In The Begining

It was a warm Spring Sunday afternoon in late April or  early May, 2002. It was time to  install a stone walkway in the back of the house. No sooner had I finished than I was yelling at Icewoman for pouring some, candy, syrup or food coloring in the toilet turning it red. I think she had done that a few weeks earlier as well. An hour or 2 later I noticed the food coloring had come from me. WTF. I called my PCP and he said it was probably nothing. I just broke a blood vessel from heavy working. No need to go to the ER, but come in his office on Monday. He referred me to a Uro for an appointment the next day. The Uro's questions as I remember focused on my plumbing. The Uro sent me for a CT scan which at the time I just thought was a CYA procedure. A few weeks until the CT and than I received a call from the receptionist at the Uro's  wanting me to set up an appointment and something about Kidney Cancer was blurted out. WTF.  Well the URO referred me to the new kid in the office who  had just completed a fellowship in Laproscopic Surgery. My vocabulary was starting to expand. I was lucky , it was relatively small tumor (2.6 cm pre-op, 4.2 cm post op.). They were going to yank my kidney out. Summer was starting and the big day was August 1, 2002. My wife took me to a B & B on the Canadian side of Lake Huron for July 4th weekend to relax. We went to a British Pub in town for dinner where they brought out all the traditional dinners for the diners to view. I almost gagged on being shown Kidney Pie.

The big day came. The surgery and recovery were no picnik. It took me almost 11 months for my 60th birthday to get back on water-skis. Five or 6  years later I got on some new fangled thing called the internet and started to tell my storey and tried to help others.  And that was how Kidney Cancer came into my life.

Icemantoo