Living with Kidney Cancer

I’ve never been much of a religious man. I mean, I was brought up Catholic and I do believe in God and Jesus Christ, but I never spent much time on my knees or for that matter in a church. In the last few weeks, however, I’ve never spent so much time praying for Gods’ help and thanking God for everything thats happened. Let me explain.

On February 4th of 2007 I went into the emergency room of our regional hospital with an agonizing pain on my right side of my abdomen that just would not stop. The diagnosis was a kidney stone that I was about to pass within the next day to one week. I was given a hefty dose of morphine that seemed to help slightly, and then a second dose was administered which seem to do the trick. I was then given a package of very strong pain medication and told to take one, and if the pain did not subside within an hour, to take another one and then I was sent on my way home. Later on that evening the pain came back full force and I took a pill for pain. An hour later, there was still no relief so I took a second pill. The following four hours were agonizing, and because the pain hadn’t even slightly gone away I returned to the hospital emergency room.

The doctors had said that the initial xray showed what they thought to be a kidney stone that was very close to being passed. Because I was still in a lot of visible pain, they again administered a large dose of a different pain reliever through the IV and booked me in for an immediate ultra sound to determine if there was more than one stone. Immediately following the ultra sound was when my life changed forever. The imaging showed a large 6.5mm by 5.5mm growth (presumably a tumor) on my right kidney. My daughter, just by chance, is a registered nurse that particular emergency room, and she came in with a doctor who broke the news to both of us. We were told that chances are that it was a cancerous tumour, and that I would have an appointment made to see a urologist as soon as possible. By the look of sincerity and sorrow in the doctors eyes I knew I was in trouble and immediately thought that this was a “death sentence”, and to prepare for the worst.

That night, I passed the kidney stone. If you’ve never had one, you would be quite amazed at how small these stones are (about the size of a larger grain of sand) and just how much damage they do on their way out. Blood in the urine is quite common, and your given a funnel looking affair to urinate into. It has a screen on the bottom of it to catch anything that you may pass. It’s not a pretty sight.

My appointment was made for February 27th to see a local urologist which meant that I had 3 weeks to study this disease on the internet. Absolutely the wrong thing to do if you are someone who panics at the least little thing. Within an hour I was reading up on what this disease can do, what cures were available, mortality and survival rates etc. etc. etc. By the time I was through, I was certain that I wasn’t going to be around to even see the urologist in three weeks. Every normal pain was without a doubt the cancer spreading to every part of my body.

If you have been diagnosed with this disease, do yourself a favour and don’t self diagnose everything that is going on. Leave that to the specialists who are there to help you no matter what stage your cancer may be at. I drove myself crazy with worry, and soon became very depressed. The depression led to weight loss (which again I thought was the cancer) because I was left with little appetite from worrying. It’s alright to find out as much as you can about what your dealing with, but don’t go making judgements on your own.

February 27th came, and I was both worried and excited about seeing the urologist. He was both a specialist and a surgeon He was very genuine in everything he said, and one could tell that he was very much concerned. He explained to me that the only cure for my condition was to remove the affected kidney. I was cautioned that although the ultra sound showed that the tumor was probably totally contained within the kidney, it may still be possible that the cancer may have spread to other organs. March 26th was set as my date of surgery, and in the meantime I was to go thru a battery of tests including an MRI a chest xray, a bone scan and standard blood work. At a subsequent appointment with the urologist before the surgery, I was told that the chest xray showed normal, and because the bone scan was not done till the 21st of March, he probably would not get the results till after the surgery.

I was the first person slated for surgery on March 26. I had gone in that morning at 7am and by 10am I was out of recovery and into a standard hospital room. I was surprised that the pain was minimal even though I had an incision that was approximately 14 inches in length. The next morning both my family doctor came in to check on me, and the surgeon He advised me that the bone scan was negative, and that the tumor was contained within the kidney with little chance that it had spread. I have progressed every day since the surgery. They had me up and walking the first day, and by day six I was sent home to recuperate for what was to take 4 to 8 weeks depending on the patient. After that I will still have to watch that I don’t lift anything that is to heavy or take on to much to soon.

Today is April 17, 2007, and I’ve just returned from my post operative visit to my urologist. I was very interested to learn what showed up in the pathology report. Even though the odds were not very good that it would show that the tumor was benign, there was always that chance. No such luck, the tumor was cancerous and even though they say that it was contained strictly to the kidney and that they got all of it, knowing that it was cancerous, I will still have to be monitored on an ongoing basis.

So what’s this got to do with God? Well, think of what might have happened if I hadn’t of passed that kidney stone. Think of what have might happened if I had passed the stone after the first night, and thought that everything was alright. Think of what might have happened if the doctor hadn’t ordered the ultrasound to check for more stones. Personally, I think there was something of a higher power going on and although I’m not much of a “go to church” kind of guy, I can tell you that my faith in God is “very” much stronger today than anyone could ever imagine.

In closing, I guess my message to you would be to have faith in both your care givers and in God. They are there to help you fight this affliction together. Oh and by way, if you haven’t talked to God in a while, he’s always been there waiting to accept your call.