Nearly a week since my surgery already?

DSFrey
DSFrey Member Posts: 69
in Kidney Cancer #1

A little update on how things have been progressing for this newbie. As far as how I am feeling I can say I am still quite sore. My innards just literally feel like they are out of place. From time to time I can feel and hear things shift position in there and that's a little disconcerting. I'm suffereing from a good bit of shoulder pain, which doc said would get better over time as the CO2 dissapates. Since I've got home and off the pain pump I really haven't had a problem with feeling extra tired or anything like surgeon said I might experience. Also kind of weird, I used to always prefer to sleep on my right side. I can't do that now, and the surgery was on my left side. Laying on my right side feels completely foreign to me now. I'm starting to get a little anxious and really want to see what the pathology says about the tumor, but that follow-up isn't for another week. In the mean time alot of the pains that I was having before the surgery I am still having so that tumor apparently had nothing to do with those pains. I am 10 pounds heavier now than I was before the surgery but that may just be from all fluid they filled me with so I'll have to give it more time to see what my weight will do as a result of the surgery. Another thing confusing me, the surgeon described the tumor as being stage I but looking at my CT, and I know I'm no radiologist but it clearly looks like its extending into the fat which should have made it stage III right? I uploaded a view of my CT to my profile if someone with more experience reading these things wants to take a gander at it. Maybe I'm just not understanding the staging or I'm just misinterpreting what the image seems to be showing me.

 

So in summary, I'm sore, not especially tired, and increasingly anxious.

Comments

  • icemantoo
    icemantoo Member Posts: 3,361 Member
    #2
    Perfectly normal

    DS,

     

    You sound perfectly normal a week out from a partial neph. Things will get a little better each day and at some point your doctors will be kopefully able to address those medical concerns. The surgery does beat the alternative.

    Icemantoo

     

     

  • Miashelle1
    Miashelle1 Member Posts: 44
    #3
    Anxiety....

    Hi ... Thought I would just say that I have suffered very bad anxiety over my diagnosis. You are not alone. I good days bad days and the every ache and pain is cancer days. I had all the same issues you are describing post surgery. It took about three months for me to feel normal again. Its weird really as the year before my cancer was found I felt so tired and just run down. Now I don't feel run down and can definatly do more without feeling tired. Although I get tired in a different way which is probably when I feel anxious and a little low. Anxiety is so draining as I am sure you know. My tiredness after surgery was in a word crushing. I would walk a while and hit a wall. But it got better slowly. My tumour was staged at pt3a and my first set of scans in December just past were clear. When my surgeon realised I was highly anxious he spoke to me kindly and said I have to stop it and live my life and he was correct. Although I looked at him at the time and thought yeah you try it! But now I am at peace with my diagnosis. I don't like it but I have accepted it. I am kinder I am happier and I appreciate more than I did. I have in my head that if it spreads there is treatment that can help us live longer now. So although I am going on I guess I am trying to help you accept what has happened and live your life. Eat good food. Drink lots of water. And get out and get fresh air and spend time with those that make you feel good. 

    very kind regards to you. Michelle :)

  • Jojo61
    Jojo61 Member Posts: 1,309 Member
    #4
    Miashelle1 said:

    Anxiety....

    Hi ... Thought I would just say that I have suffered very bad anxiety over my diagnosis. You are not alone. I good days bad days and the every ache and pain is cancer days. I had all the same issues you are describing post surgery. It took about three months for me to feel normal again. Its weird really as the year before my cancer was found I felt so tired and just run down. Now I don't feel run down and can definatly do more without feeling tired. Although I get tired in a different way which is probably when I feel anxious and a little low. Anxiety is so draining as I am sure you know. My tiredness after surgery was in a word crushing. I would walk a while and hit a wall. But it got better slowly. My tumour was staged at pt3a and my first set of scans in December just past were clear. When my surgeon realised I was highly anxious he spoke to me kindly and said I have to stop it and live my life and he was correct. Although I looked at him at the time and thought yeah you try it! But now I am at peace with my diagnosis. I don't like it but I have accepted it. I am kinder I am happier and I appreciate more than I did. I have in my head that if it spreads there is treatment that can help us live longer now. So although I am going on I guess I am trying to help you accept what has happened and live your life. Eat good food. Drink lots of water. And get out and get fresh air and spend time with those that make you feel good. 

    very kind regards to you. Michelle :)

    I tried to check your CT

    I tried to check your CT scan, but could not find it. (not that I would be of any help). Like Iceman said, your progress sounds very normal.

    Until about a week or 2 ago I had the crushing exhaustion that Michelle described. But your body goes through so much. My tumor had to be peeled off the liver and pancreas, and I know to get in there they have to move organs aside, so DS maybe that is what you are feeling as everything settles in place. When I went back to work, people told me how good I was looking. One person said I even had a greenish color before (I had changed to a new lipstick color -maybe it was my new lipstick???) My tumor was staged T3a just like Michelle. It was huge and I have to say my how tummy area feels better. I was feeling a lot of pressure on my right side, but the size of the tumor was defnitely the culprit.

    Keep resting and be good to yourself!

    Hugs,

    Jojo

  • CommuterMom
    CommuterMom Member Posts: 120
    #5
    Hi

    Hi,

     My itty bitty mass was extending into the fat yet still encapsulated. Mine was less than 2Cm. So it can go into it without invading it.

    I still have no pathology so I maybe singing a new tune later.

    I'm on the train now. First day back at work.

    -Diana 

Discussion Boards