Bad News

todd121
todd121 Member Posts: 1,448 Member
in Kidney Cancer #1

I hate sharing this information.

Today I found out my cancer has most likely metasticized to my adrenal gland. I'd been having some pain on my right side (my surgery side) for several weeks. I decided to email my oncologist yesterday morning to tell him about it. He had me come in and go to urgent care at the City of Hope. They did my CT scans a month early and found that my right adrenal gland (the one that had been attached to my diseased kidney) had enlarged slightly. They looked back and it had been changing for the past year.

My oncologist wants me to have it removed. They assume it's RCC.

There were ok with waiting until after my business trip to Italy. I'm not. I cancelled my trip and have asked them to remove the damn thing ASAP.

So it appears in 2-3 weeks I'll be having my adrenal gland removed. Hopefully, a laproscopy.

It hasn't totally sunk in that I've graduated to Stage 4. I hope removing this will keep me NED for awhile and I'm also hoping that my other adrenal gland can pick up the slack. I have an aunt with Addisons (adrenal insufficiency). It's not pleasant. On the other hand, this adrenal gland is bad anyway, so that can't really be part of the equation.

Will let you guys know. If you're a praying person, please say a pray for me. If not, please send the universe a good thought. I appreciate this board. It's been so helpful to me to have a place to discuss this damn disease.

Todd

«13

Comments

  • Jojo61
    Jojo61 Member Posts: 1,309 Member
    #2
    Prayiing and sending good thoughts

    I am sorry to hear this news, Todd.  I must say I am a little shocked. Things can change so quickly.

    It goes to show that we DO need to listen to our bodies. Good for you for taking action. I have to say, I haven't heard of this happening - spreading to the adrenal gland.

    It was probably best that you cancelled your trip to Italy. Just get yourself taken care of. We are here for you if you need us!

    Big Hugs

    Jojo

  • Skagway Jack
    Skagway Jack Member Posts: 224 Member
    #3
    Very sorry to hear this!

    This disease sucks that much is for sure.  Hang in there....positive thoughts are headed your way!   I have followed you as our tumours were about the same size and grade,  mine was staged 1B since they found no other sign of it, as yet.  Keep up the good fight.    Best regards,  Jack

  • cran1
    cran1 Member Posts: 139
    #4
    Hang in there Todd. The

    Hang in there Todd. The Rancourt family has you in our thoughts.

  • Karen0074
    Karen0074 Member Posts: 64
    #5
    cran1 said:

    Hang in there Todd. The

    Hang in there Todd. The Rancourt family has you in our thoughts.

    Thinking of you Todd

    Hi Todd

    well done for calling dr with pain, I think you did the right thing cancelling your trip too. Keep us updated, sending you love.

     

    Karen xx

  • Phredswife
    Phredswife Member Posts: 162
    #6
    Praying for you.

     Wishing you well with the surgery. Don't blame you for wanting that thing out now. I will be praying for you.

    Hugs Melissa

  • foroughsh
    foroughsh Member Posts: 779 Member
    #7
    Hi Todd
    I'm  sorry but it's

    Hi Todd

    I'm  sorry but it's great you listened to your body soon, you may have a successful surgery and recovery. my urologist removde the adrenal gland and infected kidney together but the adrenal gland was not infected based on pathology report, anyway I'm Ok and don't have a problem with just one adrenal gland yet. Your body will adopt to have just one adrenal gland.you're in my prayers.

    Forough

  • Allochka
    Allochka Member Posts: 1,072 Member
    #8
    foroughsh said:

    Hi Todd
    I'm  sorry but it's

    Hi Todd

    I'm  sorry but it's great you listened to your body soon, you may have a successful surgery and recovery. my urologist removde the adrenal gland and infected kidney together but the adrenal gland was not infected based on pathology report, anyway I'm Ok and don't have a problem with just one adrenal gland yet. Your body will adopt to have just one adrenal gland.you're in my prayers.

    Forough

    I'm very sorry to hear this.

    I'm very sorry to hear this. But could it still be not cancer? You won't know for sure until it is out, so maybe it hasn't spread yet and it is just an impression the the gland is changing?

    I'm sending you good thoughts and wishing a speedy recovery from surgery.

     

  • sblairc
    sblairc Member Posts: 585 Member
    #9
    Thinking of you.

    I'm so sorry to hear this, you will be in my thoughts. I can't stop cursing rignt now. So, so, angry at this disease on your behalf. 

