Hello all,
I write with a bit of an update and some unexpected news.
What’s been happening the past 8 weeks:
It’s been a while since I wrote an update for the good ol’ blog. I mentioned in my last post that I had been vomiting for unknown reasons. Unfortunately, this has continued for the past 8 weeks. We tried medication changes and food changes first, which provided no relief. So we went on to imaging including an EKG, CT Scan, Abdominal ultrasound, MRI and Pet Scan.
As a last ditch effort, my cardiologist suggested a CT scan to look into the blood flow to the stomach. This test may have saved my life.
What did they find?
Kidney cancer. Much to our surprise the CT scan showed a tumor on my left kidney. We had further scans up at Hopkins this past week and it was confirmed that the tumor is in fact cancerous.
Whats the prognosis?
The urologist started the conversation with us that “this will not kill you” so as you can imagine, we are breathing a little easier. The cancer has been contained to my kidney and possibly one spot in my chest. The doctors believe that they will remove the tumor or if necessary, the entire kidney. They will monitor the spot on my chest for now. Oncology believes that radiation and chemo are not needed at this time.
What’s next?
My case was presented to the tumor board at Hopkins on Monday. This board is made up of group of doctors across multiple specialities who collectively come up with a treatment plan, which we will follow in the next few months.
How are we doing?
As you can imagine we are in shock and perhaps even numb to the news. Had my cardiologist not pushed for the CT scan, we would have never found the tumor and the outcome could be quite different. We are taking it day by day.
We are so grateful to be at Hopkins. The doctors have been great answering any of our questions and help us through this first week. The attending was able to put my case before a colleague who is studying this specific type of cancer so we are benefiting from the ground breaking research and practices at Hopkins.
How can you help us?
Please pray for my doctors, myself, my mom and for my heart. We need my heart to remain at its baseline so that we can move forward with the surgery.
Please also pray that they will not have to remove the whole kidney. This would cause my other kidney to work harder which would be a challenge in managing my heart failure and fluid retention.
Please allow us to guide the conversation. Some days we will want someone to listen, while other days we will want to talk about anything but the cancer.
Thank you for all your love and support, we really eternally grateful.
Love, Kristin
Victory of the heart 