Kidney Stone Gone, Houston, we a go for surgery

I’ve had a follow-up X-ray and the blasted stone is no where in sight. Strained pee only revealed a few fine grains of sand. Don’t know where the rest of it went but the doc says all is well and we are a go for dual surgery on Oct 13.

I had a pre-op appointment with the hospital. WOW! They are serious about no germs in the OR. The night before surgery I have to shower, put clean sheets on the bed and then wipe myself down with giant disinfectant wipes per specific instructions of how many wipes to use on each part of my body. No deodorant, no hand cream, no nothing on my skin but clean sheets and clean clothes before surgery.

One more pre-op appointment this week and then all of next week is free to catch up on any physical projects before the big day. Depending on how far they have to open me up I’ll be laid low for from 3 to 12 weeks. Not looking forward to that.

The gall bladder guy says he is going first. He will poke a few holes and plug in his robot and remove gall bladder. If for some reason he needs to open me up he will do that to complete the job. No need to wake me and ask. 🙂 Then kidney guy takes over. He says even if gall bladder guy opened me up he will sew me up and poke his own holes and plug in his robot and proceed to remove the growth from my right kidney. Oh, the wonders of modern medicine.

I do hope the kidney Doc is right about my 3 centimeter growth NOT being metastatic. I’ve been doing a little research and apparently kidney cancer is very treatable by surgery as long as it hasn’t spread. If it spreads then it is not very responsive to radiation or chemo. We are hoping and praying that this puppy is small and totally confined to the kidney and can be removed and forgotten about. Otherwise the outlook isn’t that great. No cure just some experimental drugs to try.

I’m at peace with whatever the Lord has for me but naturally I wouldn’t mind another 20-30 years of being a problem to my kids. More to follow I’m sure.