     

    As far as the adrenal goes, my husband's oncologist said that adrenal glands are TRUE DUPLICATE ORGANS. I hope yours will work fine. I am wishing you NED for a long time once the adrenal glad is out. I'm also crossing my fingers an enlarged adrenal gland can be caused by other things too, I certainly hope that is a possibility. 

     

    Keep us updated, I'll be thinking of you during this time. 

  • Srashedb
    Srashedb Member Posts: 482 Member
    #10
    Adrenal gland

    Todd:

    obviously, this is not good news but if the adrenal gland was attached to the kidney that was removed, it is still local.

    my husband had the adrenal gland removed when he had nephrectomy and has had no ill-effects from that.

    i am sorry that you will have surgery; that doesn't sound good.

    Sarah

  • thaxter
    thaxter Member Posts: 124
    #11
    Srashedb said:

    Adrenal gland

    Todd:

    obviously, this is not good news but if the adrenal gland was attached to the kidney that was removed, it is still local.

    my husband had the adrenal gland removed when he had nephrectomy and has had no ill-effects from that.

    i am sorry that you will have surgery; that doesn't sound good.

    Sarah

    Adrenal removed with nephrectomy

    I have no problems related to having one adrenal gland. Mine was removed during nephrectomy and sinice it had a non-contiguous tumor I was considered stage IV from the beginning

  • APny
    APny Member Posts: 1,995 Member
    #12
    thaxter said:

    Adrenal removed with nephrectomy

    I have no problems related to having one adrenal gland. Mine was removed during nephrectomy and sinice it had a non-contiguous tumor I was considered stage IV from the beginning

    Prayers and good thoughts

    Prayers and good thoughts going your way. I'm also thinking that íf it's the gland that was on the same side as the kidney that it's not considered a met but a local recurrence, but of course I'm no doctor. In any case, it'll be out soon and I agree that it was wise to listen to your body and also wise to cancel the trip. Wishing you all the best!

  • foxhd
    foxhd Member Posts: 3,181 Member
    #13
    APny said:

    Prayers and good thoughts

    Prayers and good thoughts going your way. I'm also thinking that íf it's the gland that was on the same side as the kidney that it's not considered a met but a local recurrence, but of course I'm no doctor. In any case, it'll be out soon and I agree that it was wise to listen to your body and also wise to cancel the trip. Wishing you all the best!

    Adrenal gland

    Hey Todd, you know I am not a religeous person. But I've got Karma up the wazoo. What goes around, comes around. And you have helped many. So all will be alright with you. Be well my friend.

  • Jan4you
    Jan4you Member Posts: 1,330 Member
    #14
    APny said:

    Prayers and good thoughts

    Prayers and good thoughts going your way. I'm also thinking that íf it's the gland that was on the same side as the kidney that it's not considered a met but a local recurrence, but of course I'm no doctor. In any case, it'll be out soon and I agree that it was wise to listen to your body and also wise to cancel the trip. Wishing you all the best!

    Oh Todd, sorry to hear you

    Oh Todd, sorry to hear you have to go through another hurdle and surgery.

    But.. you listened carefully and now are going to get that C word out of you!!

    Know that we're here for you, I am. We'll walk this journey along side you.

    Hugs to you~

    Jan

  • Footstomper
    Footstomper Member Posts: 1,237 Member
    #15
    thaxter said:

    Adrenal removed with nephrectomy

    I have no problems related to having one adrenal gland. Mine was removed during nephrectomy and sinice it had a non-contiguous tumor I was considered stage IV from the beginning

    Echoing what others have said

    I also lost my adrenal gland along with the kidney and have felt no ill effects. Obviously its a blow to recieve bad news but as another stage VI I can assure you life goes on.

  • todd121
    todd121 Member Posts: 1,448 Member
    #16
    Surgery - Adrenal Gland

    I spoke with one surgeon last night. He's going to be out of town for 3 weeks and was going to do it if I waited. Tomorrow I talk to the other one and find out when, etc.

    My surgeon that did my nephrectomy left my adrenal gland without even discussing it with me. He told me after the fact. I don't think my tumor was near there, but he went into the surgery thinking I was Stage 1 and it turned out to be Stage 3 due to invading some microscopic veins in the kidney. My oncologist said there's lots of vascularization between the adrenal gland and the kidney, so it's a pretty common site for recurrence. I'll bet if I'd had my surgery at a cancer center, they would have removed the adrenal gland.

    One can still hope it's a benign change in the adrenal gland. It's grown from 12x10 to 15x12 (I think that's mm) in 5 months. They can see a nodule, though and when they looked back, they could even see it on the previous 2 scans, but 3 scans back it wasn't there at all.

