It's cancer...

[nobodyinparticular]

Well, I just got back from the kidney specialist today who told me the "cyst"/"lesion" (also known as a tumor) on my right kidney is cancer.

The good news:
It isn't a cancer that is generally aggressive in spreading. This means I don't have to worry about any other parts of my organs being infected.
It isn't a cancer that generally aggressive in growing. This means I don't have to worry about the smallish tumor growing too much over the next couple months.
It isn't a cancer that responds to radiation or chemotherarpy. This means I don't have to spend months and months in the hospital/at home feeling awful.
They don't have to take the entire kidney out. This means if I develop diabetes or some other kidney failure in the future, I still have a portion of a kidney to keep me alive.

The bad news:
The tumor is right by my adrenal glands, renal artery (very large vessel that supplies kidney with blood) and vena cava (largest vein in the body). This means there is some risk in surgery and all but eliminates the possibility of robotic or laparoscopic surgery. I will have to have a large incision under my ribcage which will prevent me from going in to work for a month or so.
The cancer does not respond to radiation or chemotherapy. This means if it does spread in the 4% chance, I'm pretty much screwed.
They have to remove a portion of my kidney. Who wants to have a part of their kidney removed?

So to recap, in the past month, I have found out I have to live with Crohn's disease for the rest of my life and now I have a cancerous tumor which will take a part of my kidney with it. And it was actually fortunate I went in the hospital for my Crohn's because that is the only reason the doctor saw the tumor in the first place.

I'm holding out hope I will still be okay to drink when all is said and done. Is it weird that this is one of my priorities in the face of cancer?

I have to say I'm very thankful this is something that should be take care of with a surgery and no chemotherapy.

At the same time, it's still a sock to the gut to have a doctor say those words "It's cancer." How many of you have dealt with this or know someone close to you who has dealt with this?

Pics of war wounds

Here are some pics of the surgery, incision and all.

http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/3056/kidneysurgery2.jpg

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/6489/kidneysurgery1.jpg

Close up shot

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/4937/kidneysurgerycloseup.jpg

Update after the surgery:

Okay, so more of an update now that I am a little bit more coherent (don't know how long that will last, so I'll hurry).

The urologist (who has a fond habit of touching my ***** and balls any chance he gets) took the following steps for surgery.

1) I received an epidural of fentanyl (narcotic similar to morphine) high in my spine. They stuck a huge needle in my spine and gave my spinal cord a consistent dose of drugs--this is to numb my sense from my upper chest all the way down to my hips at least. In this case it went all the way down to my ankles. This was great, but it also meant I got to have a catheter in my bladder for the entire weekend since I didn't have the peeing sensation during this time.

2) The doctor made the large slice between two of my ribs as you can see in the picture (between one floating rib and one rib that is attached by cartilage). In order to actually get to the kidney, the urologist actually split apart my two ribs ribs so that he could twist the kidney towards him and get to the tumor. In doing so, he had to cut through three separate layers of muscles on the rib cage and abdominal muscles.

3) The doctor then cut the tumor away from the kidney tissue and took a large portion of the soft kidney tissue with it, ensuring that he removed all the affected tissue. In order to do this, the doctor had to take out one of the major blood supplying arteries from the kidney because the artery traveled right over the tumor itself. The doctor then sewed the ribs together and used the staples to close up the open wound.

So I have ab and rib muscles that need to heal, loose ribs that need to reconnect and of course the kidney that needs to heal.

All in all, the process is supposed to take a good month or more for me to get back to my daily activities. The biggest source of pain right now is the torn/stretched muscles around my ribs/abs that are trying to heal. Because of these torn muscles, they have me on Val*ium to relax the muscles and prevent pain from that area. Then they also have me on oxycodone to improve my tolerance to deal with the the other sources of pain.

As of right now, I am not allowed to carry anything over 5 pounds or pee standing up. I'm pretty much bed-ridden for now, but at least I am finally home. And now I am constantly dozing in and out of sleep from all the drugs. It's nice. I finally get to relax and get a good amount of sleep.

[raiderz4life]

Damn I'm sorry to hear that NIP.

I'll keep ya in my prayers and hopefully everything will be alright.

