Mass Detected

love_of_my_life
love_of_my_life Member Posts: 77
in Kidney Cancer #1
Hello,

I am new to this board. My beautiful wife (41) of 21 years endured a fairly painful kidney stone a couple of months ago. It was finally broken up and she was able to resume normal activity. Upon a further follow-up, ultrasounds were done on both of her kidneys to make sure no further stones were detected. During the ultrasound a mass was found and the urologist ordered a CT scan.

We received the results of the CT scan on Friday and were pretty shocked to find out that it is a suspected malignant tumor approximately 3cm x 3cm. She has had no symptoms like blood in her urine or back pains, so we are hoping this is a blessing in disguise and we can get it early. The urologist scheduled a follow-up for July 17th and said that the affected kidney will need to be partially or fully removed.

Needless to say that the past couple of days have been a real roller-coaster ride. We have four children ages 6-13 and are in the prime of our lives. We both have faith and understand that the Lord can take us at anytime, but phew, what a kick to the pants this has been.

Anyhow, we will add everyone on this board to our prayers and would appreciate the same.

I will let you know how things go once we meet with the surgeon on the 17th.

Tom and Holly

Comments

  • alice124
    alice124 Member Posts: 896 Member
    #2
    Mass Detected
    Tom and Holly,

    I'm so sorry you've had to bookmark this site; wish no one did. But stay optimisic. Hopefully, if it is malignant, you've caught it early and will be back to normal in no time. Since you haven't met with Doctor yet, one thing I would suggest is to ask for a copy of the CT report when you do. For researching and communicating about the diagnosis, that will be helpful to have on hand.

    While everyone goes through a nephrectomy at their own pace--for my husband--it was "a piece of cake." He found that relatively easy. Let's hope your wife experiences the same. She has lots on her side-her young age, a loving husband, and two beautiful children. Those are strong roots. Best wishes; please keep us updated.
  • ourfriendjohn
    ourfriendjohn Member Posts: 72
    #3
    alice124 said:

    Mass Detected
    Tom and Holly,

    I'm so sorry you've had to bookmark this site; wish no one did. But stay optimisic. Hopefully, if it is malignant, you've caught it early and will be back to normal in no time. Since you haven't met with Doctor yet, one thing I would suggest is to ask for a copy of the CT report when you do. For researching and communicating about the diagnosis, that will be helpful to have on hand.

    While everyone goes through a nephrectomy at their own pace--for my husband--it was "a piece of cake." He found that relatively easy. Let's hope your wife experiences the same. She has lots on her side-her young age, a loving husband, and two beautiful children. Those are strong roots. Best wishes; please keep us updated.

    Mass Detected
    Tom and Holly,
    A big part of going though this is keeping a positive attitude. Like Alice said, hopefully any maligancy has been detected early and the experience will only serve to make you appreciate life all the more fully. You have found a wonderful family of people here, all with different experiences but on a common journey. Personally, IS 26:3 was of tremendous help for me from diagnosis onward. Peace,
    John
  • icemantoo
    icemantoo Member Posts: 3,361 Member
    #4
    ourfriendjohn said:

    Mass Detected
    Tom and Holly,
    A big part of going though this is keeping a positive attitude. Like Alice said, hopefully any maligancy has been detected early and the experience will only serve to make you appreciate life all the more fully. You have found a wonderful family of people here, all with different experiences but on a common journey. Personally, IS 26:3 was of tremendous help for me from diagnosis onward. Peace,
    John

    Blessing in disguise
    Tom and Holly,

    Not fun being told you have Kidney Cancer and than being told you have major surgery right out of the gate. It was not fun for me either. And the surgery is not fun. At 3cm it probably is Cancer.

    Now lets get to the good stuff. At 3 cm the surgery will likely be as close to a 100% cure as you can get. Six weeks after surgery you should be back into a normal routine. You are joining a wonderful club. After you have the surgery you can tell people that you had cancer, not that you have it.

    Mine was 2.6cm on the inital CT and 4.2 cm on the pathology. I have had no treatment since. In 3 weeks my surgery will have been 10 years ago. My surgery was so long ago that they used ice tongs to remove the kidney (just kiding).

    Once you get over the initial shock and the initiation (surgery), everything will be fine.

