Hi @JC56
I was diagnosed with Stage 1 Kidney Cancer in May and had an op to remove it in June. Mine was slightly smaller (3.3cm in scans, then revised to 2.8cm once removed.) I was Stage 1a, hadn't spread, phew. The only fly in the ointment, it was Gradee 3, so relatively aggressive, although caught small. Like you, mine was an incidental finding when I went for a CT scan for suspected appendicitis (which turned out to be an appendix stone, didn't even know that was a thing!) On reflection, I maybe did have some minor symptoms that I ignored...5 months earlier at Christmas I felt a bit run down, had a bit of a sore belly/side and put it down to having just moved house (moving lots of boxes and furniture) and Christmas/New Year overindulging in food and alcohol. The aches and pains went away just after New Year, so I did nothing about it, and I had no recurrence even after my diagnosis.
My Urologist took one look at my scan and said definitely cancer, it's almost never anything else. He said we had three options, do a biopsy now, do nothing and scan in a few months time and see how much it has changed, or take it out. His advice was, I am relatively young (47) and mostly healthy, we could to a biopsy but we are already very sure it's cancer so a biopsy might increase the risk of it spreading. We could scan and wait, but even if it was slow growing it would need to come out some point in my life. I could wait until it got bigger but there wasn't really much point, I was just increasing my risk of it spreading, so surgery was really my only sensible option. I definitely didn't have it 3 years earlier as I'd had other CT/MRI imaging for my back surgery, in his opinion I'd probably had it about 6 months (so just before Christmas...)
I had a partial nephrectomy (left) which removed the tumour and a small amount of kidney. I'm lucky in that I have more than 1.5 kidneys left. Surgery was a hand assisted laprascopic partial nephrectomy. I have a scar vertically from just under my belly button to just above it, maybe 6-8cm. I also have a 1cm scar about 8cm above my belly button (If I tense my core muscles it looks like a second belly button!) I also have a small 2cm scar down at the bottom left of my abdomen, roughly where underwear would sit. There's a drain hole mid way between those two small scars. Three small scars, one a bit bigger, but not huge.
Radical Nephrectomy might be a bit different. In terms of recovery, Radical probably has different complications than partial...my repaired kidney started to leak. I had a lot of blood in my urine, and scans revealed urine pooling in my abdomen. I went back in to get a kidney stent inserted, which stayed in for 6 weeks. You won't have the risk of that complication if your kidney is removed (you may have different issues obviously!) Radical is also usually a shorter op, it's quicker to take a kidney out than it is to repair one.
The stent was a bit limiting for me. It got installed at week 2 and was in for 6 weeks. My surgeon told me to avoid all exercise until the stent was out. This is because any increase in heart rate increased my chance of developing a bleed in the repaired kidney. This may or may not be the case for radical nephrectomy, I don't know. I generally felt OK, I was off pain meds about 10 days post op. I could maybe have come off sooner, but chose not to. I was told to avoid lifting anything over 2Kg for 6 weeks, then no more than 10Kg until 12 weeks. After that, slowly return to normal activity. Most of this is to allow your internal wounds to heal and avoid complications with hernias immediately and further down the line. At 12 weeks I moved some floorstanding speakers in the house. Maybe 20Kg each, moved them 20 meters. My belly was aching the next day. I'm a bit more careful now, but I can pick up my 13Kg dog and carry him with no issues (he's deaf and blind so gets himself into stupid places and needs picked up!)
I was in hospital for 5 days I think (might've been 4.) When I came out I could look after myself...toilet, cleaning myself, making light meals. I didn't drive for 6 weeks through choice. You also feel every single lump and bump in the road. You shouldn't drive on the strong pain killers, so that may be limiting. My doc said I could go back to my desk job after 4-6 weeks, but we pushed that back 2 weeks due to the stent.
I now do a lot of walking, up to 10km per day. I feel generally OK, but still need to build up some fitness. I've got a bit of a sore back this week, so I'm going to go see my GP. I have a slight complication in that I had back surgery 3 years ago as well, so I may have sore back that is a sore muscle, a disc issue or my slight pain could be kidney related. I had been to my GP once in 10 years prior to cancer, but now I'm not going to mess about and at least talk to a medical professional rather than keep it to myself. I get the odd twinge around my main scar. 1/10 pain for a fraction of a second if I twist the wrong way too quickly. In the grand scheme of things, nothing really.
Eating and drinking...no change. I had nausea in hospital as they gave me morphine. As soon as they stopped that, the nausea stopped. No issues with lack of appetite. My surgeon told me to eat a normal, healthy diet, nothing special for kidneys. Drink plenty of water, keeps the kidney's flowing. As for drinking, again, he told me nothing special other than plenty of water. Alcohol is also fine, but as a doctor he insisted alcohol in moderation. He said this was general doc advice rather than specific to kidney cancer. He also told me to wait until the stent was out before drinking alcohol, but once that was out, just normal medical advice/guidelines.
I found my appetite went down a bit as I was sitting around a lot. I lost about 8Kg in total, most of it would be muscle mass. I lost a lot of fitness in a short time. I used to walk loads, jog a bit, and play football. I'll get back to all of them, but getting that fitness and stamina back is a slow process. I'm doing the walking but feel the running and football are still beyond me. I've played two rounds of golf using a buggy...no issues with swinging a golf club. Shot distance is a bit less, but that's fitness rather than feeling restricted in any way.
I have been fortunate and didn't need any medication for cancer, so I don't have any of the side effects these treatments can cause. The operation itself was relatively straightforward for me, I did have some complications, but in retrospect, I was really lucky. No allergic reactions, no wound infections, etc.
Sleeping...for the first week I slept on my back. I then slept on the opposite side from the opp (so my right) but now I can sleep any way I want. I might get the odd slight twinge if I'm stretching that main scar but it lasts as long as you are tugging your skin and goes away if you move. It never wakes me up. For the first few weeks I did need to get up during the night to pee. This went away and now I don't have any urgent need to go, or wake up because of it. I probably drink more water than I used to, so I do go slightly more often than I used to but that's probably no bad thing. It's not something that bothers my sleep any more though.
Gardening...I'm mowing the lawn, pushing a petrol mower. Maybe 300/350sqm of pretty flat grass. I have planted some pot plants, repotted others, etc. Nothing too heavy, no digging potatoes, laying turf, etc, but I've carried big bags of soil recently with no ill effects. Just be a bit careful and use a barrow to move things that you might've picked up before, etc. I was mowing the lawn at about 8 weeks, post op but that made me tired rather than sore.
Other than my sore back...my next step in treatment is an abdominal ultrasound in December. 6 months from my operation. My Urologist has said he hopes there is no recurrence, and if that is the case I will have an abdominal ultrasound then CT scan rotating every 6 months for at least 5 years. Quite probably for life.