Hopefully you can keep drinking though lol

[ImBrotherCain]

Wow... I am sorry to hear that boss. I hope all works out for the best.

About a year ago my cousin who is like a brother to me was diagnosed with leukemia. I had moved away about a year prior so it was incredibly gut wrenching knowing that I had to be 5 hours away while this was going on. He has been cancer free for about 6 months now.

It it beatable and obviously you will have the support of your family, friends and these boards.

[Hurricanes25]

Sorry to hear that NIP.

[eaglesalltheway]

Damn... sorry to hear man, but seems like your going about it right. Keep fighting, and keep us posted. I wish you nothing but the best.

[vidae]

**** man, I'm really sorry to hear this. I really am. I wish you the absolute best in your surgery and recovery.

My mom had cervical cancer and required two surgeries to completely remove it (it didn't spread thank god) and then a year later she had a tumor in her breast which was luckily nothing serious.

The hardest part is the initial surgery. It sounds like you have semi good news in that it isn't likely to spread, so hopefully they get in there, get it all out, and then get you fixed up.

If you can't drink you can't drink, and that sucks I guess, but at least you'll be alive.

Best of luck man. Thanks for sharing this with us. I know a few of us were concerned.

[D-Unit]

It's hard to know what the right words to say are but I'm so sorry to hear this about you NIP. You're so young and I can't imagine being in your shoes. It sounds like you have the right attitude, and if there's one thing I know (and I don't know too much) but it's that positive strength and attitude can go a long ways towards beating the odds. My cousin is probably around your age and he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. He's been so positive throughout this process (chemo) and he's beaten it (for now). He's in his young 20's and he married my cousin actually, but he's a great guy and I think his attitude really helped him. I hope you are doing well and I wish you nothing but the best to get through this. I feel like we go waaaaaay back even though this is a forum, I've gotten to know you all these years and I have good memories of the early days of this forum, late night AIM chats with you, ERU and the other old timers. It's crazy, but I remember our talks about a ton of things from your ex-Cowboys fan girlfriend, to your prom, religion, Jamarcus Russell/Calvin/Quinn draft talk for the Raiders... and I to this day I still picture that little kid at the A's game! LOL. Classic.

I'm pulling for ya bud. You're one of less than a handful of guys on this forum that I genuinely have a ton of respect for.

[ccB]

sorry to hear man and I hope you conquer it and have a speedy recovery.

PS: you just made me extremely paranoid that I might have cancer.

[Matthew Jones]

Really sorry to hear that. Best of luck NIP; you can do this! You're one of my favorite posters on NFLDC, let me know if you need anything.

[ElectricEye]

That's a real tough break man. I know that's probably a drastic oversimplification, but that's really all I can say. My girlfriend of four years had a serious scare with breast cancer earlier in the year that thankfully turned out to be alright. We still have some doctors appointments to go to though...and a legitimately dread every single one of them weeks before. It's heavy, scary stuff to say the least. The Crohn's is tough enough on it's own, but at least it let you catch this thing early and come out of it alright. Having it identified when you are this young has to do you some good as well. Please keep us updated on all of this, I'm sure absolutely everyone here is pulling for you.

[ncst8fan83]

Sorry to hear that. We are in a similar situation with my wife. She is pregnant with our 2nd child and may need tests in about 6 weeks to see if she has cervical cancer. Thoughts/prayers to you and yours during this tough time. Stay positive. You have a lot to live for.

[Giantsfan1080]

I'm sorry to hear that NIP. I had my kidney removed due to cancer as well so if you ever have any questions feel free to PM me.

[MetSox17]

Holy **** man, and i was actually wondering about you earlier since i hadn't seen you post in the NBA thread in a while. I'm sorry to hear about that, i'll be hoping for a quick and successful surgery. Best of luck NIP.

[diabsoule]

I really have no words, man. Sorry just doesn't seem to cut it. I wish you the best and hope and pray that everything works out for you, NIP

[slightlyaraiderfan]

Wow, don't know what to say. Sorry to hear, and good luck with kicking it's ass, i know you will!

[CashmoneyDrew]

Terrible to hear man. But keep your head up. It won't be easy, but you will beat this.