    Icemantoo
  • garym
    garym Member Posts: 1,647
    #5
    Count your blessings...
    Tom and Holly,

    Be very very thankful for that stone, another member here calls his stone a gift from God because, like you, it led to the early discovery of a mass. As you have probably learned, with RCC there are no early symptoms and once symptoms present its a whole new ball game, for most of us here it was found when they were looking for something else, mine was found over 2-1/2 years ago in the ER following a motorcycle accident. The good news is that a surgical "cure" is a high probability with a small tumor and after this little bump in the road you will have your 30th, 50th, and perhaps even your 75th anniversaries to look forward to. The surgery won't be the most fun you've ever had, but you will look back on it as the luckiest time of your life. Keep us posted as things progress and we'll help you through it.

    Good luck and Godspeed,

    Gary
  • love_of_my_life
    love_of_my_life Member Posts: 77
    #6
    garym said:

    Count your blessings...
    Tom and Holly,

    Be very very thankful for that stone, another member here calls his stone a gift from God because, like you, it led to the early discovery of a mass. As you have probably learned, with RCC there are no early symptoms and once symptoms present its a whole new ball game, for most of us here it was found when they were looking for something else, mine was found over 2-1/2 years ago in the ER following a motorcycle accident. The good news is that a surgical "cure" is a high probability with a small tumor and after this little bump in the road you will have your 30th, 50th, and perhaps even your 75th anniversaries to look forward to. The surgery won't be the most fun you've ever had, but you will look back on it as the luckiest time of your life. Keep us posted as things progress and we'll help you through it.

    Good luck and Godspeed,

    Gary

    Thank You!
    Thank you everyone for the feedback. It really has made my morning just being able to communicate with people who understand.

    I will let you know what the recommendation from the surgeon is on Monday after our appointment.

    Tom
  • Texas_wedge
    Texas_wedge Member Posts: 2,798
    #7
    love_of_my_life said:

    Thank You!
    Thank you everyone for the feedback. It really has made my morning just being able to communicate with people who understand.

    I will let you know what the recommendation from the surgeon is on Monday after our appointment.

    Tom

    Mass detected
    Tom and Holly, good luck on 17th. At 3cm x 3cm a surgical cure should be a cinch. You could even be advised that surveillance with no treatment for the moment might be an option (this would obviously be less traumatic and dislocate family life least) with treatment postponed until the tumour shows signs of growing more. Another possibility is neo-adjuvant therapy. Whichever course is adopted the prospects are excellent.

    Alice has given her characteristically lovely response and I'm sure didn't intend to imply that your other two children aren't beautiful :)

    For readers who don't have The Book to hand, the verse of Isaiah that John was referring to reads "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you." which will surely comfort many.

    In Scotland we have The Stone of Destiny and there are many RCC patients who have reason to thank their own stones of destiny and Holly now adds to that company. All will be well.
  • icemantoo
    icemantoo Member Posts: 3,361 Member
    #8
    Texas_wedge said:

    Mass detected
    Tom and Holly, good luck on 17th. At 3cm x 3cm a surgical cure should be a cinch. You could even be advised that surveillance with no treatment for the moment might be an option (this would obviously be less traumatic and dislocate family life least) with treatment postponed until the tumour shows signs of growing more. Another possibility is neo-adjuvant therapy. Whichever course is adopted the prospects are excellent.

    Alice has given her characteristically lovely response and I'm sure didn't intend to imply that your other two children aren't beautiful :)

    For readers who don't have The Book to hand, the verse of Isaiah that John was referring to reads "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you." which will surely comfort many.

    In Scotland we have The Stone of Destiny and there are many RCC patients who have reason to thank their own stones of destiny and Holly now adds to that company. All will be well.

    Survellance
    Tom and Holly,

    I am going to respectfully disagree with my friend Tex on his suggestion of surveillance for the following reasons:

    1. The tumor could be larger than 3 cm as the CT is 3 dimensional and not always accurate.

    2. As the tumor gets 4 cm or larger you start losing options such as RFA or Cybolation, Laproscopic Vs. open surgery and Partial v. whole nepharectomy.

    4. You want to get the little buggar out ASAP.

    While survelance may be appropriate for 1 cm where it may not form into a tumor, the odds are that at 3 cm it already has.

    Icemantoo
  • alice124
    alice124 Member Posts: 896 Member
    #9
    alice124 said:

    Mass Detected
    Tom and Holly,

    I'm so sorry you've had to bookmark this site; wish no one did. But stay optimisic. Hopefully, if it is malignant, you've caught it early and will be back to normal in no time. Since you haven't met with Doctor yet, one thing I would suggest is to ask for a copy of the CT report when you do. For researching and communicating about the diagnosis, that will be helpful to have on hand.

    While everyone goes through a nephrectomy at their own pace--for my husband--it was "a piece of cake." He found that relatively easy. Let's hope your wife experiences the same. She has lots on her side-her young age, a loving husband, and two beautiful children. Those are strong roots. Best wishes; please keep us updated.

