Author: KCCure

It’s interesting and bonding to read about similar and difficult experiences we are all having during this pandemic. But the hardest thing for me right now is my own mindset. I guess I didn’t come into the pandemic with great reserves of strength. Last July, we moved three to four hours away from our older son and his daughters, who are now in college, as well as our own daughter, in o...

In 2006, I was recovering from unrelated surgery when I became ill. I went to the ER where a CT exam was ordered to see if I had torn internal sutures. It was during that exam when it was discovered that I had a 6CM mass on my left kidney. They call it incidental finding.  I was terrified. I was only 58 years old at the time. My own mother passed away from cancer. All I could think of is how ...

Today was my 5 year diagnosis anniversary. Wow, what a journey… Considering they only gave me an 8% survival rate for stage 4 metastatic RCC. I’m not in the clear and never have been, but it’s been an amazing experience. I’ve traveled the world, and lived, laughed and loved like never before. Today was also my ct scan day coincidentally. I get results on Thursday.  These re...

My cancer story started June 2nd, 2018. I was 47 years old at the time and a busy full-time working wife and mother of 4 children ages from 13-30 living in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  On May 29th, 2018, I went into my local Urgent Care as I had been struggling with a reoccurring bladder infection and some constipation. The urgent care physician ran the appropriate tests, and everything came back norm...

I am 66 years young. I was incidentally diagnosed in the emergency room in Sept 2019 while getting an ultrasound for a shooting pain on my right side from under my arm to my waist. The doctor came in and said we don’t see anything that would cause this pain, possibly a pulled muscle, but we did find a 6.5 cm growth on your left kidney that you should get checked out. The urologist I chose was Dr. ...

My name is Constance Robinson. I was diagnosed with chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (chRCC) in 2006 at the age of 30.  Unfortunately, I didn’t catch it fast enough to save my right kidney. I remember the symptoms starting with pain in my right side. I didn’t think anything of it at the time because I used to work out all the time. I thought I had pulled a muscle from my TaeBo exercise routine.&nb...

Today’s Voice of Kidney Cancer is not one story, but many stories. We all are struggling with how our individual lives have changed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools have closed, travel bans are in place, the uncertainty is wreaking havoc on the world economy. Today we profile three families who are uniquely impacted by the outbreak due to immunosuppression. Mary’s husband Rick was dia...

In June 2017, I went to the hospital for a kidney stone and left with a diagnosis of stage 1 clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Two weeks later, I had a full nephrectomy and was told that because I was healthy, young, and had never had a health problem—not so much as a cholesterol number out of line—I’d likely never have to worry about kidney cancer ever again. Sadly, that nephrectomy was a be...

“It’s a marathon, not a sprint…” Back in August of 2014, when my journey began, I was getting ready to turn 41 years old. I had just had my first annual physical since being a teenager and passed with no issues. A few days after that appointment, I started having dull stomach pains and thought it might be food related. As the pain persisted throughout the day, I began to suspect it might be a...

Fifteen years later,  I am astonished at how my life has been impacted and changed by a kidney cancer diagnosis. In 2005, I was 45, with a husband and young daughter. After complaining about a hard lump on the left side of my body, I was diagnosed with a 13 cm mass on my kidney. I had a radical nephrectomy; pathology confirmed stage 2, clear cell renal cell carcinoma. There is actually a great pro...