New to Forum

I have been looking at these forums for a while now and finally decided to join.  A little background on how I got here.  Back in June of 2014 while at work I started to feel pain in my right flank area like I was having a kidney stone.  I have had kidney stones in the past so I did not think much about it until I started urinating blood.  The amount of blood was varied and I by the end of the day it was not even really noticeable so I thouht I must have passed a jagged stone.  It was not until a two days later that the blood was really intense again.  I went to the ER and they did a CT scan, that is when I found out about the 9cm tumor on my right kidney.  I was set up with a urologist and the multiple CT scans, MRI's, renal scan, took place.  I had radical open nephrectomy on August 14,2014.  The day before my surgery I had an embolization done to cut blood supply off to the kidney to make the surgery a little easier. The final report had the following Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma.  Tumor size 10.7x8x6.5 cm, Histologic Grade 3, Pathologic Stage T4Nx, extends into renal pelvis and renal vein.  My follow up CT scans about a month or two after surgery showed 1 small sub centimeter lung nodule to right lung.  Dr. wanted to watch it for growth.  At the beginning of December 2014 the lung nodule had increased to only 7mm but my oncologist knowing that the nodule had increased with each scan set me up with a thoracic surgeon to go in and take the nodule out.  On January 14th, 2015 I had surgery to remove the lung nodule.  The report came back as Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma.  This nodule was the only thing that showed up and I have been on Votrient 800mg since March.  I have had the following side effects with Votrient... Diarrhea, fatigue, white hair.  Now that I have shared my story I wanted to say thank you to all of you who have shared your stories of strength and hope.  I just wanted to share and I do apologize for making this so long.