New and really scared, please help if you can

Touchdown99 said:

Thanks Todd; pretty ironic

Thanks Todd; pretty ironic but my 2.8 cm "thing" is in the middle of the kidney too. I hope that doesn't create a problem if they have to take out part of it. If it does create a problem with doing a partial removal then I wonder what my options are? I would not want to have to start on dialysis at age 44. By the way how big was your cancer? How was it found? Etc.

 

thank you so much.

Mine was just shy of 7cm. It was discovered when I started peeing red on a business trip and then started having pain on my right side. I thought I had a kidney stone (again). It felt the same. I went to the ER because the pain got to be pretty unbearable and they did a CT there and found it. The pain was caused from blood clots passing through the ureter so it really did feel just like a kidney stone.

Because of the location of mine, they thought that it might be a transitional cell cancer instead of a RCC cancer. Transitional cell cancer is more like a bladder cancer and is quite different. These cells in the bladder line the ureter and also the inside part of the kidney. But mine turned out to be RCC, clear cell. The most common type.

My urologic oncologist was really an expert. He's the head of the urology department at UC Irvine Medical School. He consulted with another surgeon on doing a partial to try and wedge the tumor out, but because it was so in the middle of all the blood supply there was no way to do it. They recommended doing the radical. It was done laprascopically, but I have a pretty big scar because they wanted to take the whole thing out intact and the location made it difficult to do it in pieces.

Just do the next indicated step, do your little bit of research, and get second opinions. Try and not worry about stuff you don't know yet. (Easy to say...)

I've heard you don't actually need a lot of kidney function to be pretty ok, so I have a hard time imagining that there's such a huge difference between your two kidneys that that's going to be the issue. I haven't heard of anybody on this board having that be the problem.

Best wishes to you.

Todd

P.S. By the way, I've heard that from the CT with contrast they can tell whether it needs to come out pretty reliably. Your mass is not really small and not really big. It's big enough to have a good look on the CT scan, but small enough to make it probably Stage 1 (if it's even cancer, which, hopefully it is not). If they do decide it needs to come out, you won't really know what it is or the actual stage until they do the pathology report. They can't fully stage it from imaging, or tell what it really is either, just what it "likely" is with regards to cancer or not, and a "likely" stage as well.

Touchdown99 said:

Little update and very confused

Hi everyone, thank you for praying. I don't know what to make of the results. My ct was definitely done with IV contrast because I had an IV with iodine, weird metallic taste, etc.   But the results are confusing and although it says CT ABD/PEL WO/W CONTRAST at the top of the report, later on it says no contrast. Here take a look and see if you can offer any insight.

 

 

                                                    Here is exactly what the report from my ct scan with IV contrast says:

 

Exams: CT ABD/PEL WO/W CONTRAST

 

Procedure: CT ABD/PEL WO/W CONTRAST

 

Clinical History: Renal Mass

 

History: Follow up from stone removal

 

Comparison: September 23, 2013

 

Findings: Axial images were acquired at 3.8 mm intervals from the dome of the diaphragm to the floor of the pelvis without the use of intravenous contrast.

 

Lung windows demonstrate several stable rounded calcific densities consistent with an old healed granulomatous process such as histoplasmosis. No suspicious masses are seen. No pleural effusion or pneumothorax is identified.

 

Liver windows demonstrate the visualized spleen to be unremarkable given the limitation of the study without the use of intravenous contrast. A small hypodensity is identified adjacent to the gallbladder fossa within the medial aspect of the right lobe of the liver. Measures approx 3mm in AP dimension and is too small accurately characterize on this exam. Statistically this is most likely a cyst. The liver is otherwise unremarkable in appearance.

 

Bone windows demonstrate age appropriate degenerative change within the spine and bony skeleton. No suspicious blastic or lytic lesions.

 

Soft tissue windows demonstrate the visualized heart and mediastinal structures to be unremarkable in appearance. Once again calcifications are identified within the lung bases and a very small hypodensity is seen within the medial aspect of the right lobe of the liver. The spleen, pancreas, adrenal glands and stomach are unremarkable in appearance. Stable cysts are identified in both kidneys. The previously seen right sided hydronephrosis and hydroureter have decreased. The previously seen stone is no longer radiographically evident. Visualized bowel bladder and prostrate are unremarkable. No suspicious adenopathy is seen.

 

Impression: 

1. Resolution of the previously seen right sided hydronephrosis as well as ureteral stone.

2. Very small hypodensity within medial aspect of right lobe of liver anteriorly. Statistically this likely a small cyst.

3. Old healed granulomatous process.

 

 

The key elements are:  what they were worried about is no visible...meaning there is no tumor; they do not disapear.

NanoSecond said:

Your report

Well, that was the right answer.  I am glad you got that mistake sorted out with the radiologist.

Are you going to consult with your Urologist about your heart condition?  I thought not.  Your radiologist is the expert on reading these scans, not your Urologist.

Still, you do seem to be intent on discovering bad news where there is none...

OK, here you go:  Our government is still shut down.

Good one Neil!

TD,

Cart before the horse, drive those negative thoughts out, hug your wife and son, then go buy that lottery ticket.  You're on a roll, BELEIVE IT!

Touchdown99 said:

Well I talked to the

Well I talked to the radiologist who read the ct scan today on the phone.Update: He said that he did indeed look at the contrast images and that the report was correct but it was a new system and he just erroneously typed it was without contrast. He is doing addendum for me. I said did you see anything that looked like cancer he said no but you do have several cyst. I just picked up the addendum/amended report. Here is exactly what it says:

REPORT HAS BEEN AMENDED.

Addendum 10/03/2013.

ADDENDUM: CT/ABDWPO.

addendum: The study was performed with and without the use of intravenous contrast.Numerous simple appearing cysts are seen within each kidney.

 

 

That is good news... But my appointment with my urologist is today at 3:10; will he go along with these or will he look to see if the radiologist is right? I'm kind of scared he might interptet the images different and still give me other news today. Does that ever happen?

It's great news. Congrats.

WO/W indicates "without and with" contrast. They scan without, add the contrast, scan again. (As I recall...)

I'm a little confused. Earlier you said they had seen a 2.8 cm mass. That's a pretty good size mass. But this report doesn't mention such a large cyst/mass. Did the same radiologist read both scans? Where did the 2.8 cm thing go? Or was it maybe 2.8 mm?

Todd