Patient Stories

Lori was told by multiple doctors that her renal mass was kidney cancer. Following surgery that involved significant complications, she found out it was a benign oncocytoma. I went to the ER after coughing up some blood due to a very bad cold. I wasn’t prepared for the words I heard next. On the x-ray, they saw a mass in the top left portion of my kidney. The doctor read the results to us verbatim, last words being “consistent with Renal Cell Carcinoma” (RCC). He gave me an antibiotic for the cough and sent me home.  I called my primary care doctor the next day expecting a referral. She said “Why? I saw the report come through.” I asked her to look again. She came back to the phone, “oh my I think you’re right.”  I was referred to a urologist 30 mile...

Psalm 46:10 10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. My faith journey started 53 years ago, the day I was born I was 2 lbs 10 oz., and had a double hernia, and have been a positive fighter since day one! A year ago November 2019 after not feeling well for over 7 months, I had lost 70 lbs in 6 months, a CT scan finally revealed that I had stage 4 Kidney cancer. My doctor gave us the news, my wife was in tears as fear set in. But I told my doctor “that’s awesome!” She was shocked at my reaction. I said now I know what I have, and I have 2 kidneys ” take one”! Well it wasn’t that easy, nine days in the hospital a year ago December. I came home from the hospital weighing 97 lbs from 172 lbs 7 m...

Debbie Talcott on her ranch in Montana. Diagnosed with Wilm’s tumor as a child, she was then diagnosed with metastatic RCC fifty-five years later. She has responded well to systemic therapy – but still hopes for a cure. My name is Debbie Talcott, in 1962 at the age of 4.5 years, after being treated several weeks for pneumonia, exploratory surgery was performed, and I was finally diagnosed with Wilm’s tumor. It was the same year JFK said we would put a man on the moon.  Radiation treatments shrank the large tumor that distended my stomach, so it could be removed. I remember very little from that time except for pretending to blow out a match, so I would hold my breath for imaging. I also remember a little wind-up toy radio that my roommate and I both had, at Saint Mary’s Ho...

Cancer isn’t funny. But keeping a sense of humor when facing a diagnosis can help reduce anxiety – and maybe even help move up a surgery date!   “Why did the large bucket think the small bucket was sick? It was a little pail.” What do bad jokes have to do with kidney cancer? Don’t worry – I’ll get to that part at the end of my story. My story starts in early December of last year. I wasn’t feeling normal. My blood sugar was super high, blood pressure bouncing up and down. After ordering multiple labs, my primary care doctor finally ordered some scans, including an abdominal MRI. On December 22nd, I got news that there was a 4 cm mass in the mid-polar region of my right kidney. According to the doctors, it was highly suspicious for renal cell carcinoma. One of the first th...

I never thought I would be sharing the story of my metastatic RCC diagnosis. I am a quiet guy regarding personal stuff.  My wife has always been the social media junky who shares the family’s triumphs, community festivities, and the kids activities with others ~ even strangers in on-line cancer communities LOL.  But here I go.  Here is how my RCC journey began. My name is Steve Block. I am 50 years old from Central Illinois. Prior to my cancer diagnosis I was a fairly healthy guy who worked a full time job in the insurance industry and umpired Baseball from ages 9-10 yr olds up to college teams. My wife is a school social worker.  Our kids are 21 and 24 and we were just starting to adjust to life as empty nesters. We were looking forward to retiring in the next te...

  When Tracie’s husband was diagnosed with bilateral, multifocal papillary type 1 renal cell carcinoma, she refused to stand-by – instead she stood up. Through research and outreach, she and her husband were able to get a second opinion, which resulted in a dramatically different outcome.    Standing UP October 20, 2020 – 8:07pm: “The renal biopsy revealed a malignant tumor.” Those words. The word. Cancer. It’s cancer. I must have read that 1 sentence with 7 words at least 20 times. Did we just get a confirmation that my husband has cancer through an email?  My stomach dropped, my heart was racing, and tears filled my eyes. As I sat in the recliner, I looked over at my husband on the couch who was innocently watching TV. I now had information that would forever chang...

In 2009, my husband Chris was diagnosed with kidney cancer. What started as a suspected case of appendicitis turned out to be renal cell carcinoma. We felt blindsided, unable to make rational decisions, forced to aimlessly follow whatever the doctors told us. What changed things for us was when we started sharing our story through our blog and connecting with other patients dealing with the same diagnosis. Those actions empowered us to advocate for ourselves. Even though Chris ultimately died of kidney cancer five years after his diagnosis, his voice lives on. Chris believed in the power of words and in the power of connecting people together. Since our launch in 2016, hundreds of patients have shared their stories with KCCure. And our patient communities have grown exponentially, giv...

I had a goal to be in better shape and good health for my 50th birthday and was feeling very good about myself after receiving positive feedback from my annual physical. Unfortunately, this feeling didn’t last very long. Within the next month after my birthday, I had fallen a couple of times from blacking out after standing up too quickly. One morning I found myself not physically able to stand up from my work chair. After grudgingly agreeing with my wife and allowing her to call an ambulance, I found myself in the hospital with a hemoglobin under 7. Turns out, I had a tumor in my duodenum that was causing internal bleeding. No big deal I thought, let’s fix it and move on and get out of the hospital as soon as possible. After numerous tests, blood infusions and dozens of shots, we really d...

This is a common question that pops up in our kidney cancer communities. And it’s not surprising. Seventy-five percent of kidney cancer patients will be diagnosed with localized disease. The majority of these patients are “cured” by surgery, however between 20 and 40 percent will experience a recurrence of their cancer. Following surgery, many patients struggle with how to describe this situation to friends and family.  Am I cured? Am I in remission?  We don’t really have a word to describe the reality of cancer patients who are free of disease but are living with Fear of Cancer Recurrence (FCR). Some patients who are free of disease following surgery for kidney cancer use terms like: NED – No Evidence of Disease: which means that there is no visible evidence of cancer in the body. However...

I feel led to share my dad’s story. I hope it will give hope and be helpful to others. On June 19th, 2019 my dad, who had recently retired, was in his garage moving things around when he tripped over a cord and landed on his right shoulder. My mom immediately took him to the emergency room where they did an x-ray and found he had a spot (bone met) on the shoulder he broke and one bone met on each femur. They waited until July 15th to do a full shoulder replacement and he had no cancer treatment as they were still trying to find out what type it was. I was angry with the way they were taking so long. He developed a blood clot in his shoulder obviously because they took forever to replace it. He went in on a Sunday had a stent put in his shoulder and then the next day underwent a three...