Ultrasound results

I had an ultrasound this morning at 11.  The only ultrasounds that I've had previously were to make sure Baby T was healthy, so they were fairly short.  This one lasted 40 minutes-- she checked my bladder both full and empty, and then both kidneys.  I came home covered in ultrasound goo.  Yuck.

Then I had an appointment with Dr. Bell at 3:40.  The spot on my left kidney was just what we thought it would be- a cyst-- inconsequential in terms of my operation (yay).  Had that spot turned out to be something dangerous, the conversation would have been very different.

The ultrasound also offered a little more information about the tumor on my right kidney.  Dr. Bell said that there is a lot of vascular activity in my tumor.  In other words, there is a lot of blood flow to that area. This is an indicator that the tumor is probably renal cell carcinoma... which is cancer...

While that is scary... it doesn't change the treatment, and shouldn't change my future after the surgery.  Because there are no indications of the tumor spreading, if it is cancerous, it will be cured by removal.  No chemotherapy or radiation should be necessary.

So we asked all sorts of questions about the surgery, recovery, and living with one kidney.  Taiwan is still up in the air (boo), but it looks fairly promising if I can get into surgery asap (yay).

Tomorrow I'm going to get blood work done and I should hear from surgery scheduling as well.  I am praying that they have an opening soon.  Dr. Bell is expecting that I should be able to get in within 2 weeks (sooner please?!).