Mallory Douge was diagnosed with papillary renal cell carcinoma (RCC) at the age of 25. Today, in addition to being a kidney cancer survivor, she’s also a tireless advocate for young adults diagnosed with RCC. This is her story.
In the fall of 2008, I was a 23 year-old recent college graduate. One day I saw massive amounts of blood in my urine and went to the ER at the urging of my roommate, who was a nursing student. The doctor took some blood tests and a urinalysis. Somehow, they came back with antibiotics stating I had a UTI. Everything seemed fine for the next 14 months. But then I started having fevers, nausea, weight loss and zero appetite. I had a pain in my back, too. Since I had no insurance, I finally went to a walk-in clinic. Again, I was diagnosed with a UTI. This happened a few more times before I gave up. I wasn’t feeling any better. I had no energy. I was always cold. I kept leaving work early because I couldn’t last the entire day.
By September 2010, I had moved back to my hometown and was living on my sister’s couch. I was supposed to be job searching but had no energy. I had hardly moved in two weeks. My mother showed up and said we were going to the ER. I knew I had no money for it and figured they wouldn’t find anything. But I also had no energy to argue with her.
While there, the date turned to September 11th. My mom’s birthday. The ER doctor said he wanted to run a CT scan due to the pain in my back I had described. We waited a long while until he came back to us. He sat down and said there was a mass on my kidney and due to its size, he was pretty confident it was cancer.
25 years old. Cancer.
I didn’t have time to get upset. In fact, I was so relieved to have an answer. I clapped my hands together and asked what was next.
I went to a urologist and he ordered a biopsy. After the biopsy, I was sent to the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, about a 30-minute drive away. I did lots more tests and met with my oncologist several times. The cancer had spread outside of the kidney and one of the tumors was wrapped 75% of the way around my aorta. This would severely complicate surgery. They recommended that I do systemic therapy first and hopefully shrink the tumor to make it operable
I took increasing doses of Avastin and Interferon for four months. Unfortunately, this combination wasn’t very effective. My surgeon was nervous, but he decided to go ahead with the surgery.
On March 2, 2011, I went in for a radical nephrectomy. I was in the hospital for 8 days. A 17-inch incision was kept together with 44 staples. The pain from the piece of my rib they had to remove was the worst part. I was pretty much in bed for an entire month.
The final results of my pathology were Type 2 Papillary Renal Cell Carcinoma. I had 3 tumors. The smallest was around 3 cm but the others were bigger. Kidney tumor: 11.1 x 8.5 x 10.6cn; Lymph node tumor: 10.3 x 12.1 x 17.2cm.
Since my surgery, I’ve remained free of disease, but I still get scanned regularly.
Since my diagnosis, I have become a fierce advocate for other young adults with Kidney Cancer. I’ve created a Young Adult Kidney Cancer Survivors Facebook group with over 800 members. I have received my master’s in counseling with the desire to counsel cancer survivors and caregivers. I’ve also just begun working with the Judy Nicholson Kidney Cancer Foundation as a patient support facilitator, in charge of support groups.
There’s a lot more for me to do and I’m glad I’m around to do it!
And we’re glad too! Thank you Mallory Douge for sharing your story, inspiring others and being a fierce advocate for young adult kidney cancer survivors! Follow her on twitter @YAKidneycancer
