Living with Kidney Cancer

November 13, 2004 and January 22, 2005 I was in two separate car accidents both occurred on a Saturday evening, both occurred on the same road in the same lane. A day after accident #2 I was voiding blood. Two weeks prior to accident #2 I had a CT Scan done at the ER which revealed 3 stones in my right kidney one of which was creating a blockage. The Urologist nearly sent me home when he looked at another CT Scan done the previous summer.

It was Packer Game Sunday, last game of the season that even I hated to miss but my health was screaming in pain for attention. I refused to leave due to my level of pain. He left the ER Bay then returned to say he had looked at the wrong scan and that I needed surgery due to a blockage. Two days after accident #2 my son took his test to get his drivers license,we had to postpone this two weeks earlier due to my emergency kidney stone surgery, well now Mom’s car was totaled the car he was used to, we borrowed a friends car for his test. immediately afterward we took Me to the ER to see why I was voiding blood, thought it agravated the surgery from the 3 stones to the right side two weeks earlier.

They found a 7cm mass in my left kidney, this CT Scan was done with contrast dye which found the cancer. On Feb 9,2005 they did a radical nephrectomy of the left kidney. I am now stage 3 CKD due to my remaining kidney has not stepped up to do the work of both, I had a few good months where it did in 2007 however a kidney infection and another CT Scan with contrast due to I had blood in my urine again set me back diminishing the kidney function, my GFR went from 57 down to 41. The nephrologist feels I will rebound but this will take time. I also had surgery to fuse two vertebrae in my neck May 2005 due to injuries from the auto accidents…Divine Intervention?? My Urologist discussed with his surgical staff how the cancer was found throughout my nephrectomy surgery.