Hi Sass85,
Waiting can be a nightmare. Try not to worry about it. Easier said than done.
That said...is there anything you can do to reduce the waiting time? Also, what is your situation?
How did you discover you might have Kidney Cancer? Did you have symptoms or was i an incidental finding?
For example, I had a CT scan for possible appendicitis. It turns out I had a stone in my appendix which was causing a bit of a grumble and on the other side of my body, sitting nice and quietly minding its own business, was a 3cm tumour on my left kidney. I had no symptoms. I was really lucky as this meant I had caught it pretty early.
My surgeon told me anything under 3cm is often observed to see if or how fast it grows, so if it is small, the waiting is probably not going to make things worse even if it is cancer.
Peace of mind is a great thing, so if you feel you are going nowhere, people often don't like to do this, but be a squeeky wheel. I was getting a non-urgent heart stress test done but my appoint was 2 months away. I called them weekly to see if they could do it sooner. A cancellation came up and they called me, I only waited 3 weeks.
For my cancer treatment I felt mine was very quick. I went private. I went to a Private Emergency Department as my wife works there. They organised my scans in the hospital, so I had a CT scan within 2 hours of entering the building. I had my results an hour later. Because I was still in the ED (I felt fine but was simply there to get seen to quickly) I got told my results by a doctor...the scan was basically a diagnosis of Renal Cell Carcinoma. At this point I have a diagnosis and I only went in because I had a 1/10 pain in my right groin that had lasted for 3 days (it disappeared never to come back that night, haven't felt it since.) I went in with a groin grumble and 3 hours later effectively have a diagnosis of cancer.
The next bit was pure luck for me. The ED Doctor gave me a referral to a Urologist. There was a Urologist consulting in the hospital that morning. He saw me within an hour. The scan was 100% proof I had cancer in his option. He organised another CT of my chest to check for spread and my operation was booked for his first free time...about three weeks from that time. I got my chest CR results (all clear) and went home about another hour later. I got there at 6am witha groin strain or grumbling appendix and left less than 5 hours later with two CT scan results, a cancer diagnosis and life saving surgery booked three weeks later. It happened so quick I didn't have time to worry about it
Those three weeks were slow. They dragged in. I think it would've been worse if I had to wait 3 weeks for a diagnosis, but I had that already. I knew what I was dealing with and it was 3 weeks to prepare for surgery and rehab. I asked my surgeon if he could do the operation at a different hospital sooner. The answer was no, he only had so many slots available, etc. He also assured me that 3 weeks would make no difference clinically for kidney cancer at my size and stage.
My advice for you? If you don't have a diagnosis yet...push to get one. call doctors, annoy people for results. My urologist didn't tell me my pathology results for days. I had to chase up his rooms from my hospital bed...I bumped into him while I was slowly walking around the hospital ward and had to remind him...he had received them days earlier but forgot to tell me I had clear margins!
If you are able to go private...can you do that for a diagnosis? Can you get a private referral to a Urologist and be seen sooner than in the public system? That doesn't mean you have to have a private Operation. At least you will know what you are dealing with and what your priority is, which you can then take back to the public system...show your GP and see if it moves you up (or down!) the priority!
I was really lucky. Stars aligned for me. If you feel like things aren't moving as quickly as you'd like...speak up. Nobody else will!
Good luck with your journey...and even if it is Kidney Cancer, you can deal with it. I'm 1.5 years post op and fortunately haven't seen any recurrence. is till get regular scans and worry about every ache or pain, but so far so good!
