My Personal Experience with Kidney Cancer

For years I had lived in complete ignorance with the belief that I was invincible, that there was little to no chance that I could possibly be diagnosed with a potentially life-threatening disease. That was until I realized that so many of my friends and family had been confirmed to have several different types and strains of cancer. Being a health conscious person by nature, I typically notice everything that happens with my body and the first thing I noticed was a chronic exhaustion, mainly in times that required me to be awake. At first I ignored this as my job required me to stay awake for very long hours and I often find myself without the means to stay awake even on a typical day. It was only when I felt as if I had ran a marathon after just waking up on a weekend that I noticed something was wrong. Yet again I attempted to scoff this off as nothing more than just my week catching up with me, but when I stood on the scale and it weighed in at 5 lbs below what it was just 3 days earlier I figured that something was wrong.

On my numerous travels I had seen so much including the symptoms of several types of cancer and unfortunately I had no idea which strain I had, limited as I was on symptoms. Refusing to believe I had cancer I pushed such thoughts from my mind and it was only after I had seen a hint of red as I was in the restroom that I began to panic. At my physician's office I underwent so many tests and sadly each and every one of those tests, the urine and blood tests, CT scans, and ultrasound test all came up with the same result. Some of my worst fears were at last realized as I was diagnosed with kidney cancer, the same strand that had killed my great grandfather.

To my great relief, like my friend before me who had been diagnosed with a separate strain, the cancer I had been diagnosed with was in its infant stages, the first one in fact. It is sad to say that I had to endure a fair bit of pain after the surgery proceeded, but to me the only worry was that I had survived. To this date, 6 years later, I still remain thankful that I have not yet been afflicted by yet another strain, but I still remain vigilant of the symptoms and the possibilities.

The remainder of the symptoms that I had not felt were: lumps in the abdomen, pain in the side, and unusual fevers. I say this so as to help those reading this diagnose cancer, had their symptoms not matched mine. Should you believe you have these symptoms, consult your physician immediately and know that no matter how unlikely, the chance that you may have cancer of some form or strain still exists.