Still terrified

Mandy,

You haven't even been diagnosed with Kidney Cancer and already your imagining that it has spread and is incurable. Hold on there, You are not going to be diagnosed one way or the other until you have a CT scan or MRI. A good share of the time Kidney Cancer is cured by the surgery alone. Every time you have a headache you do not have an incurable brain tumor.

Lets hold up worrying about the big C word until and unless there is something to worry about. If we have to cross that bridge we will and all of us on this board will help you.

Icemantoo

Hello Mandy,

Please don't get yourself in such a state, right now your imagination is not your best friend. In your first posting you said you took antibiotics for a UTI and that the symptoms cleared but there is still trace amounts of blood. This would not be unusual after the bladder has been irritated by a UTI.

However having said that finding trace amounts of blood in the urine is relatively common, the average healthy person excretes red blood cells in their urine everyday. Your bladder could well be irritated because of the UTI or alternatively this is not unusual for you anyway and has come to light because of the infection. 

My concern for you is that you seem totally convinced you have cancer, if and when you get the all clear from your doctor will you be convinced.

Believe me it is hard enough to deal with your emotions when you have actually received a cancer diagnosis, why would you want to step into that space prematurely.

Terror is a very extreme emotion, try to stay on the level of concern instead. Do you have any friends and family close by to help you keep a balance to this.

Keep in touch with us on this site, and let us know how you are getting on. This is a brilliant place to come and there will always be someone on here to provide a sympathetic ear and offer advice, I have found it very helpful.

Try to stay calm for now and take care.

Best wishes,

Djinnie

Hi Mandy -

While I am not in a position to give any advice on any type of cancer - I don't even know if my "mass" is malignant yet - I am quite familiar with reoccurring UTIs and reoccurring "not a UTI but we have no idea what’s wrong so here are some antibiotics" so ...

Since I was a teen I had what I thought were UTIs constantly - like 8-10 times a year. I would go to the doctor in pain and they would say nothing was wrong OR I would go for something routine and find that there was all kinds of stuff in my urine, blood, staph, etc. Antibiotics rarely seemed to do anything. Even if they said nothing showed up on the tests they would give me meds, call it a UTI and call it a day. This went on for over 10 years with multiple doctors.

Finally I had a Gyno who looked at me and said, "I think you have interstitial cystitis - go see this Urologist" So I did and he was right. On top of the IC I also have what we jokingly refer to as a "staphy bladder" and constant kidney stones. 9 times out of 10, even with a cath. catch, I have staph in my urine and every CT or ultrasound I have ever had shows at least 1 or 2 kidney stones floating around somewhere (apparently the stone part isn't normal - who knew lol)

Now, many moons later, I still have IC but I only have 1 or 2 mini-flares a year. And I chose to go the all natural route. I don't take any meds for the IC (there is no "fix" - only pain management and such that would cost around $200 a month - no thanks) I have diagnosed my triggers - No carbonated liquids for this gal, limit my coffee,etc. When I do have pain I pop a few AZOs and go on with the day. And since I don’t drink soda anymore I’m actually SAVING money

I guess my point is, with your symptoms, there could be a range of issues going on - many of which may simply require lifestyle adjustments. Many things including stress, heat, exercise, and cold can cause protein in your urine. And if you have a lot of unexplained or unconfirmed UTIs you may want to look at other possibilities if all of your tests come back ok.

But that’s just my 2 cents.

Panicing does not help.  Until you have the result of a CT with Contrast, there is no reason to suspect cancer.  There are many things that can cause blood in the urine.

And if it is cancer, and it is caught earlu, then you are in good shape.

Fox and Texas have had so many tumors, I can't count that high (and I am a computational physicist).

Iceman is dead on no pun intended but where did you come up with kidney cancer why not bladder issues or whatever were you doing google searches and ended up at the CSN doorstep,well i hope this really turns out to be a false alarm.

Hi Mandy.

I am glad to hear you got your results back on time. I see that your Doctor is sending you to a Urolgist for tests. I know it is difficult to accept any reassurance once you have an idea fixed in your mind. Your Doctor my be of the opinion that it is the UTI that is causing the blood in the urine but is acting in your best interests by getting a firm conclusion for you.

I hope you don't have too long to wait for your appointment, if only for the sake of your sanity. It might be worthwhile you asking the Urology Dept if you can keep in touch with them just in case a cancellation comes up. Or they may keep a list of people who can come along at short notice should an appointment become free.

In any event I hope get a result soon. In the meantime I would stay off medical sites for now, they are just feeding your fear.

Keep strong and keep calm

Djinnie