The Big "C"...

In my last post I mentioned That Man, the one I had been dating for the last two years, had decided we needed to take a break. Well that lasted about a week before he called telling me he was sorry and that it would never happen again. He's finally accepted that holidays will not be the same now that he's divorced. He was married for 25 years so I'm sure it was hard for him to be with another person after such a length of time but he's over that now and we had the best, most special Thanksgiving I've ever had in my whole existence!

Fast forward to last Wednesday -- he called me at 6:15 in the morning telling me to come get him and take him to the emergency room because he had a kidney stone. We get there, they get him in a room about 10 minutes later, give him some pain meds and then take him to x-ray to do a scan. After a little while, the ER doctor comes in, says they don't see any stones but that they've found a mass on his right kidney, they want to admit him to run more tests and determine whether it's cancer or not. Just like that -- whether it's cancer or not. Well That Man was so high on morphine and phenergan that he thinks he's misheard him. I haven't even had a cup of coffee yet so I'm fully aware of what he just said..."whether it's cancer or not." Let me tell you, I've never felt anything like that ever in my life.

They get him moved to a room and during the 30, 45 minutes while I'm gone the internist/gp that is on staff comes in and talks to him. He wants to schedule surgery to remove his entire kidney...this is without any additional scans or tests...just take it out! That Man thankfully by this time has regained enough of his senses to tell him that he'll wait until he sees a urologist before making a decision about surgery. Meanwhile, two of his kids and his mother (all who I love dearly as if they were my own family) come to visit and he tells them what we know so far. I feel better now that I'm not the only one who knows this. After a little while they left and guess what?...That Man passes EIGHT kidney stones...EIGHT! You know, those things that didn't show up on the first scan?

Well the urologist comes in that evening and tells us that there is definitely a mass on the kidney, that he would never do any type of surgery without further testing and that he wants to do a contrast CT-scan in the morning. If the scan doesn't show any blood supply going to the mass, then it is a cyst. But if there if there is blood flowing to the mass, there is a 95% chance it's cancer. Hello?...cancer??? You've got to be kidding me...we just came in for a kidney stone!!! We spend the night and the next morning they take him in for the more detailed scan. After this, he's released...we can go home but he'll see the urologist the next day (Friday) to discuss the scan results. I'm back at work Friday and he calls me to say it does have a blood supply and they're calling it cancer. It is a 3.5 cm mass on the surface of his right kidney. The saving grace here is that is ON the kidney and not cancer OF the kidney. Apparently any foreign object that grows on you is considered a cancer but not necessarily cancerous...Thank God!

He scheduled his surgery Tuesday, January 27th to remove the tumor and some of the surrounding kidney tissue. That Boy, son of That Man, is getting married January 10th so he wanted to wait until after the wedding to take any action and the doctor was agreeable to that. He said this is a routine operation, he's done it several times, even on employees of the hospital, and after a few days stay to ensure everything is going as planned, he'll be able to leave. I'm holding on to the thought that if this was truly cancer and That Man's health was at risk, this doctor who is hailed as the best in the state wouldn't be letting us wait so long to do the surgery.

I've waited my entire life for this man -- I'm not going to give up on him now.