Dad's Story

On Friday, July 3rd after baling hay Dad started to pass blood. Mom figured it was just a bladder infection. Later that night he was in pain, causing them to wonder if it was kidney stones. The pain got worse enough that they went to the emergency room. They did a cat scan to find the stones and discovered a mass on his left kidney. He was sent home on pain pills with a doctors appointment scheduled for the following Monday. Dad spent the rest of the weekend on the couch asleep.

On Monday when they went to see Dr. Tall he confirmed that it was cancer. They would have to go back in the following day for a contrast CT scan to see the full size of the mass. That night they were back in they emergency room for a couple of hours because of the pain. When they went on Tuesday the results came back that it was approximately the size of a tennis ball. Dad was scheduled for surgery on Wednesday, July 8.

His surgery was scheduled for 11 meaning we had to be there by 9. Dad had just climbed in the shower to get ready to go when the hospital called to tell them they wanted to take him into surgery earlier. Dad has remarked may times, "I didn't really care cause I was starting to hurt again." Dr. Tall figured the surgery would last about 2 hours. It would be done laparoscopicly meaning one incision by the belly button big enough for the doctors hand and three smaller incisions approximately 2 inches long for the tools.

When they got in there they discovered that the tumor wouldn't be quite as easy to remove; they would have to dissect it piece by piece. While dissecting they cut the main artery to the bowel. This caused them to call in a specialist to put the pieces back together again. To get to the other end of the artery the had to remove one of the floating ribs just like they would have had they done it the old fashion way. In the end the 2 hour surgery was 8 hours. Dad was supposed to be in the hospital for 5 to 7 days but from start to finish was in for 11.

Dad lives in his chair now but it is driving him crazy. He may be seen on his bed just for different scenery or to stretch differently.

He is used to being active so this is driving him crazy. He still sleeps most of the time even though he is only on pain pills when he goes to bed. He is starting to do more active things, or at least telling us how to do it while he supervises.