Wow!

Posting after reading several postings here and very worried.

I am a 38 year old male with no previous health problems or history of cancer in family.  About 2 years ago I had visible blood in my urine with no real pain (discomfort and pain kept me up that night, after initially seeing blood).  Went to doctor and she suspected kidney stones.  Bleeding stopped and I felt fine and had no other problems for nearly two years. 

A couple months ago the blood in urine returned and lasted about 4-5 days this time with no pain.  Dr. referred me to a urologist who ordered a CT scan.  The scan shows a mass on my right kidney (max dimensions: 4.3 X 5.6 cm).  Report also states that liver, spleen , pancreas and adrenal glands all look normal.  Lypmh nodes also appear normal.

 Okay- those are the facts as reported on paper.  Now I can state the shock and the fear of what's going on.  I've remained pretty calm in front of my wife (after results we met for lunch and she was pretty upset-because I was visibly freaked out).  But since I've tried to keep up appearences and kind of "blowing it off" as a routine procedure to remove the mass so we can move on.

What sucks is- I feel fine (actually very good!) things are going great with my job and at home.  After about an hour or two of reading some of the stuff on here I'm really down right now.  We have an appointment with a surgeon this afternoon to schedule a laproscopic removal of either the mass and/or kidney (as I'm assuming).

I guess I'm just venting- talking to the wife is too upsetting and we've really only told my best friend (who is a nerosurgeon- and by the way for those of you with friends that are doctors when you tell them something like this and they're silent for several minutes it doesn't do much for the morale!  He made up some crap when I got onto him about not saying anything saying the reason he was quiet was because he doesn't know much about this...We've since been sending each other funny messages and trying to lighten the mood...)  I told my mom and my sister.  We haven't told in-laws or my 8 year old son.  My son is what really worries me- we have so much fun together and I'm determined to be around to hang out with him for a long time!

Is there a size limit to posting?  I can't stop now.. And work!  Jeez, I have so much going on- so many positive things.  Who's going to take care of my stuff while I'm out?  What is management going to think now?  Does this limit consideration for mobility/promotion?  Is it shallow to think like this? 

Anyway- I'm inspired and moved by what I see here but scared as hell.  Thanks in advance to any who might take the time to read and/or respond.

Dennis

Up to 25 percent of kidney masses represent a benign condition. Sometimes you can tell from imaging if the growth is benign or not.  It sounds like they plan on a biopsy for you.  The size of the tumor can also be a hint, but yours is not really that big.  Let us know what the biopsy says and hang in there.

 

On 3/11/2008 Oncrx wrote:

Up to 25 percent of kidney masses represent a benign condition. Sometimes you can tell from imaging if the growth is benign or not.  It sounds like they plan on a biopsy for you.  The size of the tumor can also be a hint, but yours is not really that big.  Let us know what the biopsy says and hang in there.

hello, i just wanted to give you some incourgement, I myself @39 was diagnosied w/ kidney cancer, no symptoms, NOTHING!!!!!!!!!! not even blood in urine, perfect blood work etc... anyway i had a catscan done for something totally not related to any of this, and incedentally, the found a mass on my left kideny 2.5cm, everything else was clear, thank god, to make a long story short, i had my kideny removed open procedure,cuz of where the tumor was, it was in the middle of kidney, anyway, had surgery sept 11,06, took kidney and that was it!!!!!! as of today i am clean, just had scans,i go every 6 months now, and my one kideny is functioning perfect, so if you have any questions, i'd be glad to answer them, I my self am a nurse, and am in the medical field, please let me know, your not a lone in this Believe me, and there are very postive succes stories,Sherry

Thanks Sherry.  My wife and I went to the doctor today and he is going to remove the kidney- imaging places it at a precarious spot and actually into the kidney pretty deep.

She's pretty upset- I actually didn't get too emotional until I talked to my boss tonight to tell him (as I have a lot of things going on)- he got on to me for worrying too much about my work stuff.

I guess I'll be in for surgery in the next week or so.  How long was your recovery time?  Surgeon is doing laproscopic (or planning anyway) and says hospital stay is 2-3 days and I can be back working within a week or so (I work from home) and given my age and health should be back in sorts failry quickly.

Whew- I go through up and down stages where I feel pretty good about it all and then get emotional when talking to my son.  Who we told tonight, by the way, and as far as I can tell from him I should be fine.  He was most concernced about singing me the latest "potty" related song that he and the other boys made up at school today....

How about dealing with telling people.  Like work peers and customers that I'm going to be out- missing meetings that have already been planned?  I'm thinking that I'd just like to say that I'm going to be on medical leave for a week or two and try not to go into too much detail.  I'm telling family of course- but what about friends?  I kind of don't want everyone doing the "oh but he's so young" and stuff behind me or constantly asking about it- I just want to deal with it and move on.  Is that selfish?  Is it realistic?  I don't want pity I guess- or maybe I'm a little ashamed of being "that guy"- you know, the one in the predictable TV movie of the week...  I don't know.

Typing this stuff out is kind of therapeutic though.  I can see this being an obsession for me in the coming weeks and months.

Sorry all- they're long- I know, but I'll try to make them entertaining if at all possible!