[NY+Giants=NYG]

Sorry to hear buddy! Thank def is bad news. I intern or shadow the pathology department at a hospital. I am sure they will get the specimen and can see what happens after they see what's going on. Good luck to you bro! Have faith!

Just a question, did they say what carcinoma it is? Renal cell carcinoma?

[nobodyinparticular]

Thanks for all the well wishes. They are much appreciated. I definitely plan on kicking this thing's ass.

[phlysac]

All of the best wishes in all that you're dealing with NIP.

[niel89]

Stay strong. Know that a lot of people are here to support you. Everyone is hoping for the best.

[CJSchneider]

My friend, I am praying for you. The fact that you can provide a number of "good news" facts and have a positive attitude and a fighting spirit stand in your favor. Know that you have a support system here that truly cares for you and will do everything they can for you. I believe you can and will beat this.

[Shane P. Hallam]

Thoughts and prayers are with you man. I'll be thinking about ya for sure and hoping everything goes well. Though nowhere near your type of cancer, my brother had pretty bad melanoma and was given a few months to live at one point because it was located on his cranium, but fought through it and it is gone. Same will happen with NIP for sure, I have no doubts.

[Mr. Goosemahn]

So sorry to hear that dude, I genuinely hope for the best, and thoughts and prayers will go out for you.

[Splat]

Thoughts and prayers going your way... Sorry to hear that.

[Nalej]

I've known several people who've gone through chemo so it's a blessing you don't have to go through it.
Still, I hope for safe treatment and a speedy recovery. I'll echo as well, I hope this doesn't mean you have to quit drinking but you gotta do what you gotta do.
Take care, man.

[T-RICH49]

will be sending up prayers for you man.kick cancer's butt

[ATLDirtyBirds]

Best of luck to you my man.

[wogitalia]

Sorry to hear mate, all the best for the surgery and the recovery..

Best bit of advice I have is remember to smile because you are one of the lucky ones because you caught it early and are going to kick its ass!

[TitanHope]

Prayers are with ya man. Keep a positive attitude, as that probably helped me the most. Just listen to the doctors, soak in the support of your loved ones, and load up on all the morphine ya can get! Best of luck, and like I said before, if you ever wanna talk, just message me. Same probably goes for GF1080 too.

[bhaarat316]

sucks you have cancer good luck. But you are in california and they do have a certain medicinal drug that is illegal everywhere else, which you are now eligible for.

[Giantsfan1080]

Prayers are with ya man. Keep a positive attitude, as that probably helped me the most. Just listen to the doctors, soak in the support of your loved ones, and load up on all the morphine ya can get! Best of luck, and like I said before, if you ever wanna talk, just message me. Same probably goes for GF1080 too.

Absolutely, especially because those bastards took my kidney also.

[Sloopy]

Sorry to here this man. It's good to see that you are looking at the positives and the negatives in this situation and not just the negatives. Keep that attitude and stay strong my brother. I will pray for you.

[scottyboy]

:(
i love you

[Bosanac01]

Best of luck NIP.

[JRTPlaya21]

Sorry to hear the news my good man but I know you will come out on top!!

[descendency]

That's terrible news. This can't be good for your draft stock.

[WMD]

Sorry to hear about the bad news NIP. Hopefully you can keep a positive outlook on everything. I will do my best to neg rep the cancer as much as I can.

[BRAVEHEART]

Hope You pull through, good luck.

[vikes_28]

very sorry to hear the news NIP. Hope all goes well, my prayers are with ya.

[nobodyinparticular]

So I'm going in for surgery this Friday to have the tumor removed. They will make an incision along the bottom of my rib cage to remove it. Hospital for 4 days and home for 4 weeks. Break out the video games!

[Bosanac01]

Best of luck with the surgery man. Hope everything goes as planned and you heal quick. You can stick wack off right? If not, then that would suck.

[CashmoneyDrew]

Make them serve you all of the ice cream you want.

[nobodyinparticular]

Best of luck with the surgery man. Hope everything goes as planned and you heal quick. You can stick wack off right? If not, then that would suck.

That question is irrelevant with my wife in the picture. Because I don't care what the dr says. I'm gettin some.

[nobodyinparticular]

Make them serve you all of the ice cream you want.

