I heard back from the doctors and it looks like I'll be heading that way soon. I have a few things to work out, but they think I'm a good candidate!!
Okay, I've received a lot of questions about my health so I guess it's time for an update.
First, I really appreciate all of the concern. It's nice to know people care. I'm even hearing from people I've never met. Gotta love the internet :-)
I went to a Radiologist a couple of weeks ago on a Thursday. He was ready to do a procedure called Cryoablation. This is where they insert a probe through your back into the kidney and freeze the cancer. This is a very easy procedure and you stay in the hospital for about 4 hours. This sounds much better than taking my whole kidney. That would leave me in the hospital for 4 days, two weeks out of work, 6 - 8 weeks for a complete recovery, and a lifetime of worrying about my remaining kidney.
Then, he called me back on Friday to tell me he had discussed this with a urologist and the best thing for me to do was to have the kidney removed and move on with life. If you've met me, you probably already know this pushed me over the edge. I was already stressed and this made me furious.
I told my wife that doctors were idiots and I was going to do nothing at all. I was going to keep my kidney and just have a new CT scan in a year to see if it had progressed. This didn't go over well!! She was concerned that I was making a selfish decision and risking my life. I was irrational for a few days and then I got on the internet and got to work.
So, where does this leave me? I've done a lot of research and found that Cryoablation is the way of the future. I found an artice that says Johns Hopkins University did a study and it's 95% accurate. Even when it doesn't kill all of the cancer, it's slow growing, so they just go back and do it again. I've decided this is what I'm going to do. The doctors no longer have a say! I will travel if necessary to get this done. I believe with all of my heart that I'm doing the right thing.
Here's a link to the article, let me know what you think:
http://www.newsmax.com/health/cryoablation_cancer/2008/03/17/80945.html
Jack
No comments:
Post a Comment