    # of children
    My apology for the typo in referring to your four lovely children. I'm glad Tex had my back and eyes on that. Again, my thoughts, prayers, and best wishes are with you.
  • nyc_girl
    nyc_girl Member Posts: 27
    #10
    icemantoo said:

    Survellance
    Tom and Holly,

    I am going to respectfully disagree with my friend Tex on his suggestion of surveillance for the following reasons:

    1. The tumor could be larger than 3 cm as the CT is 3 dimensional and not always accurate.

    2. As the tumor gets 4 cm or larger you start losing options such as RFA or Cybolation, Laproscopic Vs. open surgery and Partial v. whole nepharectomy.

    4. You want to get the little buggar out ASAP.

    While survelance may be appropriate for 1 cm where it may not form into a tumor, the odds are that at 3 cm it already has.

    Icemantoo

    Surgery
    I would agree with Icemantoo. My small clear cell RCC tumor was removed in January 2012 at 2.5 cm (stage 1), but the pathology report showed that it was grade 3, which is a fairly nasty tumor. I am 43 and otherwise healthy, so I opted for an open partial nephrectomy, as I was told this was the best way to save the kidney and preserve maximum kidney function. The surgery went well and I am feeling great. Will have follow-up imaging every 6 months or so.

    Wishing you well,

    nyc_girl
  • KJones1969
    KJones1969 Member Posts: 158
    #11
    Thinking of you
    Tom and Holly,

    I will be thinking of you. You have your age on your side and that is a big thing from what I see. We joined this club in Feb. when my hubby was diagnosed with Stage IV RCC that had metastasized to his lungs in 5 spots. A nephroectomy is the easy part and I'll be praying that is all it takes for your wife.

    Please keep us updated and thanks for sharing!

    Karen
  • ourfriendjohn
    ourfriendjohn Member Posts: 72
    #12
    KJones1969 said:

    Thinking of you
    Tom and Holly,

    I will be thinking of you. You have your age on your side and that is a big thing from what I see. We joined this club in Feb. when my hubby was diagnosed with Stage IV RCC that had metastasized to his lungs in 5 spots. A nephroectomy is the easy part and I'll be praying that is all it takes for your wife.

    Please keep us updated and thanks for sharing!

    Karen

    Follow-up
    Tom and Holly,
    I recall that your follow-up with the urologist is tomorrow. Just wanted you to know that you would be in my thoughts and prayers. Please let us know how things go. You have a lot of support here.
    John
  • love_of_my_life
    love_of_my_life Member Posts: 77
    #13
    ourfriendjohn said:

    Follow-up
    Tom and Holly,
    I recall that your follow-up with the urologist is tomorrow. Just wanted you to know that you would be in my thoughts and prayers. Please let us know how things go. You have a lot of support here.
    John

    Thank You!
    John,

    Thank you for the kind prayers. Our follow-up is with a surgeon tomorrow at 9AM. We should get the schedule for next steps. I will try to post with information ASAP.

    Holly has no symptoms at this point and we have tons of people praying for her.

    All of you are in our prayers as well.

    Thanks again.

    Tom
  • foxhd
    foxhd Member Posts: 3,181 Member
    #14
    love_of_my_life said:

    Thank You!
    John,

    Thank you for the kind prayers. Our follow-up is with a surgeon tomorrow at 9AM. We should get the schedule for next steps. I will try to post with information ASAP.

    Holly has no symptoms at this point and we have tons of people praying for her.

    All of you are in our prayers as well.

    Thanks again.

    Tom

    get it out
    I have tremendous faith and trust in our health care providers. Surgeons are amazingly capable of performing miracles. And tumor removal at an early stage is the best chance for a cure. Be excited about the chance to get this done asap.
  • Texas_wedge
    Texas_wedge Member Posts: 2,798
    #15
    foxhd said:

    get it out
    I have tremendous faith and trust in our health care providers. Surgeons are amazingly capable of performing miracles. And tumor removal at an early stage is the best chance for a cure. Be excited about the chance to get this done asap.

    Surveillance
    Just to clarify - I didn't suggest surveillance. I assumed it would be surgery and merely remarked that there is a range of options for small lesions and some experts might counsel surveillance (for reasons about which I've written at length in the past). Even a small lesion could prove to be aggressive, having been detected at a comparatively young age, and hence surgery may well be a no-brainer.

    Bottom line, I hope no-one would base their treatment decisions on anything we say here, but, rather, would be guided by their medical advisers (seeking a second opinion if necessary).

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