My partner has been newly diagnosed with kidney cancer today.

Hi Strongdiva,

First and foremost welcome to this site.  It is a fantastic site for meeting others in similar situations.  I was one of those, on 22nd December last year I had a CT scan, got my results a week later from my consultant.  I was told I had a mass on my left kidney,  I was booked in for biopsy and camera investigations on the 22nd January and had the kidney removed on the 1st February.  The results came back as a high grade cancer.  I was only in hospital for 2 nights with a recovery of between 4 to 6 weeks.  My only problem now is that my remaining kidney is a stage 3b chronic kidney disease.  I am due to see a kidney specialist next month and I have lots of questions I need answers to.  Hopefully I will get them.

I am based on Anglesey, North Wales and I can honestly say the speed of treatment was amazing, I hope your husband gets a similar service.

A break before his surgery will do you both good.  Take time together, find out more about his operation and what the recovery period will be for him.  Talk to each other and if you have been assigned a specialist nurse talk to them.

I hope all goes well for you both.

Take care

Supertramp (Julie)

Hi Julie, thank you for the reply. 

so sorry to hear about your second kidney? Did you have kidney desease before surgery or did this start after? 

how big was your mass? Yes I would say things have moved quite fast for us too so far so let’s hope the remaining appointments come through quickly as well. 

Hi Strongdiva and pleased to meet you, if in these unfortunate circumstances.    Some thoughts from me:

2/ People on here have had a variety of experiences with the wait for surgery from months to weeks.  

1/ My understanding is that lymph spread is diagnosable by the CT scan and is critical to whether a [partial] nephrectomy is a feasible treatment or not.  I think CT scans are pretty damn accurate these days and the liklihood of missing stuff is pretty low risk.  But I am just a punter so feel free to take my unexpert medical advice with a pinch of salt.  

I also think that when you have cancer, everything should hinge on what they want, feel like doing, eating etc.  My husband thinks same! 

Oh I've just spotted the two item 2s in your post - had me confused for a minute 

If you're looking at a  nephrectomy it means they caught it early and that's the best outcome at this stage.  Good luck!

Hi Strongdiva, and welcome.

I'll have a go at answering your questions based on my experience this year.

Early Feb i peed some blood. My GP thought it might be infection and sent blood off for tests. Result came back not infection. So i was given an appt with Radiology for a ct scan then an appt next day in Eurology. The lady in Eurology told me i had a 40mm tumour in my bladder and a 90 mm tumour on my right kidney.

1. I was told that although i had a 90mm tumour on my kidney it hadn't spread to anywhere else. And my kidney was successfully removed and the DR said afterwards they had got all the cancer as it hadn't gone outside the capsule of the kidney.

2. my appts have been coming at me pretty fast. I was told they would.

2. I stayed in hospital for 5 nights after having my right kidney removed 7 weeks ago. Would've been quicker but i became dehydrated and had low blood pressure. And it just took the 2/3 extra nights for things to stabilise. I think it's normally 2 nights for a nephrectomy all being well.

3. I'd say yes. If you can squeeze a week away in before any op he may have to have then go for it.

Has your hubby been told what the plan is ? A nephrectomy or partial nephrectomy ? or any other treatment ?

Good luck ..and please do keep us informed how you get on as things go along.....Del.

Hi Strongdiva

I found out i had a problem with my kidney function the day I saw my surgeon before my operation.  Apparently for the past six years my results have been below half of what it should be and that was with two kidneys.  My last function test was reading 32 for my remaining kidney.  Im doing ok with it so far.

My mass was about 5cm and was contained only in the kidney.  I had a single dose of chemo directly into the bladder as a precaution as they had removed the tube from the kidney that enters the bladder.  The cancer is high grade so a higher chance of it recurring.  So far all is good, had my first review just over a week ago and there is no sign of any cancer.

From the sounds of things your husband is in a similar situation as I was and hopefully he will have a good outcome too.

You can live a perfectly good quality of life with one kidney and I intend to do that even though the remaining one is diseased.

I hope all goes well for you both and your husband has a successful outcome.

Take care x

Supertramp (Julie)