robotic partial nephrectomy

sue406

pbjoseph1 said:

8 Days After Surgery
I had my surgery 8 days ago. Going in, we weren't sure if surgery was going to be laproscopic or open. The other area we weren't sure of was weather part of the kidney would go, or the entire thing.

Surgery went robotic, and only lost 20% of the kidney. The pain wasn't what I expected either. I thought it would be sharp and horrible. Instead, it felt like I had strained my abdominal muscles by doing thousands of sit ups.

My tumor was on the upper pole of the left kidney, and just touching the renal vein. My pathology came back as type T1A stage 2 with clear margins. All seems to be good at this point. I have a follow up next Wednesday.

After 8 days of surgery, I'm feeling much, much better physically. Good luck to all the others still pending surgery in here. I hope I can be of inspiration to you all. For all the others who have had surgery, I wish you continued good, clear scans and best wishes.

Glad things went so well
pbjoseph1, I'm glad to hear that the surgery went well and that you're recovery appears to be going well, also. Your experience gives me hope and courage for my upcoming surgery.

VeryAnxious

sue406 said:

Glad things went so well
pbjoseph1, I'm glad to hear that the surgery went well and that you're recovery appears to be going well, also. Your experience gives me hope and courage for my upcoming surgery.

Got home Tuesday night after
Got home Tuesday night after 5 days in the hospital. did the surgery robotically. i was in 6 hours. Was never alert to talk to the surgeon. The surgery itself was not bad. I am narcotic sensitive and had a horrible reaction to the painmeds and had to be put onoxgyn and stayed in the hospital longer because of this. The doctor removed a cyst which was cancer free what he thought and has sent the speicmen to the lab. Amgoing back Monday.
I am simply trying to regainmy strength. After coming home, I took one more horrible pain pilland was able to get the with minimal pain. My only problems are shortnesss of breath exhaustion and tire so easily. But I am babying myself for the first time in 55 years.
Need to find out how much of the kidney he took out.

VeryAnxious

VeryAnxious said:

Got home Tuesday night after
Got home Tuesday night after 5 days in the hospital. did the surgery robotically. i was in 6 hours. Was never alert to talk to the surgeon. The surgery itself was not bad. I am narcotic sensitive and had a horrible reaction to the painmeds and had to be put onoxgyn and stayed in the hospital longer because of this. The doctor removed a cyst which was cancer free what he thought and has sent the speicmen to the lab. Amgoing back Monday.
I am simply trying to regainmy strength. After coming home, I took one more horrible pain pilland was able to get the with minimal pain. My only problems are shortnesss of breath exhaustion and tire so easily. But I am babying myself for the first time in 55 years.
Need to find out how much of the kidney he took out.

I wrote that wrong. The
I wrote that wrong. The fatty cyst was oky.. The lesion by the pelvic artery we are awaiting.

VeryAnxious

VeryAnxious said:

I wrote that wrong. The
I wrote that wrong. The fatty cyst was oky.. The lesion by the pelvic artery we are awaiting.

follow up
went for my follow up today. I forgot the number of the cancer it started with a T and was Stage 2. The doctor said he got it all. When I asked abou the magins, he said on tumor was lying right on top of the renal pelvic vein (I think it is called) so that side would not have clear magins since he scooped it right up. He seemed very confident, but I am still worried. Does this sound right? The thought of having to go thru this again just makes me so depressed, I can not stand it.
It wants to do a chest xray this week, since I have been compalining of shortness of breath.
Then if no problems see me in 3 months, in which I do a a nuclear renal xray and blood tests
Since the surgery was so complicated, he said the best he could hope for was 40 - 45% kidney function..
I think I am just going thru a down phase after all of this started in June. I feel so overwhlmed

VeryAnxious

VeryAnxious said:

I wrote that wrong. The
I wrote that wrong. The fatty cyst was oky.. The lesion by the pelvic artery we are awaiting.

follow up
went for my follow up today. I forgot the number of the cancer it started with a T and was Stage 2. The doctor said he got it all. When I asked abou the magins, he said on tumor was lying right on top of the renal pelvic vein (I think it is called) so that side would not have clear magins since he scooped it right up. He seemed very confident, but I am still worried. Does this sound right? The thought of having to go thru this again just makes me so depressed, I can not stand it.
It wants to do a chest xray this week, since I have been compalining of shortness of breath.
Then if no problems see me in 3 months, in which I do a a nuclear renal xray and blood tests
Since the surgery was so complicated, he said the best he could hope for was 40 - 45% kidney function..
I think I am just going thru a down phase after all of this started in June. I feel so overwhlmed

blackbelt

Robotic Surgery
I had a open partial nephrectomy on 5/17/2006 at the age of 51, renal cell carcinoma, clear cell type, Fuhrman grade 2, stage I, 1.2 cm right renal mass, with complications, doctors nicked right lung and nicked lower abdominal peritoneum area, this kind of surgery was high risk high return because of location of kidney tumor!

VeryAnxious

blackbelt said:

Robotic Surgery
I had a open partial nephrectomy on 5/17/2006 at the age of 51, renal cell carcinoma, clear cell type, Fuhrman grade 2, stage I, 1.2 cm right renal mass, with complications, doctors nicked right lung and nicked lower abdominal peritoneum area, this kind of surgery was high risk high return because of location of kidney tumor!

thanks for your responses. I
thanks for your responses. I guess at this point, I will wait for my 3 month nuclear renal test and bloods and take it from there. Right now I am still recovering from the surgery. It is taking me longer, since the worrying is just awful. I guess I will e mail the doctor, and ask some questions. I feel he is getting distant, but it is probably my imagination.

sue406

VeryAnxious said:

thanks for your responses. I
thanks for your responses. I guess at this point, I will wait for my 3 month nuclear renal test and bloods and take it from there. Right now I am still recovering from the surgery. It is taking me longer, since the worrying is just awful. I guess I will e mail the doctor, and ask some questions. I feel he is getting distant, but it is probably my imagination.

