How to honor kidney cancer awareness month in March

Dear cancerat46...I appreciate your words! I didn't even know there was a month that provides awareness for Kidney Cancer. I like to let women know the symptoms as I completely ignored them until my doctor left 3 messages to call him back so that I could have my usual cystoscopy. I was just too busy and accustomed to seeing blood and feeling discomfort due to IC, I had no idea the "flank" pain was important. Thank God I am okay, however I will say it changes your life forever just being on the Oncology floor and seeing so many people that are so sick...now my bones hurt me so bad I can barely stand it. I have an appointment in March to try to find out what is going on with the pain in my bones & the extreme tiredness.

roaddr23 said:

This is my plan..hope I can do it!!

I live an hour + south of DC but had my surgery at Washington Hospital Center in DC..I am lucky to live in an area with wonderful medical resources..I have a friend from the FD who is a retired reporter from one of the DC TV Stations...I am going to see if he can hook me up with a reporter from his former station and hopefully do a spot about Kidney Cancer in March...I will let you guys know what happens..

As late as March? That's days away!  Are you just going to keep sitting on your hands like this?  You must have been out of the operating theatre for at least a week!

Do you have any thoughts on the content of your spot? I hope it gets syndicated because I'm sure it will be good.

Texas_wedge said:

Broadcast

As late as March? That's days away!  Are you just going to keep sitting on your hands like this?  You must have been out of the operating theatre for at least a week!

Do you have any thoughts on the content of your spot? I hope it gets syndicated because I'm sure it will be good.

I would really like to hit hard on the mostly benign symptoms...like don't ignore blood in the toilet the first time...Last go round..I peed a bucket and went immediately to Drs...however...between that day and my surgery I never saw a drop of blood...I had a lot but I also have a family member who ignored the first little bit HE saw..and sadly, is deceased now...also, I have a true genetic factor in mine...start talking to older members. My maternal grandmother had her kidney removed for the same thing in the 50's when she was 50...she lived into her 80's and never had another recurrence...but on a genealogy site I talked to a guy from her line that had it when he was 36... we need to check our family histories etc...My daughter was advised because of the hx to have a routine screening now...I am sure that will be an insurance company fight but we can go there too,...I have been lucky twice to just have surgery...so many of you are dealing with meds, treatments etc...that I have no knowledge of and would like to understand better...we need to put this cancer in the headlines too...especially since the symptoms can be caused by so many other things...I am going to my best.. Can you believe that I used to be the kid who would stay home sick because I was terrified to do an oral book report...That changed in August of 1979 when my youngest sister in law was killed by a drunk driver..I was one of the first members of MADD...and I haven't shut up yet...

Texas_wedge said:

Broadcast

As late as March? That's days away!  Are you just going to keep sitting on your hands like this?  You must have been out of the operating theatre for at least a week!

Do you have any thoughts on the content of your spot? I hope it gets syndicated because I'm sure it will be good.

I would really like to hit hard on the mostly benign symptoms...like don't ignore blood in the toilet the first time...Last go round..I peed a bucket and went immediately to Drs...however...between that day and my surgery I never saw a drop of blood...I had a lot but I also have a family member who ignored the first little bit HE saw..and sadly, is deceased now...also, I have a true genetic factor in mine...start talking to older members. My maternal grandmother had her kidney removed for the same thing in the 50's when she was 50...she lived into her 80's and never had another recurrence...but on a genealogy site I talked to a guy from her line that had it when he was 36... we need to check our family histories etc...My daughter was advised because of the hx to have a routine screening now...I am sure that will be an insurance company fight but we can go there too,...I have been lucky twice to just have surgery...so many of you are dealing with meds, treatments etc...that I have no knowledge of and would like to understand better...we need to put this cancer in the headlines too...especially since the symptoms can be caused by so many other things...I am going to my best.. Can you believe that I used to be the kid who would stay home sick because I was terrified to do an oral book report...That changed in August of 1979 when my youngest sister in law was killed by a drunk driver..I was one of the first members of MADD...and I haven't shut up yet...

Texas_wedge said:

Broadcast

As late as March? That's days away!  Are you just going to keep sitting on your hands like this?  You must have been out of the operating theatre for at least a week!

Do you have any thoughts on the content of your spot? I hope it gets syndicated because I'm sure it will be good.

