Update On Rod
HEALTH UPDATE WED 23 SEPT
First, let me say that I feel OK.
Today I went to Bristol Southmead Hospital for a consultation with a urologist after having had a CT scan recently.
I saw the scans. My right kidney has a very large growth that effectively doubles the size of the kidney. It is a cancer. A big one. Interestingly, it would have been missed entirely were it not for the large amounts of blood and clots in my urine a little while ago. That has cleared up totally now. (Effectively, like any cut, it had healed over and stopped).
So….. the answer to the problem will be to remove my right kidney completely along with the cancer, which appears to be self contained. That can be done with a general anaesthetic and with keyhole surgery, staying in hospital for three nights.
However, there is possibly a complication. My kidney functions are pretty low. A young person has a GFR of 90 or above, which can diminish normally with age to 60 in a 70 year old. Dialysis is needed at a level of 15. My GFR level is 35. Therein lies the problem. If they remove one kidney then potentially that level of 35 would be cut in half, dangerously close to the 15 level which would be life changing. In such a case then the surgeon would not remove my kidney, but attempt to remove as much of the cancer as possible.
So tomorrow I have to have another test. I will be injected with a radioactive substance, followed by more blood tests and a CT scan to see if both kidneys are performing badly, or just one of them. It is possible that the “bad” kidney with the growth is performing very badly. If so, then they will go ahead and remove that kidney (along with the tumor). If both kidneys are absorbing the radioactive substance equally, then they will opt for just trying to remove the tumor. I will be able to come home tomorrow after the scan, and the urologist will phone me on Friday with the results.
Thankfully, I have been able to cope with this news reasonably well. I’ll try my best to keep in the same frame of mind over the next few days. How? I put my trust in God, and I am influenced by the words of Jesus. “Do not worry” and “Do not be afraid”
Matthew 6 25-34
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” “34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Sound advice.