PENDING TO SURGERY

I saw on another thread that you had read my story.  No surgery is fun, but the robotic surgery, at least in my case, is a lot less painful than open surgery.  You'll be in the hospital at least overnight.  They'll let you leave when you've shown that you can pee and when any pain you might experience is under control, with or without medication.  You'll be taking it slow and easy for a while.  In my case, I walked a lot because that's what I do all the time anyway, and because walking is a good way to help the body recover and to get all your systems back up and running.  Count on about two to three months minimum for recovery.

It's really terrifying to hear the words, "You have cancer", but the survival rate for kidney cancer these days, particularly for something as relatively small as your mass, is very, very good.  My urologic oncologist and surgeon told me that, in my case, surgery had a 99% chance of taking care of the lesion I had.  You'll be around to annoy your family and friends for a long time to come.

Welcome to the group nobody wants to join! Sorry you will have to face this. I remember how stressful it was. It's going to be a difficult ordeal both in terms of the physical issues you will face (which are actually somewhat minor from my current perspective). The biggest struggle is the stress. It's incredibly stressful. It took me quite a long time to accept the issue. I remember for months waking up in the middle of the night or in the morning and my very first thought was "Damn. I have cancer." with a really dreadful and even resentful feeling at having to deal with this and even wondering if I could do it or if I wanted to do it.

You can do it!

We've done it. So can you.

For me I learned over time that things aren't at all different than they were before. I was living in uncertainty before and after cancer I'm living in uncertainty. Even before cancer I really didn't know if my next breath was coming or not. Before cancer I'd been living in a state of denial about the uncertainty of my life. The gift cancer brought me is the consciousness of just how uncertain life is and how I have a choice to live in gratitude and peace or fear, resentment and loathing.

You will have this removed and get the pathology report back and then you'll find out what to do next. Just do the next indicated step. My advice is not to live in a fearful state of the future. I know it might be easier said than done, but you really don't want that fear destroying your current happy life. Accept you don't know what will come and that you didn't know that before this happened. Deal with what is immediately in front of you. Breathe. It's going to be ok.

Best to you and your family,

Todd

You're in the right place for answers and support. If you click on people's picture, you can then read their stories. I should probably already be dead but I survived and still here 4 months out. Doing ok, considering.

Take a day at a time, learn all you can, ask all the questions you can, and take a lot of deep breaths.

Yes, all the waiting around is by far the worst part.

xraydiazjj123 said:

thank you for response

Hi JerzyGrrl thank you for the support,you are totally right, being in this field is even more frustrating, and as I said in other comments the wait is killing me and on top of that  I had a vacation already scheduled for Cancun  mexico just the week before the operation,  tell me? how I'm supposed to enjoy them y have read a cuple websites and is a light at the end of the tunel but is very distant but is there ,thank you for the support i really needed  ill keep posting for sure i have to support people to 

Because worrying and fretting while on vacation will do absolutely nothing to change things, my advice is to have the time of your life in Cancun! Worry won't speed up the surgery nor will it change anything. It's hard to do, but can be done. I went on vacation the week before my surgery and rarely thought about it until I got back. You are going to be just fine...cherish every moment oif that trip with the family