I would really like to hit hard on the mostly benign symptoms...like don't ignore blood in the toilet the first time...Last go round..I peed a bucket and went immediately to Drs...however...between that day and my surgery I never saw a drop of blood...I had a lot but I also have a family member who ignored the first little bit HE saw..and sadly, is deceased now...also, I have a true genetic factor in mine...start talking to older members. My maternal grandmother had her kidney removed for the same thing in the 50's when she was 50...she lived into her 80's and never had another recurrence...but on a genealogy site I talked to a guy from her line that had it when he was 36... we need to check our family histories etc...My daughter was advised because of the hx to have a routine screening now...I am sure that will be an insurance company fight but we can go there too,...I have been lucky twice to just have surgery...so many of you are dealing with meds, treatments etc...that I have no knowledge of and would like to understand better...we need to put this cancer in the headlines too...especially since the symptoms can be caused by so many other things...I am going to my best.. Can you believe that I used to be the kid who would stay home sick because I was terrified to do an oral book report...That changed in August of 1979 when my youngest sister in law was killed by a drunk driver..I was one of the first members of MADD...and I haven't shut up yet...

roaddr23 said:

LOL- Would Love Some Input..This is what I am thinking

I would really like to hit hard on the mostly benign symptoms...like don't ignore blood in the toilet the first time...Last go round..I peed a bucket and went immediately to Drs...however...between that day and my surgery I never saw a drop of blood...I had a lot but I also have a family member who ignored the first little bit HE saw..and sadly, is deceased now...also, I have a true genetic factor in mine...start talking to older members. My maternal grandmother had her kidney removed for the same thing in the 50's when she was 50...she lived into her 80's and never had another recurrence...but on a genealogy site I talked to a guy from her line that had it when he was 36... we need to check our family histories etc...My daughter was advised because of the hx to have a routine screening now...I am sure that will be an insurance company fight but we can go there too,...I have been lucky twice to just have surgery...so many of you are dealing with meds, treatments etc...that I have no knowledge of and would like to understand better...we need to put this cancer in the headlines too...especially since the symptoms can be caused by so many other things...I am going to my best.. Can you believe that I used to be the kid who would stay home sick because I was terrified to do an oral book report...That changed in August of 1979 when my youngest sister in law was killed by a drunk driver..I was one of the first members of MADD...and I haven't shut up yet...

 

You've certainly been doing some thinking and, indeed, as you say, you haven't shut up for a while!  - sometimes when CSN is slow you just have to learn to be patient with the "Submit" button, but you certainly forced it into submission!

You're right about not ignoring seemingly minor tell-tale signs - with the wisdom of perfect hindsight, I might have made more of a few faint signals and got a dx before my histology morphed into a totally incurable form.

NanoSecond said:

Fire Departments and RCC

Hi roaddr23,

First off, I am in the DC area too (Rockville, MD) and had my left nephrectomy at Washington Medical Center back in May 2010. It's a great facility.

I am looking forward to seeing your spot(s) airing during the local news (as that's the only broadcast TV that I watch).

Have you thought about setting up a network between all the fire departments and/or other first responders across the country?  I only ask this because I recently heard from a cousin (wife's side of the family) who is a fire fighter out in San Francisco.  She said they have noticed an unusually high incidence of renal cancer amongst their troops.  Perhaps you are also aware of this?  Is is due to being exposed to toxins in the air?  Are there any studies being done about this that you might know of?

 

What I was thinking of doing was setting up an anonmous list of symptoms etc..including a parent that had kidney...like a known family history in their family...listing possibly   symptoms they may have known or dealt with that some of us have not experienced...I just think that I can takes the reins here but I really would love to see this become a project we can all be proud of.

So please feel free to call me and lets put our heads together and see how things come out...I know we can make a difference. My # is  443-550-3844          

Thanks,

Laurie Gilman aka roaddr23 (road doctor)                                          

roaddr23 said:

This is my plan..hope I can do it!!

I live an hour + south of DC but had my surgery at Washington Hospital Center in DC..I am lucky to live in an area with wonderful medical resources..I have a friend from the FD who is a retired reporter from one of the DC TV Stations...I am going to see if he can hook me up with a reporter from his former station and hopefully do a spot about Kidney Cancer in March...I will let you guys know what happens..

Guess What Guys, although my mind still adamantly believes I am 20 my 62 year old body jumped in and slammed me to a stop dead in my tracks..You all know how blessed and excited I am to have beaten this cancer twice and I was most assuredly running on pure adrenalin...now I am humbled and realize no matter what my mind says my body cannot recover and heal if I don't rest, rest and rest some more....so I have been trying to be a good girl and follow my Drs and my body's orders and have been resting and resting and I hate to admit it but my body is right this time. It is just hard to make myself do it but now with no pain meds (I hate taking them anyway) when I start to get amped up and do stuff I am immediately reminded of why I am supposed to rest...LOL...I did hook up with my FD friends local TV Station and to my amazement the reporter said they had just finished filming a piece with a patient that just had robotic surgery at Georgetown for RCC but she said she was going to see if she can work something in with me too...but if they can't that is ok because I was extremely excited that they were on it already...so I will keep you all updated and I will try to get on more just to help us all keep our spirits up...Know I am thinking of you guys and sending out good energy...so glad to have found so many new friends..