This will be a bit of a different post than the usual ones have been, a little more personal instead of just a round up of the day's happenings. It's been a pretty crappy week starting with last Tuesday. If you were at The Tobacco Hut today, you heard the story so bear with me. If not, here goes...
Tuesday afternoon I was heading southbound on Alt. 19 out of Tarpon Springs and a van was headed northbound. The van was rear-ended by a pickup truck which sent it into my lane. I always try to leave myself an escape route, but this time there was no place to go. I hit the van pretty much head on, but my little 2000 lb. Honda did its job against the 3500 lb. van. The car is totaled, but I'm alive. I was wearing my seatbelt and the front and side airbags deployed. The Honda is shown above at the salvage yard the next day.
The firefighters had to cut the left side of the car off to get me out and I was transported to the hospital where I was x-rayed and given a CT scan to check for internal bleeding. The x-rays showed a couple of fractured ribs, but nothing else broken. My right knee is pretty bruised and my left arm was lacerated from the broken glass. I've got some nice bruising all across my chest from the seatbelt that's turning a nice eggplant color.
While the CT scan showed no internal bleeding or organ damage from the accident, it did show a 5.5 cm mass on my right kidney. The ER doctor suspected it was cancerous, but urged me to get with a urologist to confirm it. So Thursday, Paula and I visited a urologist and he confirmed our worst fears that, in fact, it was a renal cell carcinoma.
The doctor was very optimistic and confident though that based on the CT scan, it looks like it is localized to the kidney and has not spread. He scheduled me for a PET scan on Tuesday which will give him more information and determine the course of action. Most likely, he said, he will just remove the kidney which is standard practice. If it were at the top or bottom of the kidney, they might just remove part of it, but since it's in the middle, they'll take the whole thing.
The good news is that with Stage 1 tumors that haven't spread, the success rate is 97% and no additional treatment such as radiation or chemotherapy should be needed.
Paula and I were obviously pretty upset and emotional at the doctor's office, but he urged us not to "freak out" and that everything would be okay. His confidence went a long way toward easing our minds, and we've since done a lot of research (well, Paula's done most of it) on kidney cancer. While we're not without concern of course, we're doing okay with it.
I have a follow up visit with the urologist next Friday and he'll probably schedule the surgery for the following week.
I wasn't sure if I wanted to visit the Hut today as I've decided against smoking at least until I'm fully recovered from the surgery. But I wanted to go and be among friends.
Paula dropped me off around 1 o'clock and I told my tale of adventure to Lou and Joe K. Peter G and Barry C arrived a little while later and I filled them in as well. Everyone's support was a little overwhelming to me, but certainly not surprising. And what I was hoping for happened...I laughed. It hurts to laugh to be sure with the cracked ribs, but it's a good pain.
Joe offered to do anything for me he could, but stopped short of bedpan duties (although he did mention a long-handled brush, but I shut my ears at that point). Everyone offered me their prayers and wishes and while I'm certainly not religious, I appreciate it. Positive thoughts regardless of their form are quite welcome.
Joe said he would drive me home to save Paula a return trip so around 3 o'clock we got up to leave. I of course took a little longer to get up because of the sore, stiff muscles and rib pain, but I got there. While Joe went out to his truck to clear off the passenger seat, Barry made the comment that the pain was in my head and I should just walk it off (thanks Barry!).
Joe returned moments later - with a shopping cart. He opened the door and wheeled it right into the store, looked at me, and said, "Hop in!". A better alternative presented itself when an elderly woman drove by in an electric scooter. The offer was made to hijack the scooter for me, but I declined.
Thanks to Lou, Joe, Barry and Peter for their support today at the shop and for making me laugh. I'll keep everyone posted on my progress and should be able stop in to the Hut at least for one or two more weeks.
Cheers!
- Bob
I can do bedpan duty :)
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