Good Night.- Dennis

Dennis,  Hi! Sorry to hear about your dx.I too was dx w/RCC in 97 There are so many different choices now. Certainly sugery is one but they have meds such as Sutent,Torisel and more. So hang in there and don't let this get you down too much. In my own experience being honest with my friends even co-workers seems to have worked the best for me. This Board has been a real comfort to me even though I just found it a few days ago                                               Take Care  John

My mother went 17 years cancer free after having her kidney removed.  It has now spread to her lungs and bones but between the time of initial diagnosis and now she was perfectly fine.  Many advancements have been made in recent years.  It is hard not to be overwhelmed by the diagnosis but you cannot focus on the worst case scenario or you will let cancer take over your life.

 Good luck.

 

On 3/11/2008 atlfamily wrote:

Thanks Sherry.  My wife and I went to the doctor today and he is going to remove the kidney- imaging places it at a precarious spot and actually into the kidney pretty deep.

She's pretty upset- I actually didn't get too emotional until I talked to my boss tonight to tell him (as I have a lot of things going on)- he got on to me for worrying too much about my work stuff.

I guess I'll be in for surgery in the next week or so.  How long was your recovery time?  Surgeon is doing laproscopic (or planning anyway) and says hospital stay is 2-3 days and I can be back working within a week or so (I work from home) and given my age and health should be back in sorts failry quickly.

Whew- I go through up and down stages where I feel pretty good about it all and then get emotional when talking to my son.  Who we told tonight, by the way, and as far as I can tell from him I should be fine.  He was most concernced about singing me the latest "potty" related song that he and the other boys made up at school today....

How about dealing with telling people.  Like work peers and customers that I'm going to be out- missing meetings that have already been planned?  I'm thinking that I'd just like to say that I'm going to be on medical leave for a week or two and try not to go into too much detail.  I'm telling family of course- but what about friends?  I kind of don't want everyone doing the "oh but he's so young" and stuff behind me or constantly asking about it- I just want to deal with it and move on.  Is that selfish?  Is it realistic?  I don't want pity I guess- or maybe I'm a little ashamed of being "that guy"- you know, the one in the predictable TV movie of the week...  I don't know.

Typing this stuff out is kind of therapeutic though.  I can see this being an obsession for me in the coming weeks and months.

Sorry all- they're long- I know, but I'll try to make them entertaining if at all possible!

Good Night.- Dennis

Hi Dennis,

Sorry to hear about your situation.  This is a very stressful time.  I don't know much about the kidney stuff since I have stage IV lung cancer, but I had to put in my 2 cents on telling everyone.  I kept it a secret for 4 months before I even told my boss, and only told him then because of the chemo side effects causing me to miss work for a short time, which I never did previously. Everything was fine until it leaked out.  People cannot be quiet about something like this for long for some reason.  All the people that I had been close to seemed to have vanished over the last 12 months.  People start to avoid you because they "don't know what to say".  You're no longer "normal".  At least that's the was it was here and this is a big outfit. The original diagnosis was 6-12 months and it's been 16 now and I'm still here and still working.  People are still stand-offish to a degree because they have never had to face anything like this.  You have to live it to know the fear and the stress of the unknown future.  If I had it to do over (God forbid), I wouldn't tell a soul!    I'm 60 and I've made it past their prognosis and I refuse to give up.  God Bless you and keep your faith.  I'll be praying for you.   Nancy

 

My husband was back lifting windshields in 2 1/2 weeks after his surgery and he was 55. the thing is to get regular ct scan every 6 month to see it does now show up elsewhere later on which often happens.

Thanks to all for the really cool messages of encouragement and support!  I'm felling really good, which is so odd- that it really makes this whole thing so surreal.  I'll actually forget from time to time and have moved on with planning out my travel and work schedule for the next several weeks with the anticipation that it will all be okay....

What sucks is that my surgery is scheduled right in the middle of what was a highly anticipated trip with our son to Washington DC and the museums for his 8th birthday.  I'm now more determined than ever to be here to do stuff with him and to never take time with he and my wife for granted.

I know many of you on this post are survivors and still many more with even more desperate situations- I hope that you find comfort in my rantings and postings- where I try to make this whole thing seem as normal and stay as positive as possible.

I sit here and type out thoughts- having not even told my wife about this outlet yet- as I will want to keep it as someplace I can use as an outlet for my frustrations and feelings in the future- where I can say the things I perhaps dare not say to her to maintain a positive front.

She's scouring the web too, I know- looking for answers and inspiration, causes and cures.  So- Honey- if you find this- I don't mean any of the crap I just typed above I was just joking.....  Check!

 

I just went through same thing!

Mass was about 4.5 cmx 2.5 cm (give or take). My dr is very optomistic. I had partial nephrectomy. Originally I was to have tatol removal, but second opinion dr said we could save the kidney. That was important to me becuase I'm also young(43). My recovery has been longer and harder than it would have been if they just took it all.I've been laid up for 6 weeks now. My prognosis is excellent, no chemo, no radiation, CT scans every 6 months. Dr says chance of recurrence is tiny.

My dr is optomistic so I'm optomistic.