Quick Update

Steve.Adam

I've not been here for several weeks so it's taking a long time to catch up with all the messges.

I don't have any big news but thought it was time for an update.

I've had a bone scan which showed no mets. I have also had the dreaded telescope (cystoscopy?) which was ok except for peeing razor blades for a couple of days. My bladder and ureter were both ok and apparently the blood in my urine did not come from my kidney. Most likely it was from my prostate.  That could be quite lucky since otherwise I would not have had the ct scan that revealed the kidney tumour.

So... The tumour seems to be enclosed within the kidney. It is coming out on the 31st of January.

The 31st is a Tuesday. Does that entitle me to some special deals here?

I was told that I will be in hospital for 2 or 3 days and when I get home I will not need any special pain killers. I was dubious about this but then I read JerzyGrrl's posts. How's it going, Jerzy?

Steve.

 

Bay Area Guy

Hospital Stay

Your stay will depend on the type of surgery they perform.  If it's open, then 2 or 3 days sounds about right.  If it's robotic assistied laparoscopic, it should be shorter.  Pain pills at home also depend on the type of surgery.  You're more likely to need them if it's open surgery, as they would have to cut through some larger muscle masses.  Lap surgery is just four keyhole size incisions, and no muscles are involved, so it's not as painful.  I had the lap surgery and was home the next day and didn't need any pain meds.  Back in 2010, I had open abdominal surgery for some pretty wicked intestinal twisting that could have killed me.  That cut through the major muscles in my guy, and it hurt to breath, to laugh, to turn and, God forbid, a couple of times I had to sneeze.

Jojo61

All in all, that is great

All in all, that is great news, Steve!! You will sail through the surgery (after all the other stuff you have been through!) I was in the hospital for 4 days with a lap surgery. After the first 36 hours I was just on tylenol 3s which didn't do much, so I pretty much signed off the meds. Jan always suggests some kind of ice thing which I wish I had thought of. I am sure she will be on here soon!

And yes - even though I don't belong to the Tuesday Club....I think they will let you in!

Best of luck to you and please keep us posted...and don't be afraid to ask us anything else!

Hugs

Jojo

JerzyGrrl

You're in...!

You're in the Tuesday Group, definitely. Also, it goes without saying, you'll be in Club Neph. We all are. 

Regarding pain, if your recovery is anywhere near mine, you WON'T be in too much of it. Which is not to say it won't hurt, because of course it will. Walk to get rid of the carbon dioxide, walk to get more endorphins in your account, walk to breathe better. If you can take regular Tylenol, that's great.  (Un)Fortunately, I could only tolerate three days of it before the side-effects were worse to deal with than the pain was.  After that, I just considered myself a pup. Ever take a dog to the vet to get something repaired and ask, "What about pain meds?" The vet will explain how it's actually kind of good for your dog to feel some pain, because that will keep it from running around like crazy and reinjuring itself. 

Oh, and it's going pretty well, thanks!

Steve.Adam

Yes it is laproscopic surgery

But not robotic as far as I know. 

I'm not a bicyclist but I am a walker. I walk for at least one hour every day. If it takes me an hour to get to the toilet and back I'll consider that a day's walk.

Thank you all for your replies. It all seems quite encouraging.

Steve.

lobbyist0724

It is good that you have

It is good that you have finally got the surgery scheduled, stay fit and healthy is the key.

Good luck on the surgery. I had an open surgery and I didn't take much of the pain kiler after discharged from the hospital. To me, the pain is like a message from my body telling me what I should or shouldn't do

Carmen

Jan4you

HI Steve and glad your here!

HI Steve and glad your here! Did your surgeon tell you that your surgery would be a "partial" (only tumor,plus surrounding tissue) or "radical" which is taking the whole kidney out?

Also no one mentions the dreaded GAS PAIN from the surgery. They pump this gas into your abdomen to raise the abdomin really high so surgeon can see around our other organs. Some of this gas gets trapped and hurts like heck afterwards for days. One place it likes to hide is around the shoulder, but could be any place. Its not the type of "gas" one gets via intestines. You need to move your arm around or walk alot to get it moving and released.