My experiences, a week later
I had robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery a week ago, on Oct. 14. I went home from the hospital feeling sore and tired, but generally OK, about 50 hours later, on Oct. 16. I was down to one pain pill a day after that and have been using nothing but Tylenol, three times a day, since Tuesday. I am astonished at how quickly my recovery seems to be progressing. I hardly have any pain, except soreness in the kidney area when the Tylenol starts to wear off.

There was a mix-up with scheduling of my post-op appointment yesterday, however, and I essentially was out of my house for 7.5 hours waiting for the appointment to happen. That taught me that while I might be feeling OK, I'm certainly not up to a full day's worth of activities. I plan to continue the walking/resting routine until I've regained most of my strength.

As many others have said in this and other posts, I believe the success of the surgery depends on a lot of factors, including the surgeon's experience with the equipment and the location of the mass. Despite numerous MRIs over three years showing that the mass was in "the meat" of the kidney, it turns out that much of it was outside of the kidney. The doctor says I still have 90% of the kidney. The mass also turned out to be benign, making me even happier that I had the ability to choose a less invasive operation. It may not be for everyone, but I certainly believe the laparoscopic option has been a terrific one for me, and I'm thankful I had the opportunity available.

One question for those who have gone through surgeries, though--is six months a normal time to wait for a renal function test and renal scan? That's what my doctor suggested yesterday, and I don't know if that's because I live in another state and he wanted to minimize travel demands, or if that's generally normal.

VeryAnxious

sue406 said:

My experiences, a week later
I had robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery a week ago, on Oct. 14. I went home from the hospital feeling sore and tired, but generally OK, about 50 hours later, on Oct. 16. I was down to one pain pill a day after that and have been using nothing but Tylenol, three times a day, since Tuesday. I am astonished at how quickly my recovery seems to be progressing. I hardly have any pain, except soreness in the kidney area when the Tylenol starts to wear off.

There was a mix-up with scheduling of my post-op appointment yesterday, however, and I essentially was out of my house for 7.5 hours waiting for the appointment to happen. That taught me that while I might be feeling OK, I'm certainly not up to a full day's worth of activities. I plan to continue the walking/resting routine until I've regained most of my strength.

As many others have said in this and other posts, I believe the success of the surgery depends on a lot of factors, including the surgeon's experience with the equipment and the location of the mass. Despite numerous MRIs over three years showing that the mass was in "the meat" of the kidney, it turns out that much of it was outside of the kidney. The doctor says I still have 90% of the kidney. The mass also turned out to be benign, making me even happier that I had the ability to choose a less invasive operation. It may not be for everyone, but I certainly believe the laparoscopic option has been a terrific one for me, and I'm thankful I had the opportunity available.

One question for those who have gone through surgeries, though--is six months a normal time to wait for a renal function test and renal scan? That's what my doctor suggested yesterday, and I don't know if that's because I live in another state and he wanted to minimize travel demands, or if that's generally normal.

Mine is doing it a 3 months.
Mine is doing it a 3 months. The nuclear renal scan and a lot of blood tests, but maybe since my kidney function will be less. I also took very little in the way of pain medicine, but I find I still after 3 weeks get so tired so very quickly. I am guessing it is normal I was in surgery for 6hours

VeryAnxious

sue406 said:

My experiences, a week later
I had robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery a week ago, on Oct. 14. I went home from the hospital feeling sore and tired, but generally OK, about 50 hours later, on Oct. 16. I was down to one pain pill a day after that and have been using nothing but Tylenol, three times a day, since Tuesday. I am astonished at how quickly my recovery seems to be progressing. I hardly have any pain, except soreness in the kidney area when the Tylenol starts to wear off.

There was a mix-up with scheduling of my post-op appointment yesterday, however, and I essentially was out of my house for 7.5 hours waiting for the appointment to happen. That taught me that while I might be feeling OK, I'm certainly not up to a full day's worth of activities. I plan to continue the walking/resting routine until I've regained most of my strength.

As many others have said in this and other posts, I believe the success of the surgery depends on a lot of factors, including the surgeon's experience with the equipment and the location of the mass. Despite numerous MRIs over three years showing that the mass was in "the meat" of the kidney, it turns out that much of it was outside of the kidney. The doctor says I still have 90% of the kidney. The mass also turned out to be benign, making me even happier that I had the ability to choose a less invasive operation. It may not be for everyone, but I certainly believe the laparoscopic option has been a terrific one for me, and I'm thankful I had the opportunity available.

One question for those who have gone through surgeries, though--is six months a normal time to wait for a renal function test and renal scan? That's what my doctor suggested yesterday, and I don't know if that's because I live in another state and he wanted to minimize travel demands, or if that's generally normal.

Mine is doing it a 3 months.
Mine is doing it a 3 months. The nuclear renal scan and a lot of blood tests, but maybe since my kidney function will be less. I also took very little in the way of pain medicine, but I find I still after 3 weeks get so tired so very quickly. I am guessing it is normal I was in surgery for 6hours