My life after I lost a Kidney to Cancer
On October 1st of 2009, I was diagnosed with Kidney Cancer. A few weeks prior to that, I had encountered dark red blood in my urine which alerted me to consult an Urologist. After some routine checks I was sent to get a CT-Scan to confirm what we thought was a kidney stone.
We were wrong. The CT-Scan revealed a large mass in my left kidney. On November 30th, my kidney was removed via a “laparoscopic robotic radical nephrectomy” – the entire removal of the organ using a minimally invasive technique and the assistance of a surgical robot.
This is a short report on how I feel two weeks after I had the surgery done.
To my surprise, I am doing very well and I can’t complain. Apparently, it’s too early at this point to start working out again. I also have to be careful with lifting up heavy items, or just in general all activities that could put strain on my abdomen. But what I really couldn’t understand at first: the doctors told me, that I will have no or only very limited dietary restrictions.
I thought that there would have been a short period of adjustment until the remaining kidney fully takes over for the missing one. But no, there is absolutely no noticeable difference. Except for avoiding eating foods in excess that are high in potassium, such as bananas and things that cause high levels of uric acids (red meats), I was told that I can eat whatever I want.
Well, I personally have a slightly different take on that. First of all, I don’t eat meat at all. I was never a big meat eater to begin with and started completely staying away from any kind of meat shortly after my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. I also don’t eat any sweets, I never had a sweet tooth, so that’s no real sacrifice for me. And as for the alcohol, I stopped drinking completely as of February of this year.
The uric acid levels in my body where alarmingly high a year ago. Not only that, but I had gout attacks as a result. Anybody who ever had to experience a gout attack knows what I’m talking about. The pain is excruciating and so far only the stent that was inserted into my body after the Cystoscopy, has topped in terms of experiencing pain.
I weighed my options and the decision was made quickly. I had to stop consuming anything that could cause my body producing high amounts of uric acid. And how did I do that? Very simple. I just joined my wife and adopted her new eating habits. A lot of fresh veggies, a lot of green stuff like green smoothies; fruits, green tea and healthy grains like brown rice, amaranth and millet. And of course, trying to avoid processed food as much as possible.
I still do eat ridiculously big amounts of food and I probably will do so for the rest of my life. Nonetheless, since we only eat good quality stuff with a low glycemic index, I lost a good amount of weight and I am now in the ‘ideal range’ again.
Okay, in sum: considering that I just had surgery done on me, I am feeling great. A few things still have to wait, activities such as working out. It’s too early, yet, I need to wait until I am fully recovered.
But other than that, I’m doing great.
The author Tony Ulrich provides kidney cancer information on his kidney cancer website where he talks about how his own and his wife’s cancer diagnoses have changed their lives.