I was diagnosed with kidney cancer 12/4/07. I had passed out at a Providence Medical Center fundraiser with a room full of doctors. An ultrasound was ordered which showed an enlarged right kidney. This was followed up with a CT Scan which showed an eight cm tumor in the right kidney and several small tumors in my lungs.
I had my right kidney removed right after Christmas. As luck would have it they had just approved Sutent in 2006 which changed the diagnosis from 3 to 6 months to 1 to 1 and half years.
The city I live in only has one cancer center which had 5 kidney cancer cases in January of 2008. I went looking for a Kidney Cancer specialist and found Dr. Figlan at Cedars-Sinai. As others have noted, finding a person that only sees kidney cancer or specializes in kidney cancer is important.
After being on Sutent for around five and half years Dr. Figlan took me off treatment and we started doing CT scans and MRIs every three months. That was in May of 2013.
In July of 2018, an MRI of my head found a 3 cm brain tumor which was removed and gamma knife was also used. I was put on Opdivo after the surgery. I have been on Opdivo since then. Recently I have been having a problem with my bowels and we canceled my March 8th Opdivo infusion.
I have been blessed with good results and many prays answered. I hope these stories will help other going though kidney cancer. I had four people with kidney cancer whom really help me though some tough time. All four were very helpful, but Chris Battle had a blog which was invaluable.
