Hospitals and surgeons recommendation

tuzixiaobaibai

Hope everyone is doing fine on this forum. I am shocked to learn today that my wife is diagnosed with ~ 2 cm Kidney mass which doctors suspect is malignant. Doctor is recommending a partial nephrectomy. We are currently out of USA, plan to return back to US for surgery and need suggestions on good hospitals & surgeons.

We don't have a permanent place in US and pretty okay to travel to any location for surgery. We plan to return back to home country in few weeks. Our considerations are best treatment followed by conducive environment for recovery.

We would much appreciate if you can provide some guidance on good doctors, locations and any other tips that would be helpful for our situation.

Bay Area Guy

Help. I’m from the San Francisco Bay Area. I was diagnosed and treated at Stanford. My urologic oncologist was Dr. Harcharan Gill. He was easily the best medical provider I have ever had. Caring, patient and extremely knowledgeable. When it came time for surgery, he referred me to Dr. Geoffrey Sonn. He performed a minimally invasion partial nephrectomy. I was admitted to the hospital at about noon on the day of the surgery and was discharged the next day at 130PM, so a very short stay.

for recuperation, the area around Stanford is quite nice, but also quite expensive, so I’m not sure how that fits in with your plans.

Best wishes for your wife to have a very uneventful surgery and a quick recovery.

medic1971

I've had two robotic partial nephrectomy (2015 and 2020) both done at MD Anderson in Houston by Dr. Jose Karam.

Best advise I can give, try and get in good physical shape if not already. In 2015 I sat around and worried for 3 months before surgery. In 2020, about 6 weeks before surgery, I started a fairly strenuous exercise program. I did cardio, core strengthening, stretching, and mediation. I worked out 6 days a week and took one full rest day. For both surgeries I had the same surgeon, same procedure, and same size tumors (2.2 cm). The only differences were my age and kidney (2015 right kidney and 2020 left kidney). In 2015 I was closer to my 30's and in 2020 I was closer in age to my 50's.

2015: stayed two nights in the hospital. 2020: stayed about 16 hours in the hospital

2015: Had a hard time after surgery with energy and pain. 2020: Had little pain and my energy level was great.

2015: I stayed 5 days in Houston after discharge. 2020: I stayed 3 days in Houston after discharge before flying home

If you are not already physically active, I would check with your doctor before starting an exercise program.

Good luck!

tuzixiaobaibai

Thank you both for great advice.

8675309mj

Dr. Maxwell Meng at UCSF Medical Center is absolutely the best. He’s a very experienced surgeon and trains many to do this surgery. At the prime of his career- nice guy too.

bearware67

Moffitt cancer center in Tampa Florida. I had a partial nephrectomy 2022 for papillary renal cell carcinoma stage 1 grade 4 confined to the kidney. 2 days in the hospital and I was discharged the second day in the afternoon. I was in pretty good shape so my core muscles were not hindered much by the surgery and I was able to get up and walk around by myself. The nurse was pretty surprised. I was as well.