Whew am I glad I had this lesion removed when I did!
I have been under active surveillance for two years. Constantly showing as a 2.7cm on the regular scans. Hadn't changed at all in size or form in the scans.
I know that scans often cannot get the exact info as it can depend on things like angles etc. and invariably it seems that the final size when removed, tends to be bit bigger than what is seen on the scan. I also am not a gambler and having already had one cancer, I didn't fancy my chances of being in the 10-15% of people for whom a Bosniak 4 is benign.
So today I have unexpectedly (although admittedly it has been two weeks today already) received a letter from my consultant, the main body of it being:
"The analysis is now back from the laboratory after the operation to remove the lesion from your kidney. This has confirmed a small 3.3cm low grade ( grade 2) early stage pT1a clear cell renal cell carcinoma. This is the most common type of kidney cancer. There are no concerning features on the histological analysis, and it has been completely removed with clear surgical margins which is excellent news.
That is amazing news ...like u said u can get on with your life in a normal way now.
Now you need to keep healing. Remember slow and steady..
Sending u a huge hug
Thank you Fleabane!
I do struggle on the "slow and steady" side of things...and I did seem to recover quicker when I had my hysterectomy...but I keep reminding myself this is a very different surgery in a different part of my body. Plus I am two years older, and few if any of us ever get fitter the older we get!
The fridge and freezer are stocked full, and my box of unread books and unwatched DVDs to hand for when I run out of catch-up things to watch on TV so I am sitting tight, locking myself down and waiting it out, with as much rest as I can force myself to take!
Trust me ..slow and steady....my local friend had an op for breast cancer 4 weeks ago. She never stops. I said don't drive, don't supermarket shop, no heavy lifting...day 2 and she was in no pain so she carried on as normal....she messaged me today, wound is leaking, which told is normal, she's been sick and in great pain and in bed for 2 days on antibiotics... I did advise her to take it steady...
So relax and enjoy the rest of your time off work...no more cares and worries about your results...just enjoy
Hugs
This is me normally...you can't hold me down!! However, I was ever so good after my hysterectomy and I didn't even sit in the car until about a week later, making sure I could do an emergency stop but I wasn't even driving, just sitting in the driver's seat. I planned to start actual driving after two weeks, even though I felt really good long before, but I made the mistake of asking my Insurance company, as I'd read that was what I had to do. They said, ask your consultant. By the time I got to my consultant he had gone on holiday for a week! So I ended up actually not driving for pretty much three weeks in total, and was going spare!! This time I am so well stocked up in my freezer that I really don't need anything until I've run that down and can open the door again without everything falling out
...I need a few things like eggs and bananas and the TV mag. My neighbour will get me those from Sainsbury's. I can make do otherwise on canned and frozen as I was stocking up with cans as well once I knew this surgery was imminent, so I might have to forego my fresh raspberries for a while but have cans of peaches and apricots instead.
I'm sorry your friend didn't listen to you. It's very hard when someone is active and not used to being locked down when not in pain. I feel for her. However, I am having to see this as a Lockdown which everyone else had five years ago and I didn't get my Lockdown as I was working two key worker jobs throughout. I felt cheated as I would have loved all that time off work and being paid for it too! (Furlough). So now I am getting "my Lockdown" and that's helping me to cope with the enforced inactivity. (The same as 2023 when I had my hysterectomy - I told myself it was my chance to finally have my Lockdown!!)
Hopefully your friend will feel better very soon but this just goes to prove that getting back to normal too soon, even if you feel totally fine, is likely to set your healing back longer than it would have been
Thank you. I will indeed take time to recover myself. Not too fast, so that I make a complete recovery from surgery. As for moving on - I won't be moving on from this forum any time soon. I have found a lovely community here, very supportive, and since we never know if once in the C-system we won't have a recurrence at some future time, be it months or many years, I expect to find ongoing support and advice here, and will continue to support in whatever capacity I can.
Had my first proper shopping trip today (my other, im-proper one! was going to the GP nurse yesterday as we stopped at the pharmacy on the way back!)...my neighbour took me and I did Maja and Aldi plus a stop off for Vaseline at the pharmacy...so I am well stocked up now with cheese, cold meats, frozen veg, fresh soft fruit, a couple of choccy treats, and a bottle of wine for my lovely neighbour! and boy, does it feel good!!!
Oh and I've just today got my follow-up appointment and it is 6 weeks, and is the day before I go back to work! I wondered if they were doing 4 weeks, as the notification seems very early. I'm actually wondering if I can squeeze a few more days out of the sick note! as the hospital doctor signed me off from 3rd April which is the day I was discharged so technically I am not due back until Thurs 15th or Fri 16th May going strictly on the six weeks...I will see how it goes...
I am back at work today. Not 100% sure I should be. My 6-week follow-up was cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances, and I have no idea as yet of when it will be, given that the reason is that a key kidney nurse is on long-term leave. (No idea why - I didn't ask) I'm technically low priority as I had an excellent histology and no further treatment apparently needed.
However, I have been to the doctor four times so far in the last three weeks. I have one small incision that isn't healing and is still itchy and very red, plus another one that is significantly redder than the obviously healed ones. I am back on the Trimovet cream and yesterday the doctor worried me a bit by saying that it looks like it's borderline starting to dehisce. I had had an idea myself it didn't look "right" so wasn't frankly surprised. They took a swab yesterday.
I had already agreed and planned with Work to go back today. However, depending on what happens in the next 7 days, and I'm still waiting to hear from my consultant with the responses to the questions I asked the remaining kidney nurse on the phone on Monday and that she couldn't answer without referring to him, I may consider whether it's sensible to carry on at work after this week. Depends really on whether they can get this incision infection under control. It's very minor atm but I fear that if it does actually dehisce, I could be in for big problems, and I've only got 7 weeks now before I go to France. I have cared for people with pressure sores and whilst it's not exactly the same thing, I observed how long it can take to mend those - sometimes, they never do heal - and that's very worrying.
That said, not going to work at this stage isn't going to help really, as I won't be doing anything different in four hours at work than I would be doing here at home, and in the meantime I have the cream medication and there's not much else can be done just at the moment until Time takes its course. I have however gone from telling my Manager I can lift up to 5 kilos, to telling her that for this first week at least, I am going to be lifting NOTHING AT ALL!! - very difficult even here at home, but it plants me firmly behind the tills and maybe just odd little jobs like doing reductions, date checks and the like. (Cause of this non-healing is unclear atm...it was doing ok and then seemed to go backwards...could be an infection, and if that is ruled out with the swab, it could be that I've been moving too much, or in the wrong way, or could even be that I was sneezing a lot and heavily a few days ago due to hayfever.)
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