MY STORY…. so far!

By Wendy Pickering

Last April I was feeling different, tired and uncomfortable after eating and also tenderness around my sternum.

So made an appointment with the doctors, had blood tests, came back okay, endoscope in stomach as I suffer from reflux, all okay, tried different gastric tablets, felt no different.  The doctor then said the next step is ultrasound scan, I said okay (BEST THING I COULD HAVE DONE).  The scan showed nothing wrong with stomach area, by chance the sonographer said might as well check your kidneys, right kidney, okay, left kidney, you may have a cyst.
Following day, phone going mad, (ultra sound scan was further studied by a radiographer after visit), you need an appointment with the Urology department, you need a CT scan,…..3 weeks later 26th September 2016, 4 days before my birthday!! The results showed 95% sure you have 6.6 tumour, this is when the NUMBness happened!  We want you to have another CT scan to check other areas, had on 27th September 2016, but did not get results till 3rd October 2016, longest 7 days ever!
Okay, cancer is only in left kidney (I have hope)……29th October left kidney removed, but not as easy as it should have been.  My bowel artery was clamped instead of my kidney artery so keyhole surgery turned into open surgery to retrieve the clamp from my bowel artery, spent longer in hospital, 5 days of this in ICU.
Beginning of December, results from removed kidney, tumour slightly further down kidney than expected but not penetrated main vein, but very close, surrounding cells show as normal, more hope!……31st Jan, first scan post op……results due end 20th February 2017! Fingers crossed!
Last week was kidney awareness week and I told my story to my Facebook friends, which was hard but I admit it felt good.  This week I wanted to tell my story to my kidney cancer family.  I waited until this week because I wanted to see if I could make it up the Old Man of Coniston Mountain in Cumbria, which I have done many times, except with two kidneys.  Yesterday (12/02/17) I managed it with one kidney, 3 1/2mths after surgery.  I don’t know what lies ahead but I’m not sitting waiting for it, don’t get me wrong I have off days, but while I have hope I am carrying on with life.
 
Thank you for reading
Wendy xx