Good call. I'll do that.

And morphine

[MetSox17]

God damn NIP, i really hope everything turns out positively. Update us as soon as you can as to how the surgery went. Best of wishes to you and your wife and family.

[TitanHope]

And morphine

Combine that stuff with Benadryl.

Trust your Uncle TH on this.

[bantx]

good luck on the surgery! better post here first thing when you wake up from your surgery you know we're most important.

[Ness]

Good luck with everything.

[Giantsfan1080]

Combine that stuff with Benadryl.

Trust your Uncle TH on this.

Good luck NIP, you're going to fall asleep and next thing you'll feel a lot better.

Yes sir. I never knew Benadryl could knock you out like that but in the doses they were giving me before chemo it was the best thing ever.

[scottyboy]

That question is irrelevant with my wife in the picture. Because I don't care what the dr says. I'm gettin some.

you're my hero.

best of luck, you'll kick that surgery's ass. I'm not sure how that would really work or make sense...but I really wanted to say you're gonna kick somethings ass...so, yeah! go NIP!

[Paul]

Good Luck NIP. Update your NFLDC family asap, your real family can wait.

[MichaelJordanEberle (sabf)]

Best of luck, NIP

[marshallb]

Good luck, NIP, best wishes and hopefully the surgery goes well.

[ElectricEye]

Funnily enough, my girlfriend is going in to the hospital on Friday to get a tumor removed as well. I think I posted about it on here before, but we were lucky enough to come away with a good diagnosis and this is really a precautionary measure more than anything else. I was bugging out quite a bit about it for awhile before that...and I still am, even with the surgery.

So good luck man. I'll be thinking of you and wishing you well for sure on that day, especially since I'm going to be stuck in a hospital for a few days as well. I hope you get well as soon as possible.

[wogitalia]

All the best mate, hope the surgery goes as planned and a quick and full recovery!

[Vikes99ej]

Good luck man.

[the decider13]

Good luck NIP. Hurry up and get better so we can have you back.

[nobodyinparticular]

I'm on my phone right now so I will be brief. I will post a little more when I break out my laptop.

The surgery went as well as the doctor could have hoped. It was only a partial nephrectomy so I still have both kidneys. Hurts like crazy but I have a wonderful epidural to control the pain. In the hospital probably til Monday. Then off work for another month as I recover.

Pathology will come back by next Friday. Still a slight chance the tumor was benign. Will find out more in a week.

[SuperPacker]

Best of luck mate! Hope it all goes well and you make a full recovery. Im sure you'll be alright.

[BoneKrusher]

Sorry to hear this NIP, you're in my Prayers.

[MetSox17]

They didn't biopsy the tumor before they went into surgery to see if it was benign or not? Anyhow, i'm glad your surgery went well, NIP. Hope you have a quick and effective recovery.

[Smash28Dash34]

GL man. I have a cousin who has Crohn's man nobody should have to live with that.

[nobodyinparticular]

Going home today!

[eaglesalltheway]

So I assume that's a good thing, haha, good to hear man.

[nobodyinparticular]

They didn't biopsy the tumor before they went into surgery to see if it was benign or not? Anyhow, i'm glad your surgery went well, NIP. Hope you have a quick and effective recovery.

No, no biopsy on the tumor ahead of time. It's a difficult place to get at it is, but this tumor was so close to some important veins and arteries they didn't want to risk slicing one open. The benefits of kidney biopsies aren't worth th risk either. The numbers bear out that the vast majority of ther rumors are cancerous to the point that they are treated as cancer until proven otherwise.

Also there are so many false negatives for biopsies that the best process is just to remove it ad then figure out what type of cancer it is.

[nobodyinparticular]

As promised (although much later than I expected/hoped) here is a little bit more of an update. I apologize for any incoherence as I am on loads of muscle Relaxants (Val ium) and Oxycodone right now. I feel like I am asleep right now, but I also feel like I'm dancing in the rain. Weird, right?

Here are some pics of the surgery, incision and all.

http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/3056/kidneysurgery2.jpg

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/6489/kidneysurgery1.jpg

Close up shot

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/4937/kidneysurgerycloseup.jpg

EDIT: Vali um is censored? Huh.............