Also, since I have had multiple abdominal surgeries so I wore this lumbar wrap with velcro straps you can adjust. Its for support of low back pain issues, but after surgery it supports those sore muscle/nerves. I also added dry ice packs and put one over the larger area of incision ( I had a radical) and it reduced the swelling and pain as a result. I didn't need pain meds very long. BUT I had to beg someone in the hospital to bring me ice. They wouldn't. So the PT therapist got a rubber glove and filled it with ice for me> LOL

And its okay if you do need pain meds for awhile. And if you don't fine. I was told not to exercise for 1 month. I walked which is recommended, BUT you will be tired for awhile. Your body just got slammed with mega doses of anesthesia for surgery and it takes days for those drugs to get out of your system. AND your nerves ARE cut, along with tissue that swells. You need to be careful, liftting and such, while you heal, EVEN if you are feeling better.

We're here for you Steve, all the way.

Sending you healing, gentle hugs,

Jan

todd121

Bay Area Guy said:

Hospital Stay

Your stay will depend on the type of surgery they perform.  If it's open, then 2 or 3 days sounds about right.  If it's robotic assistied laparoscopic, it should be shorter.  Pain pills at home also depend on the type of surgery.  You're more likely to need them if it's open surgery, as they would have to cut through some larger muscle masses.  Lap surgery is just four keyhole size incisions, and no muscles are involved, so it's not as painful.  I had the lap surgery and was home the next day and didn't need any pain meds.  Back in 2010, I had open abdominal surgery for some pretty wicked intestinal twisting that could have killed me.  That cut through the major muscles in my guy, and it hurt to breath, to laugh, to turn and, God forbid, a couple of times I had to sneeze.

Four Key Hole Size Incisions?

I've had two laparascopic surgeries and neither one had just four key-hole size incisions. My kidney surgery I think I had 5-7. All were at least 1" and one of them was 6".

It really depends.

I can't take narcotics. They make me nauseous. The first surgery I went home with tramadol. I only used it a few days. It worked well for me. The second time they used IV tylenol in the hospital (after trying a narcotic and making me sick) and then I went home with just tylenol.

There'll be some pain, but you'll get through it.

Regards,

Todd

todd121

Blood?

Did you mean the blood came from the kidney? You said it did not. It probably did. I had two blood in urine events in a year. Each time it stopped and went away. The second one was bad enough to get them to do a CT scan. The first one the doctor ignored because it happened 1-2 times and went away and he couldn' explain it.

Todd

Steve.Adam

Jan4you said:

HI Steve and glad your here!

HI Steve and glad your here! Did your surgeon tell you that your surgery would be a "partial" (only tumor,plus surrounding tissue) or "radical" which is taking the whole kidney out?

Also no one mentions the dreaded GAS PAIN from the surgery. They pump this gas into your abdomen to raise the abdomin really high so surgeon can see around our other organs. Some of this gas gets trapped and hurts like heck afterwards for days. One place it likes to hide is around the shoulder, but could be any place. Its not the type of "gas" one gets via intestines. You need to move your arm around or walk alot to get it moving and released.

Also, since I have had multiple abdominal surgeries so I wore this lumbar wrap with velcro straps you can adjust. Its for support of low back pain issues, but after surgery it supports those sore muscle/nerves. I also added dry ice packs and put one over the larger area of incision ( I had a radical) and it reduced the swelling and pain as a result. I didn't need pain meds very long. BUT I had to beg someone in the hospital to bring me ice. They wouldn't. So the PT therapist got a rubber glove and filled it with ice for me> LOL

And its okay if you do need pain meds for awhile. And if you don't fine. I was told not to exercise for 1 month. I walked which is recommended, BUT you will be tired for awhile. Your body just got slammed with mega doses of anesthesia for surgery and it takes days for those drugs to get out of your system. AND your nerves ARE cut, along with tissue that swells. You need to be careful, liftting and such, while you heal, EVEN if you are feeling better.

We're here for you Steve, all the way.

Sending you healing, gentle hugs,

Jan

Radical

Hi Jan,

The whole thing is coming out. I think she said I would have 3 small holes and one cut big enough to remove the whole kidney. 4 inches?

And thank you Jan, for your information and good thoughts.

Steve.

Steve.Adam

todd121 said:

Blood?

Did you mean the blood came from the kidney? You said it did not. It probably did. I had two blood in urine events in a year. Each time it stopped and went away. The second one was bad enough to get them to do a CT scan. The first one the doctor ignored because it happened 1-2 times and went away and he couldn' explain it.

Todd

Bloody hell

The surgeon who did the cystoscopy said she thought the bleeding had came from the prostate and not the kidney. I don't know why. Maybe she was expecting to see some evidence in my ureter. But she said 'probably' so she was not certain.

Steve.

