[Guest]

Hi -
I'm new to this board. had a radical nephrectomy/full hysterectomy on 9/29/02. dr. said that the tumor on my lower right kidney was malignant renal cell carcinoma, small and encapsulated, which is good news. i'm 43 years old, female, and i teach 3rd grade in very small town. i feel very much as though i am being blown off by my dr, who keeps minimizing anything i ask him or tell him. i am afraid right now because i am still sick and tired, although i am back at work full time. dr said they got everything and nothing further was recommended. yet, i am dehydrated (i drink tons of water), shaky, nauseous, tired etc. probably all symptoms of post surgery. but still, my mother was told the same thing after her cancer surgery for pancreatic cancer and they were wrong. i feel really alone here. there's no one to share my fears with about recurrence. how can i be more assertive with my doc about my fears and questions? would love to hear from survivors. thanks.

[Guest]

Hi claudia,

It's me, puppycakes. You and I have met on the CSOLN board. I have to tell you that it's a much better place to seek support and advice because it's so active. Hardly anyone posts here, as you can tell by the date of the most recent post before yours! Your fears of recurrence are normal and understandable, especially given your poor mom's misdiagnosis. I can tell you that if your RCC was encapsulated - especially if it was only stage 1 or 2 - your chances of never having another recurrence are very good. Of course there are exceptions to this, but there always are - every individual case is different. But things look good for you and me, and my cancer was stage 3. Of course you feel tired and shaky! Girl, you had two invasive major surgeries at once, so no wonder! Immediately after my surgery I felt wonderful, part of the honeymoon aspect of goin into surgery with a death sentence and comin out of it with an eleventh hour reprieve. But oh boy, did I crash and burn a few weeks later! I went back to teaching four months after my surgery. By that time I was feelin pretty good but I still tired very easily and suffered quite a bit of pain. I called the stitches and cramps in my side "twingies" - do you experience that, too? Friends who have had hysterectomies have told me it took them a full year before they felt back to normal, and that was pretty much the case with me after my nephrectomy....and you had BOTH! Your doctor is a butthead, but you don't have to let that get to you. Insist that you have follow-up chest x-rays done every 3 months for this first year, then every six months for four years after that (if you aren't already), and tell him you want a ct-scan every six months for a year, and then annually after that. Don't settle for less. It's your body, not his, but he has signed an oath to take care of it, so make him do it. And those cavalier comments he makes? Delete them from the hard drive of your mind and dump em into the trashbin. The man's lint. Good luck, God bless, and see you on the other board!
[quote] Hi -
I'm new to this board. had a radical nephrectomy/full hysterectomy on 9/29/02... [/quote]