[ElectricEye]

Holy crap dude. That doesn't look like very much fun at all. Glad to hear you got home.

[ImBrotherCain]

Glad your doing alright! That is one big incision but you know what they say chicks dig scars.

Also did they have to shave your chest or do you keep that all nice and waxed lol.

[nobodyinparticular]

Glad your doing alright! That is one big incision but you know what they say chicks dig scars.

Also did they have to shave your chest or do you keep that all nice and waxed lol.

I am actually very hairless. I don't get chest hair or even much leg hair. My nickname in school was "Rufus the Naked Mole Rat" because of it.

Oh man, they had to stick a catheter in me for the first 4 days too. It was awful... Especially when the catheter wouldn't drain so my bladder kept filling up with urine.

Also, I had to carry the catheter bag with me, but the nurse kept lifting the bag above my waist. That meant I felt a good 32 ounces of urine forced back through my ***** into my bladder and I had not control of it whatsoever. Ugh, the nightmares.

[Jakey]

Best of luck my man! My 'mum' (i'm english) went through the same thing, it wasnt nice but she made it through, and she is a much stronger person for it! I'm sure everything will be fine, but you'll be in my thoughts anyhow!

[nobodyinparticular]

By the way, with the drugs right now, I understand the problems people have posting when they are totally wasted. It has taken so much energy to write this out semi-coherently and many times I have re-read my posts and asked myself "What the hell is that supposed to say"

[CJSchneider]

Nice scar. I will continue to pray for you.

[ninerfan]

Looks nasty. Your in all our thoughts & prayers so stay upbeat & positive with this

[bantx]

That scar is something fierce

[D-Unit]

Wow that's Intense. Hope things get better from here, NIP. Wish you nothing but the best.

[eaglesalltheway]

That is a nasty looking cut, but good to hear your doing relatively well. And honestly, you're probably going to be surprised how well that thing heals. I'm not saying it won't be noticeable, but as long as you listen to the doctors and don't do anything to strain yourself enough to pop those staples loose, you will heal over good. Keep truckin' through it man.

[nobodyinparticular]

This scar is going to be so baller. I'm going to take my shirt off every time I play a pickup game of basketball or football.

[nobodyinparticular]

Okay, so more of an update now that I am a little bit more coherent (don't know how long that will last, so I'll hurry).

The urologist (who has a fond habit of touching my ***** and balls any chance he gets) took the following steps for surgery.

1) I received an epidural of fentanyl (narcotic similar to morphine) high in my spine. They stuck a huge needle in my spine and gave my spinal cord a consistent dose of drugs--this is to numb my sense from my upper chest all the way down to my hips at least. In this case it went all the way down to my ankles. This was great, but it also meant I got to have a catheter in my bladder for the entire weekend since I didn't have the peeing sensation during this time.

2) The doctor made the large slice between two of my ribs as you can see in the picture (between one floating rib and one rib that is attached by cartilage). In order to actually get to the kidney, the urologist actually split apart my two ribs ribs so that he could twist the kidney towards him and get to the tumor. In doing so, he had to cut through three separate layers of muscles on the rib cage and abdominal muscles.

3) The doctor then cut the tumor away from the kidney tissue and took a large portion of the soft kidney tissue with it, ensuring that he removed all the affected tissue. In order to do this, the doctor had to take out one of the major blood supplying arteries from the kidney because the artery traveled right over the tumor itself. The doctor then sewed the ribs together and used the staples to close up the open wound.

So I have ab and rib muscles that need to heal, loose ribs that need to reconnect and of course the kidney that needs to heal.

All in all, the process is supposed to take a good month or more for me to get back to my daily activities. The biggest source of pain right now is the torn/stretched muscles around my ribs/abs that are trying to heal. Because of these torn muscles, they have me on Val*ium to relax the muscles and prevent pain from that area. Then they also have me on oxycodone to improve my tolerance to deal with the the other sources of pain.

As of right now, I am not allowed to carry anything over 5 pounds or pee standing up. I'm pretty much bed-ridden for now, but at least I am finally home. And now I am constantly dozing in and out of sleep from all the drugs. It's nice. I finally get to relax and get a good amount of sleep.