Steve.Adam

lobbyist0724 said:

It is good that you have

It is good that you have finally got the surgery scheduled, stay fit and healthy is the key.

Good luck on the surgery. I had an open surgery and I didn't take much of the pain kiler after discharged from the hospital. To me, the pain is like a message from my body telling me what I should or shouldn't do

Carmen

You're not wrong

Yes, bring it on... Get thee behind me, tumour.

Your attitude towards pain killers makes perfect sense. Experiencing actual pain might alter my philosophy. But I'll probably handle it as well as other people.

Steve.

 

JerzyGrrl

Steve.Adam said:

Radical

Hi Jan,

The whole thing is coming out. I think she said I would have 3 small holes and one cut big enough to remove the whole kidney. 4 inches?

And thank you Jan, for your information and good thoughts.

Steve.

The incisions...

I had four wee incisions down the left side of my midsection (the kidney-surgery side) which as they are healing are a 1/2 inch or smaller. One is already difficult to spot, and it hasn't quite been four weeks yet.  Then there's the "large" one that's vertical from just below my navel. It's already down to 2 inches.  It was 4+ inches when they took the staples out. 

So, in total, five. Suprisingly, none of them are very obvious. 

Jerzy

I'm not sure how I rated a "bonus" incision.  I'll have to ask...

lobbyist0724

Steve.Adam said:

You're not wrong

Yes, bring it on... Get thee behind me, tumour.

Your attitude towards pain killers makes perfect sense. Experiencing actual pain might alter my philosophy. But I'll probably handle it as well as other people.

Steve.

 

But don't get me wrong, take

But don't get me wrong, take the pain killer when you need it, I still recall the nurse said "if you are not resting well, then you are not healing well". So I did take a Tylenol before I went to bed on the first few days, and I did sleep through the nights!

Bay Area Guy

todd121 said:

Four Key Hole Size Incisions?

I've had two laparascopic surgeries and neither one had just four key-hole size incisions. My kidney surgery I think I had 5-7. All were at least 1" and one of them was 6".

It really depends.

I can't take narcotics. They make me nauseous. The first surgery I went home with tramadol. I only used it a few days. It worked well for me. The second time they used IV tylenol in the hospital (after trying a narcotic and making me sick) and then I went home with just tylenol.

There'll be some pain, but you'll get through it.

Regards,

Todd

Five including the drain hole

I recall four for the kidney surgery along with a drain hole, so I guess it was five for me.  None of them were much over an inch to an inch-and-a-half.

For my second surgery (an open abdominal surgery to correct a really ugly intestinal issue), I was given pain killers when I went home.  I took one and got violenty nauseous and vomited repeatedly.  That felt really good with the stitches.  The only pain med I've ever had while in the hospital was dilaudid.  It was an effective sleeping medication, but I don't think it did a whole lot for my pain.  For the kidney operation, my operation started at 3 in the afternoon and I was released at 1:30 the next afternoon.  Fortunately, I had virtually no post-op pain.

Steve.Adam

JerzyGrrl said:

The incisions...

I had four wee incisions down the left side of my midsection (the kidney-surgery side) which as they are healing are a 1/2 inch or smaller. One is already difficult to spot, and it hasn't quite been four weeks yet.  Then there's the "large" one that's vertical from just below my navel. It's already down to 2 inches.  It was 4+ inches when they took the staples out. 

So, in total, five. Suprisingly, none of them are very obvious. 

Jerzy

I'm not sure how I rated a "bonus" incision.  I'll have to ask...

Watch a video of the surgery

And listen for an 'oops'.

Steve.Adam

lobbyist0724 said:

But don't get me wrong, take

But don't get me wrong, take the pain killer when you need it, I still recall the nurse said "if you are not resting well, then you are not healing well". So I did take a Tylenol before I went to bed on the first few days, and I did sleep through the nights!

Good thinking

Well, yes... I'll probably get the strongest stuff I can and keep it handy.

Footstomper

Steve.Adam said:

Good thinking

Well, yes... I'll probably get the strongest stuff I can and keep it handy.

I'm with you Steve

The strongest possible painkillers in the largest amounts. The lesson (if there is one) is we're all different and deal with it in different ways. There is no one right way.

JerzyGrrl

Steve.Adam said:

Watch a video of the surgery

And listen for an 'oops'.

Maybe

Maybe he took a mulligan?

Actually, 5 or 6 incisions isn't unusual.  One guide I saw had one for the "camera" (12 mm), one for the "assistant" (10 mm), and three or four for "robotic" (8 mm) functions.