And now, for perspective.......The "C" Word

After much prompting from his wife (frowning face),...Mark mentioned to his primary physician that he was having occasional hematuria. Light, but occasional. The phys suggested an ultrasound, which showed a mass (expected it to be a normal outgrowth) on his L kidney. Sent him for a CAT scan and then called the next day to ask Mark to come back in to the office as soon as he could. I said all the right nurse things "don't worry til there's something to worry about, you can't project what he'll say" etc.. But we all know they don't call you right back unless there's a reason. The CAT scan showed a tumor about the size of a lemon, and Mark was referred to a urologist/surgeon. We went and saw Dr Smith (new to Vancouver Clinic, came from Loma Linda and Bethesda Naval Hospitals...for my nurse friends) He was incredibly patient, answered every question, seemed incredibly knowledgable, went over the Cat scan slides (more than once) with us, and was very compassionate. He told us he was 90% positive the tumor was malignant, and will be shocked if it is not. Mark is scheduled for total L nephrectomy on Nov12th. The tumor is on the renal vessels so there is no way to dissect it out. He will remove it at the aorta. I asked about follow up,..you know how nurses are,..thinking post treatment already. Dr Smith said that kidney cancer treatments have not advanced much, and that chemo is not effective, even after surgery. Also radiation is very damaging to kidney tissue, but not effective on kidney cancer. Point made. We knew the nephrectomy was a necessity, but it sounds as if there is not much hope for treating metastasis afterward. We didn't talk about it any more, Mark was more concerned about discussing the specifics of how the surgery is done, so I tried to focus on that too. We have put the surgery off til the 2nd week of Nov due to our Texas trip. The surgeon said no further off than that. We realized later that day that Nov 12th will be our 3rd wedding anniversary. We both just kind of laughed and said well this one will definitely be memorable! He laughed the other day when I asked him if he'd like anything from the grocery store, and said, "yeah, how about picking up a kidney for me". I thought about asking the butcher, but just too gross for a joke ! Mark is doing pretty well with all of this, has told Donna, my kids know, so I told him I would put it on the blog to save me repeating this 50 times. He said no problem, prayers for a healthy recovery would be appreciated. We have agreed that we will just deal with one thing at a time. They will remove surrounding tissue after the nephrectomy and should have the answer from pathology within a few days. They are also concerned about him having bladder cancer too. Testing for that is the week before surgery. Then we will go from there. Mark is 51 yrs old, and has never had surgery or a serious illness, so the surgery has him a little anxious. He has been really focused since we found out last Thurs, on getting all financial and practical loose ends tied up before we go on our trip, since his surgery is right afterward. The cars are all tuned up, bills all paid ahead. I appreciate his thoroughness. He said staying busy helps him. I feel that the surgery will be a minor worry, and am more concerned about the pathologists report and treatment afterward. I have not shared my concerns with Mark, and plan to be present at the hospital the whole time. He seems very relieved by that. He vacillates between calm and anxiety in bizarre waves. I try to be consistent reminding him that whatever happens we will handle it together. He says that his job is to take care of me and hates the thought of not being able to do that. I reminded him that he does take care of me and that this was just my turn to reciprocate. Besides,..how would I ever get to India again without him,...he knows I'm a geographic retard! We used to joke that if he ever went into the hospital I would make sure he was restrained and sedated, just to ensure he wouldn't flip out. He thinks I'm joking. He is hard to reason with once he decides he is not doing something. He laughs at Kassi, calls her a "stubborn little thing", he is way worse than that! My girls from ICU will check in and I am plenty pushy/bossy in the nurse mode,,..we will be fine. Anyway,..I will keep the blog updated. Keep us in your prayers.