Living with Kidney Cancer

Four years ago I met this beast and it has controlled my life since but I am tired of it and I am gonna beat it.

I originally found out I had rcc when I had blood in my urine and went to the emergency room because it was so bad. The doctors found a 15cm mass that seemed confined to my kidney and it was removed within a few weeks along with the surrounding lymph nodes and adrenal gland.

We thought we had it beat them but other complications set in from the original surgery. A good job was done by my wonderful urologist and his team. But I messed up by trying to get back to my outdoor activities of mowing and soon found myself with a major incisional hernia and those repairs were painful but I kept thinking at least it was not the cancer.

After the last repair I recovered after a couple of months and kept coughing all the time. I attributed it to the surgery recovery but soon found out differently. My urologist looked at xrays and immediately said we needed to do a ct scan of the chest. Sure enough there was something on the right lung. From there things went down hill. The pulmonologist did a biopsy and found it was rcc and from there it was off to the lung surgeon. Unfortunately the surgeon seemed hell bent on surgery and even though a PET scan showed more potential sites in both lungs and the mediastinum he moved to cut out the right upper lobe. After surgery he told me he thought he got it all and that was the last I ever saw that guy. My urologist just came in to visit one day when I was recovering and was suprised that I didnt realize that the PET showed more sites. Immediately he set me up with a great oncologist and those guys did their thing. I underwent IL2 four weeks after the lung surgery and did fourteen treatments the first round and swore I wouldnt go back.

After my family rallied around me I went back and did another round and made it through nine the next time until my body wouldnt take anymore. The treatments were awful and as bad as I had been warned but we all held out hope that for all that suffering the cancer would be gone. Well it wasnt and I thought it was all over for me. But my oncologist and doctor gave me renewed hope and said the battle was far from over. Since then I went to Nexavar but the growth kept getting larger and is now about 3.7cms in my left lung. Plus there is an area of undetermined size in my mediatstinum.

Now I am on my first session of Sutent and determined to beat this thing. My wife, sister and brother in law along with my children, fellow teachers and God are all with me. After the IL2 treatments I went back to teaching and made it through the spring term with missing only days for doctors appts. At the end of the term all the teachers took me to the high school track and walked a victory lap with me to show their support. That was the day I decided I was gonna beat this cancer and it would never take me down. Now I look to the future with hope and the knowledge that I have support from so many people and I will never let them down.

Thank you for letting me express myself. These words help me continue the battle …