Your post shows that good deeds can definitely bring rewards! It's extremely hard to diagnose RCC early, because it is so often asymptomatic until it is considerably advanced, sometimes even terminal.
So, although you may not feel it, you've had a lucky break!
I'm glad the tumour has been dealt with surgically (by the way, as you probably already know from your cousin's sad situation - and I hope they manage to find a suitable donor - the kidneys have a lot of redundancy in them, ie, there is considerable over-capacity, so it's possible to get a lot of function out of a partial kidney, or, indeed, one with a massive tumour in it - my husband's tumurous kidney was still functioning, despite a tumour the size of a football in,on, and around it!).
I suspect the reason the surgeon is saying no further treatment is necessary is simply because at this early stage, that is probably so. Basically 'he's got it all'.
At the moment, my understanding is that drugs are only used when the tumour is either inoperable in the kidney, or when the cancer has reached stage IV, and has metastasised to distant organs via the bloodstream (typically lungs, liver, brain, bones for RCC).
I believe there are tests running to see whether any of the latest drugs (primarily Sutent) can have an adjuvant/preventive effect on what early stage patietns have to look out for, which is recurrance.
Metastasis is now thought to occur (depressingly) rather earlier in general across cancers than was previously held, and so it could be that some of the tumour cells are still in your body, lying 'dormant'. This dormancy can last for years and years and years - I believe there are patients who have had recurrance something like l5 years later!
But whether Sutent can kill off these 'dormant' cells is what is not yet known. One argumetn is that it can't, as Sutent acts by preventing tumours growing their own blood supply, and so it can't zap cancer before it gets to that stage of its development.
In your situation, therefore, it does sound like it's a question now of 'watch and wait' - you need to be on the alert for recurrance, either in the kidney iteself or in any possible metastases. Don't wait for symptoms, insist on regular scans FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. Docs, not unnaturally, like to tell people they're cured, but do not take the chance on recurrance 'taking off unnoticed'.
Again, in your situation I would definitely want a referral to an RCC oncologist (and be sure it's an RCC specialist, as RCC is a 'differnt' cancer and needs a specilist in it!). Surgeons, again not unnaturally, do have a tendency to think 'the knife is the only answer' (!) (just as, to be fair, physicians think 'drugs are the only answer' etc etc!).
To find a good one in your area, and also to get the best information about your situation that I think it's possible to find on the Internet, take a look at kidney-onc. It's an ACOR (Association of Cancer Online Resources - they have groups for all sorts of cancers). Many people here are there too, and it's run by two extremely knowledgeable people, to whom I would put your situation and see what they say (that Furhman grade may be a cause for future concern??). It is the largest single pool of RCC experience and expertise, and I highly recommend it.
You can join on http://cancerguide.org/kofaq/ (be warned, you get a lot of mails, so you may want to receive the digest or create a dedicated email address of your own for it!)
All the very best, and it's great that this has been diagnosed so early. RCC is very slow growing, and can be in us for years and years before it makes its deadly presence felt. HOPEFULLY this is the last you've seen of it.
Julie