[njx9]

the staples sort of make me cringe... good luck on the recovery.

[nobodyinparticular]

I've updated the original post with everything we've covered so far.

[eaglesalltheway]

This thread should be looked back on in the future and will be known as "how to handle cancer-like a boss"

About how long did the surgery take, total?

[WMD]

NIP, your scar would be a Top 3 pick in a scar draft.. only behind Scar from the Lion King, and the scar that posts here.

[Jakey]

I honestly think the kindness and community on these boards would give most people the will to beat cancer. Makes me proud to be a member when everyone pulls together for another poster!

[Philliez01]

NIP, your scar would be a Top 3 pick in a scar draft.. only behind Scar from the Lion King, and the scar that posts here.

But ahead of Scarlett Johansson.

[Brodeur]

NIP, your scar would be a Top 3 pick in a scar draft.. only behind Scar from the Lion King, and the scar that posts here.

Like scar on the forum would go ahead of NIP's scar. You have no idea the upside of his scar.

I'm glad to hear that all went pretty well birthday compadre!

[TitansCJftw]

Best of luck to you going foward, glad to hear things are going positvely so far!

[bigbluedefense]

Woah, I had no idea. I rarely ever visit the off topic forum so I didn't know about this.

My thoughts and prayers bro. You'll beat this.

[nobodyinparticular]

Out of the hospital and staples out

It feels so good to be at home without the nurses (most of them incompetent) coming in every 4 hours to bug me as I'm in a narcotic induced slumber. I have a few updates coming up, specifically about the epidural they gave me for pain control, the staple removal and the results of the pathology.

The epidural:

This is one of the things I was most nervous about going into the surgery. For those who don't know, this is where they stick a huge needle in your back and administer narcotic drugs directly into your spinal cord. The most common use for this is in pregnancy and in that instance, the drug is generally administered just once with the needle. In my case, however, the doctor was aiming for a numb torso for the entire weekend, so they actually slipped a catheter in my spine with a consistent drip of narcotics directly to the central nervous system.

I will tell you I barely felt a thing when they first put it in me and the drugs worked like a charm. They gave me a constant drip but they also gave me a button to push when I needed a little extra pain killing strength. It was amazing. And this is what it looked like.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v229/nobodyinparticular/Epiwithtape.jpg

Yes, that is blood draining from my spine along the catheter, but the thing worked so well. My biggest complaint for the weekend was that the vast amount of tape on my back coupled with a nerve-dead midsection made it nearly impossible to shift in bed. Secondly, because my entire torso was nerve-dead, I had to have a catheter in my bladder--one that rarely drained properly. It was a constant irritation trying to relieve my bladder. And then you had nurses lifting the bladder bag above my waist, draining 2 pints instantaneously BACK UP MY **** and into my bladder, all full of bubbles. I'll tell you.... that felt good...

Back to my back, here are a couple pics of my back after the tape was removed.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v229/nobodyinparticular/Episcratchedback.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v229/nobodyinparticular/Episcratchedbackcloseup-1.jpg

More updates to come.

[Brodeur]

Do you have a Psalm tattooed on your back? That's......unique. That looks pretty rough though, so kudos for handling it well.

[raiderz4life]

I'm not gonna lie...I think that tatt is dope as hell lol

[Stash]

Wow, that's a nasty looking scar. Good luck, dude.

[Mr. Goosemahn]

Just saw this, really glad to hear you're doing better!

[Sloopy]

Sick scar, awesome tattoo. When you get through all of this you will be a chick magnet.

Good to hear that your home and that things are on track to getting back to normal. Keep the updates coming

[TimD]

im really glad to hear youre doing well and at home.

sorry for bringing up negative news regarding cancer, but my roommate from last year (diagnosed with liver cancer last january) has pretty much exhausted all of his options and the cancer has spread to his pancreas. the last i heard he was like the 20th person in the entire world to attempt this new type of medicine as a last ditch effort. and as much as i hate to say it, he did it to himself with his prescription drug addiction but that doesnt change the fact that the poor kid will pass away way too young. the whole situation has further reminded me how precious life is.

again, NIP, im real happy for you man. good luck with your recovery