Surgical Outcome and Recovery

In all honesty, it was many days before I truly knew and understood the full outcome of my surgery. Even though Dr. Wernberg had been in the following day to explain everything, and Janet had told me things, I was so drugged up, I did not grasp what I had been told.

Once I finally began to heal and they decreased the amount of pain killers, I finally understood most of what had happen during the surgery.  In a nutshell, they could not remove all of the cancer.  They were able to remove the large mass, described in size as larger than a football.  However, there was more cancer within the chest wall that was inoperable and it was too dangerous to try and remove the part coming through my ribs. I also learned they had found the mass was not only attached to the kidney and liver, but also attached to a small area of my lower right lung.  This meant they had to remove that portion of the lung.  They also removed my gall bladder and 80% of my diaphram.  This was repaired by replacing the area with mesh.

Dr. Wernberg was genuinely upset they could not get all the cancer, but she said it would have been too dangerous for them to attempt anymore than they had.  She said she even called in a specialist during surgery to look at the ribs and chest wall area.  They said it was just too risky to continue.  One of her exact comments to me, which I will never forget is, "All and all, Cindy, the best way for me to describe it is: I decided I liked you more, than I hated your cancer."

It's hard for me to put into words how I felt when I truly realized they had not gotten everything.  I also learned that the biopsies taken of the remaining cancer cells during the surgery show further aggressive Sarcomatoid RCC.  I was so sore from the surgery, I tried to concentrate on my recovery and put all this and my feelings about it aside.

To me, my recovery felt like hell.  I thought I would never feel good again.  I had a chest tube, a catheter, two IV's, leg pressure cuffs, and oxygen.  There were more tube's attached to me than I could keep track of.  Everytime I moved, I hurt from the chest down and constantly had to know where those tubes were.

Janet was there night and day being my personal care taker and cheer leader.  She was wonderful!!  At times though, I was so annoyed when she pushed me to get up and walk, or do my beathing exercises. When I look back now, I know what she did must have helped in my recovery because I was released from the hospital after 8 days!

Me, the day before my discharge.