Waiting for surgery re: Kidney removal

trulytall said:

hi puppetman
I know you must be feeling very anxious and feeling all kinds of other emotions as well. Keeping all kinds of support around is definitely going to help you get through all of this. I had my left kidney completely removed on January 17th. Although the tumour was cancerous the surgeon and team do feel confident that they got it all!! So far, a clean bill of health. My next checkup is scheduled for May 20th so I pray everyday for continued good health. In regards to pain control and because of my intolerance to pain med's, the team thought it best for an epidural. I was frozen at and closely around the incision site.it worked very well for me with pain management. Anyway, I'll be praying for you and like I said,staying in touch with the support on this site is very helpful as well.
All the best.
Denise

puppetman said:

trulytall
Thank You for Your Prayers

Jamie1.3cm said:

100% and diet
Everyone recovers differently, of course. And it makes a difference whether they do an open surgery or a laproscopic surgery. I'm only familiar with open surgery, so I'll give you the worse-case-scenario. Your mileage may vary.

It will take at least a couple weeks to several weeks before you can find a comfortable sleeping position. Smaller pillows you can use support yourself may be helpful. (I use stuffed animals, but that's just me.) Moving around will be very painful for several weeks. The rule of thumb for open abdominal surgery is 6-12 weeks recovery for returning to daily activities. Um.... I hear more 12weeks+ than 6 weeks, so don't feel like a failure if you are still in pain at 6 weeks. Expect to be exhausted for several months. Some doctors even say that you won't be back to your pre-surgery energy for a year. Again, depends on a lot of things, including the surgery. Just take it slow. Let this be your slow year. Don't push yourself into a hernia, which is very common with kidney surgery.

There are a couple forums on diet with one kidney. My doc agrees with your church lady, saying that you can live a perfectly normal life. Some are more cautious and say you should be careful to protect the one kidney you have left by keeping your blood pressure as low as possible and limiting protein, which is hard on the kidney. I'm going to side with protecting the one kidney.

Hope that helps!

hi Jamie

Jamie1.3cm said:

Thanks!
Thanks, TrulyTall, that's nice of you to say. It feels good to think some good can come of this.

Has anyone heard from Darryl lately? I check in every night, hoping he would have updated us.

babycakes11 said:

Hi there, I recently had my left kidney removed ( March 3rd) and it has been a long road for me since then. On the plus side I am able to move around much better this past week and a half. I have had a lot of back pain due to having open surgery on my abdomen and over compensating all my movement with my back, but it's not too bad. Mentally I am coping but knowing that my cancer may come back since the tumor was so large and stage3, I have had really bad anxiety for some time now. As for a diet, I am on a vitamin regimen and easy on the proteins and salt. Drink lots of water and when you do feel like having a drink, that's if you do at all, you should limit yourself to 2 drinks per day. Eat your veggies! You definitely want to take care of that other kidney and not make it work any harder then it already has to. I will be going back to work next Wednesday and I am a bit nervous. I am just going to take things slow and go at my own pace until I am up to doing things as normal. Best of luck to you and keep us posted on how your surgery goes. If you have any specific questions just feel free to ask and I will try to give you the best information that I can.

babycakes11 said:

Hi there, I recently had my left kidney removed ( March 3rd) and it has been a long road for me since then. On the plus side I am able to move around much better this past week and a half. I have had a lot of back pain due to having open surgery on my abdomen and over compensating all my movement with my back, but it's not too bad. Mentally I am coping but knowing that my cancer may come back since the tumor was so large and stage3, I have had really bad anxiety for some time now. As for a diet, I am on a vitamin regimen and easy on the proteins and salt. Drink lots of water and when you do feel like having a drink, that's if you do at all, you should limit yourself to 2 drinks per day. Eat your veggies! You definitely want to take care of that other kidney and not make it work any harder then it already has to. I will be going back to work next Wednesday and I am a bit nervous. I am just going to take things slow and go at my own pace until I am up to doing things as normal. Best of luck to you and keep us posted on how your surgery goes. If you have any specific questions just feel free to ask and I will try to give you the best information that I can.

puppetman said:

Dont know why it put it on
Dont know why it put it on here 3 times, but did You have to drink anything the day before , I got Me a bottle of magnesium citrate to drink

puppetman said:

Pre op
I went for My pre-op today, just wondering , I have kidney cancer and they going to remove My right kidney on May 4th, so I am wondering why would they xray my chest today, has this been done to any of You before You had Your kidney out?