    Compared to the nephrectomy, this will be a walk in the park. I'm somewhat glad my oncologist is so aggressive with his approach. He says if it's resectable, let's get it out of there. (And he's not a surgeon, so I trust his opinion a little more than the guy who gets paid to cut stuff).

    Thank you everyone for the kind words.

    Wishing you all well.

    Todd

  • icemantoo
    icemantoo Member Posts: 3,361 Member
    #17
    todd121 said:

    Surgery - Adrenal Gland

    I spoke with one surgeon last night. He's going to be out of town for 3 weeks and was going to do it if I waited. Tomorrow I talk to the other one and find out when, etc.

    My surgeon that did my nephrectomy left my adrenal gland without even discussing it with me. He told me after the fact. I don't think my tumor was near there, but he went into the surgery thinking I was Stage 1 and it turned out to be Stage 3 due to invading some microscopic veins in the kidney. My oncologist said there's lots of vascularization between the adrenal gland and the kidney, so it's a pretty common site for recurrence. I'll bet if I'd had my surgery at a cancer center, they would have removed the adrenal gland.

    One can still hope it's a benign change in the adrenal gland. It's grown from 12x10 to 15x12 (I think that's mm) in 5 months. They can see a nodule, though and when they looked back, they could even see it on the previous 2 scans, but 3 scans back it wasn't there at all.

    Compared to the nephrectomy, this will be a walk in the park. I'm somewhat glad my oncologist is so aggressive with his approach. He says if it's resectable, let's get it out of there. (And he's not a surgeon, so I trust his opinion a little more than the guy who gets paid to cut stuff).

    Thank you everyone for the kind words.

    Wishing you all well.

    Todd

    No excuses

    Todd,

     

    Isn't it a little early for the surgeon to take a golfing vacation. At least that is my understanding of how they schedule surgery. Sorry I can not help you with the diagnosis one way or the other as it is above my pay grade.

     

    Do however stay away from Vegas this time as part of your recovery.

     

    Icemantoo

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • jason.2835
    jason.2835 Member Posts: 337 Member
    #18
    Argh

    Can't stand this frickin' disease.  But it sounds like it could be worse, man.  I like your attitude in wanting to attack it right away.  I agree.  How the heck would you be able to focus on anything business knowing what's going on?  It's the right choice.

    Stay positive, sir.

  • cancerat46
    cancerat46 Member Posts: 52
    #19
    I'm sorry to hear your news.

    As bad as it is that you have heard this news it's great that you're taking charge and getting it removed asap!  You're still in control of cancer.  Go get 'em and swift recovery!

  • Limelife50
    Limelife50 Member Posts: 476
    #20
    todd121 said:

    Surgery - Adrenal Gland

    I spoke with one surgeon last night. He's going to be out of town for 3 weeks and was going to do it if I waited. Tomorrow I talk to the other one and find out when, etc.

    My surgeon that did my nephrectomy left my adrenal gland without even discussing it with me. He told me after the fact. I don't think my tumor was near there, but he went into the surgery thinking I was Stage 1 and it turned out to be Stage 3 due to invading some microscopic veins in the kidney. My oncologist said there's lots of vascularization between the adrenal gland and the kidney, so it's a pretty common site for recurrence. I'll bet if I'd had my surgery at a cancer center, they would have removed the adrenal gland.

    One can still hope it's a benign change in the adrenal gland. It's grown from 12x10 to 15x12 (I think that's mm) in 5 months. They can see a nodule, though and when they looked back, they could even see it on the previous 2 scans, but 3 scans back it wasn't there at all.

    Compared to the nephrectomy, this will be a walk in the park. I'm somewhat glad my oncologist is so aggressive with his approach. He says if it's resectable, let's get it out of there. (And he's not a surgeon, so I trust his opinion a little more than the guy who gets paid to cut stuff).

    Thank you everyone for the kind words.

    Wishing you all well.

    Todd

    Sorry

    But would that really mean stage 4 that is not a distant spread good luck on your upcoming surgery

  • dhs1963
    dhs1963 Member Posts: 513
    #21
    Not all stage 4 is equal

    A solitary Met that can be surgically treated is very different from many mets.  I know:  I had a solitary lung nodule.  In about two weeks, I will be NED for two years.  And I have had no other cancer treatments.  As I recall, you pushed to be included in an adjuvant trial.  I encourage you to have the mass 1) biopsied, and 2) removed if appropriate.  Hopefully, you will have a similar story as me regarding NEDiness.

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