Kidney Cancer Surgery ?

Hi friend, I have literally just come back from the hospital and i have cancer of the kidney and they are going to remove my kidney. I'm also wanting to find out about what the surgery is like. The consultant said he would look around at a few othe anomalies which arent cancer.  My next step is an MRI scan then the operation. I don't know if i should be worried about them finding something else or what,  i will follow this post to try and find some answers, good luck my friend 

Hi, sorry to hear your news, and it's normal to be shocked and go through a range of emotions! It's scary to think there's a tumor inside you, and you want to know when it will be removed. As I understand it from reading other posts, and googling. Tumors below 4cm's are watcch and wait, those above become operable, depending on other factors and treatments. Stay strong friend

Hi Jamesj, Im going into sugery Friday this week and my mass was 4.5cm 6 months ago. Im having a partial nephrectomy. Then it'll all be over and after 6 weeks I'll be back to full health...Dont worry it will all be fine. Take care. Lxx♡

Good luck with your surgery Friday LAR!

Hello! Sorry would you be able to give me some more information on what happened 6 months ago and why you waited ? All new to me sorry. And also what were your symptoms and how did you find out?

Hi mate. Yes from looking around it seems like that’s the case which is a bit of shock to me. I spoke to urology department yesterday who said they can’t tell me how long for results. The waiting is hardest part. Thanks for the message mate wishing you all the best 

Hi Lar, goood luck with your surgery on Friday I wish you all the best. You said it was 4.5cm 6 months ago? Do they know what size it is now? Does that mean you will keep part of your kidney yes? 

Hi Jamesj123,

I hope it's okay with you if I jump in here as I'm going to guess that Lar is now caught up in having surgery today (wishing you lots and lots of luck Lar).

I had my surgery just over 6 weeks ago after they found a 5cm mass in my kidney on an MRI. I then had to wait about a 10 days for a CT scan...the waiting is very hard I agree. They told me that renal cancer is usually slow growing, so I should not worry about the wait. I then waited just over a month for the surgery. 

The CT scan confirmed that there was no sign it had spread, but it wasn't until they removed the tumour (and in my case the whole kidney) that they were able to confirm the pathology and say what kind of renal cancer and grade it was. Based on the pathology results they then suggested that after surgery it would be a good to have immunotherapy to reduce the chance that tumours will grow somewhere else. I am due to start the immunotherapy in 3 days.

My feedback to you is to follow up on your CT scan results and and follow on any results. Nobody wants to be nusiance but the NHS is stretched and things can get delayed/overlooked for no reason.... politely making sure things are progressing is the only way I could help manage my anxiety when waiting for results or surgery dates etc. The staff should be perfectly understanding and helpful no one likes to wait when so much is at stake.

I know I rang up and asked the urology nurse assigned to me the exact same question as you, how long does it take to get CT scan results?  I was given a rough estimate, which meant that at least I had some idea of how long I needed to wait. I was told that CT scan results can take 4-6weeks to be reported and then the report and scan gets reviewed at a weekly meeting of the multidisciplinary team (MDT) of doctors. The nurse even me rang me to let me know when it had been reviewed by the MDT. After they reviewed it they get in touch with you about what next steps are appropriate. So to my mind it does seem a bit hard on you that you haven't been given a rough idea of how long to wait. Don't be reluctant to contact them and ask again about how long a wait you should expect, they should know better than to leave you just hanging like this as it only stresses patients out more during an already very stressful time.

My advice to you is whenever they tell you what will happen next ask when you should expect to hear from them about this next step, and when should you expect that next step to happen. I'm always being told to follow up with them if I haven't heard anything by X number of days.

I hope that this has given you some answers to your questions. I wish you the very best of luck my friend.