drivers who can drive him occasionally to his treatments for free. The ACS will also give up to $300 towards transportation costs to get him back and forth to treatments. If he would rather the $300 be used at the pharmacy that can be done too. The ACS will give his preferred pharmacy a voucher worth up to $300 towards his medications. It will cover co-pays but not over the counter items. The ACS needs documentation so its best to call now and get the paperwork finished before treatments begin.

There are so many important things to do when going thru treatments and recovery. One of the key things to getting thru this easier is nutrition and hydration. Every single day NO MATTER WHAT, he needs to take in at least 2500 calories and 48 oz of water. More is even better. I know it sounds like alot but his body is burning up calories at a very rapid pace and it will only increase. In my post rad days, I would take in a whopping 7000+ calories a day and I still struggled to keep weight on. Athletes take that much in during training cuz they burn it off so fast. Just get this into your brothers head its a necessity and it must be done so when the going gets tough he will keep up the calories and hydration. Ask the doc for a prescription for hydration in the chemo lab. By doing that a few times a week it will help him to avoid becoming dehydrated. This can be especially important with his kidneys with having chemo. He needs extra water to flush the chemo out of his system.

With having cisplatin, your brother needs to pay close attention to his hearing and report any changes immediately. Cisplatin is known to cause high frequency hearing loss. I was lucky to avoid this but Davidcpa wasnt. It can be something so small as a little ringing in his ears or a buzzing. His doc needs to know right away before any more of that chemo is given.

I know its too much to take in all at once. It can be overwhelming. Dont worry, we are here to help get you both thru this.

Good luck!!!