Living with Kidney Cancer

In 2000 I was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma; I was 35 years old at the time, married with 3 girls and a full-time in-home childcare provider. We had no previous family history of it nor did I smoke or ever smoke. It was a shook but it was found.

A few months after my nephrectomy I had to have a hysterectomy 5 months after that I had to have my colon removed and finally 7 months after that I developed an obstruction so the doctor had to open me up again. Today, 8 years later I’ve been recently diagnosed with Stage 3 Chronic Kidney Diease and also a very rare condition called Diabetes Insipidus.

I still work as a childcare provider, we now live in Michigan(because my husband’s company that he worked for there in Indiana closed)and just this past week we found out that our oldest daughter has a mass on her right kidney. Am I worried? Yes, but I have all the faith in the world in the excellant doctor’s there in Fort Wayne. My daughter will not have to deal with her ordeal alone and I as her mother and patient will be able to encourage her every step of the way.

To see me one would never know how sick I am but I chose to be a fighter and not a wiener; I see that all to often. It doesn’t seem to matter sometimes how good we are to our bodies, things just happen; thats what makes life and living a mystery; you never know what’s next!