Well, this past tuesday and wednesday I had a full medical check-up, wherein they had a gander at everything that could be important…
And they found out that I have a big-ass tumor in my left kidney. In fact it is roughly as big as the kidney itself.
I have just been to my family doctor, and he has helped me make a speedy appointment with the specialist in urology at my nearest hospital.
The MRI specialist said that it looked to him like an angiomyolipoma, but of course more detailed checks will have to be done.
This has been quite a thing, I have to say. We’ll see how it goes!
Anybody here has gone through something similar? Any idea what I can expect in terms of surgery, procedures, etc? Am I looking at losing a whole kidney?
Sorry to hear this. The good news is that the loss of a single kidney usually has zero effect on a person’s health presuming the other kidney is relatively healthy. That’s one of the reasons why kidney transplants are so easily tolerated by both recipient and donor.
In general it is far far better to have an angiomyolipoma (benign) than typical renal tumors (i.e. renal cell carcinoma).
Given the tumor size the OP describes, I suspect the doc(s) will recommend treatment over observation. There are a number of non-surgical and minimally invasive surgical techniques that are in use for AMLs, including radiofrequency ablation, embolization, cryoablation etc. and partial kidney resection. A surgeon might be consulted to advise on the best way to proceed.
Good that this one was caught before it was symptomatic. Best wishes.
First, get a real diagnosis, then you can decide exactly which route you wish to take to insanity.
In the mean time, read up on CKD.
As long as the tumor is not malignant, the worst thing is diet.
If you really like colas, this is bad news - phosphorus is contraindicated.
(my right kidney is hanging on by a thread. So far, I’m quite stable with minimal symptoms.
I shifted form colas to red and yellow sodas. Colas use phosphoric acid. The others mentioned use citric acid for tanginess.
As such things go, you sound like you are getting off easy.
I lost a kidney to stones, not to a tumor, so my experience doesn’t really compare. I’ll want to hear how you are doing though, so please keep us updated.
How exactly did they find it at a checkup, did the doctor feel something weird, some kind of scan, something odd in your blood work? I just wonder because I’ve had a urinary issue lately that I’m seeing a Urologist for but it has me worried what exactly is the source of my issue. He said my prostate was inflamed but when I told him I’ve been having flank pain he didn’t really seem to investigate it, but I have another appt in a month or so.
They found it in an abdominal MRI. I got to see the images myself; the doctor showed them to me and explained what was what. He showed me the mass and told me that, judging by the image, it looked like an angiomyolipoma to him, but that consultation with a specialist in urology was essential and had to be arranged quickly (which it has).
The MRIs were done as part of a full medical check-up.
Wow. I’ve NEVER had any medical checkup that was that thorough. Are you an astronaut or something? What kind of insurance do you have? Seriously, how do you even GET TO HAVE such a thorough exam?
At my last physical, my doctor literally looked me over, listened to my heart/lungs, and that was that. I didn’t even take my clothes off. And I had breast cancer last year! Because of that I wonder if I have cancer elsewhere, but I guess I won’t know until it bursts through my stomach or something.
I live in the Netherlands and I have medical insurance through my job in an international organization. This check-up was one of those “do it once every X years” things. There were two options: A check-up fully covered by my insurance with a basic MRI examination, or a “bigger” check-up with “the works” wherein my insurance covered part of the expenses and I would pay the rest; I decided to dip in my savings a bit and pay to have the fullest examination available.
Best money I have ever spent in my life.
Further explorations, surgery and treatments from now on will be fully covered by my insurance.
All my docs told me in last month’s checkup was that I’m fat, which I could have told them myself. Now you get to stun people with your ability to pronounce angiomyolipoma!
Just want to point out that getting MRI(s) as part of a basic physical when nothing wrong is suspected is (in general) a dubious idea.
For every situation in which something potentially worrisome is caught early, there are plenty more where harmless anomalies are uncovered, leading to more tests and invasive procedures which can cause harm in themselves.
I see plenty of biopsies of enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes with old granulomatous inflammation (not metastatic tumor as was suspected/had to be ruled out), and oodles of benign thyroid nodules that were only found because someone had imaging studies for another reason - and protocol demanded a needle biopsy because the nodule(s) were at least 1 cm in size.
Although it would be a lovely personal income booster if Obamacare mandated a set of MRIs periodically for everyone…
You have my best thoughts and prayers for a quick treatment that’s as painless as possible, then a full recovery soonest, JoseB. I’m glad they spotted the tumor now. Thinking of you!
To let y’all know, since he isn’t, JoseB is going to have surgery next Monday. We’ve been discussing what should he do with the specimen… your classical bottle of formaldehyde doesn’t generally travel well (plus I don’t want to imagine the paperwork involved).
Oh hai! Well, what happened is this – After an additional series of tests, check-ups and more, I went to the specialist in the hospital where they were seeing me (in Delft) and he told me that they had neither the expertise nor the means to operate on me.
So they transferred my dossier to the University Hospital in Leiden, where there is a very famous doctor who has a lot of expertise in this kind of stuff, and a top-notch surgical team.
I am going to that hospital on the 21st (this coming monday), and as I understand the team will see me and then the anaesthesiologist will carry out the standard tests and stuff you do in preparation for surgery.
Whether they will take me immediately for surgery or not, that I do not know. Although I understand that they are going to be moving fast.
Thanks a lot for caring. You are all great people.