Info Request

Hi everyone,

I noticed my dear cousin Sheryl had posted a question and wanted to respond to that. She said many folks are asking how I came about going to the ER on June 2nd, if I had any prior symptoms, etc. Following is a rather "medical" explanation of what happened on that ER day - SKIP TO THE LAST PARAGRAPH if you prefer not to read such graphic stuff!

I woke up that day and passed many large clots with my urine. It was shocking and all very sudden. I called the doctor, he said that it could be a sign of an undetected infection and to either go to the ER or I could wait a short time and see if it continued but if anything worsened definitely go to the ER. Otherwise he wanted me to get a full urology workup first thing Monday. It happened twice more, and then I was unable to urinate at all, the clots causing blockage.

Needless to say we made arrangements for the children and got to the ER as soon as we could. I purposely went to the Lankenau ER instead of Bryn Mawr which is closer, since my family doctor is at Lankenau and I felt if it was something very serious Lankenau would have more capability to handle it. I had to be catheterized and then they did a CAT scan of my abdomen which revealed the mass on my kidney. I guess they called it a "spot" - well, bigger than a spot.... I forget the term they used.

They did not let on how HUGE it was though, and sort of stalled me with vague, "well sometimes areas like this on the kidney CAN be cysts or stones but this one is a bit more 'worrisome' is about all I could get them to say. As a nurse, I knew what they were NOT saying but was holding onto some hope that it was not the worst. They then did another CAT scan of my upper abdomen and brain, and then a bone scan (maybe the bone scan was on Sunday morning?).

All this, I learned later, was to determine if the cancer had spread and if so how far. If it had spread more than that one lung spot they might not have done surgery at all, or might only have removed the kidney and not touched the lungs, instead using a medication only route to try to shrink or slow the lung tumors. Or they might have considered chemo or other meds to try to shrink the kidney tumor before surgery. Anyway, once they determined that the tumor and lung spot could be removed my family doctor (the one on call not my personal doctor) came to Charles and I on Sunday morning and told us the plain truth, that I had a very large, aggressive, cancerous tumor in my kidney and a suspicious spot on my lung. They hoped right up until surgery that the lung spot would turn out to be nothing, but as you all know now that was not the case.

ANYWAY. I did not have any other symptoms that I knew of. Often kidney cancer is found accidently when xrays are done for other reasons or for vague abdominal complaints and such. The common symptoms are flank pain and blood in urine - I did get flank pain AFTER the bleeding started, but not before. Not that I noticed, anyway!

I did have some weird "dizziness" about a month before this which I went to the doctor about. They sent me for an echocardiogram which turned out just fine, so I was hoping it would resolve or I would have some other tests for inner ear problems or something. Looking back now I suspect that the dizziness, which is now gone by the way, was related to moving fast or lying down/sitting up fast might have been due to that huge tumor pressing on my vena cava (large blood vessel) in my abdomen, and basically interfering with my blood flow. Can't get any doctor to agree to this yet but that's my theory anyhow! And I did tell Charles and the kids a few times in the last few months that I was more tired than I felt was reasonable even with my zany life - I had some afternoons that I wanted a NAP SO BADLY but I didn't give in! I also told Charles a few times recently that I just didn't FEEL WELL but couldn't put my fingr on it. Wouldn't surprise me if the tumor on my kidney was draining my energy, but it wasn't obvious enough to make my pay attention. I had blood work and a urinalysis several times since January for my regular blood pressure checkup as well as for the dizziness but all my kidney levels, etc were fine. Even when I went to the ER my kidney blood studies (creatinine etc) were fine. Told you I was a tough woman - haha!

Anyway, here we are. I tell the kids I am trying to look at it this way. I AM WAY HEALTHIER NOW THAN I WAS A MONTH AGO! I didn't know I was getting sicker and sicker for months now. So, that nasty tumor is out of me now, and I am healthier than I was! :-)

Thank you all for your continued interest and prayers. I have been sleeping better - two or three nights I slept through so far. Tuesday is the big doctor appt day. I am dreading the oncology appt a bit so please pray for that. I would like to hear what I have to hear about treatment, but I hope it is presented to me in a positive light. I want to know that I CAN beat this, that the medications available CAN work for me, that others HAVE BEAT THIS in similar situations to mine. I know everyone doesn't beat it. But, then again, I know that if my GOD wills it to be so, it will be so, regardless of all the probablilities and statistics they can find!

My wonderful sister-in-law Mariellen just sent me this verse:

Mark 5:34
Jesus said to the woman, ”Dear Woman, you are made well because you believed!. Go in Peace. You will have no more suffering.”


Good night dear friends,
Karen