It was the 1st of October of 2009, when I received my Kidney Cancer diagnosis. Just shortly before that, I got really scared when I saw dark red blood while I was urinating. I picked up the phone right away and made an appointment with an Urologist. Since we both speculated that I probably had kidney stones, I was sent to get a CT-Scan to get clarity.
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.
It’s exactly two weeks now since I had my surgery done. Time to have a look at the current situation.
I am happy to report that the recovery process is going remarkably well. There are obviously a few things I can’t do, like stretching, jogging, lifting heavy things, but I can walk and move around normally. What amazes me the most, though; there aren’t any dietary restriction and the fact that I don’t feel any difference living with one kidney only.
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.
However, I did make a decision to be extra cautious. Meat, I never really liked anyway, so it was easy for me to scratch it off the list entirely. The same is true for candy and all the sugary stuff. And also all alcoholic beverages. When my wife got diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year, we both immediately changed to a very healthy lifestyle, which means cutting out everything that could be detrimental to our health.
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.
It was a no brainer to me. Clearly, it was time to cut out everything that could potentially cause my body producing high amounts of uric acid. So I decided to jump on the healthy train with my wife. Since then we try to avoid eating too much processed food, but rather concentrate on greens, vegetables, fruits and a whole list of grains, including amaranth, millet, brown rice pasta and so forth.
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 a independend kidney cancer information on his Website about Kidney Cancer , where he talks about how his own and his wife’s cancer diagnoses have changed their lives.
