Brian has cancer. A tumor on his kidney was found the Monday after last Thanksgiving. There is also a lesion on his liver.
That weekend something happened to his lower back that had him in super bad pain. He just couldn't get comfortable. I'd had sciatica in the past, so I know how that can be. But this didn't seem like sciatica.
We have a Nautilus mattress. Which is an air mattress. It's old, past its prime, but it still works. His side was leaking air at the intake and I told him to sleep on my side, I'd just sleep on the sofa. Not a problem. He did on Saturday and Sunday night.
Monday morning, I heard him calling me. I go in to see what he needs. "Don't get mad" was what he said. That is NEVER a good way to start a conversation. Turns out, he has some pretty bad blood in his urine. And the pain is still there.
We went to emergency and they ran tests (he had to pee in a cup and it looked like cola), which is when they found the tumor. Now, we get to the waiting stage. We've since learned that kidney cancer is symptomless, it's usually found when something else is being checked out. One of the doctors advised that the pain was most likely from a blood clot passing through the kidney.
He had his bladder checked out in December (there was a camera that was put up his penis checking for abnormalities) and that was pretty interesting. We had our annual physicals in mid-December and the doctor wanted to know about the lesion on the liver. Well, there was no word on that, so she put a call in for an MRI on the liver. He also had to have x-rays of his head to make sure there was no metal that would cause a problem with the MRI. (There was not.) We wait some more to find out about the liver MRI.
At the beginning of January, we saw the oncologist surgeon who explained the four options. Due to the size of the kidney tumor, the first two options were not viable. So, surgery it is and the surgeon won't know if the tumor can be excised from the kidney (there is still kidney function) or if the kidney has to come out. But he doesn't want to set a date until he knows about the lesion on the liver. I tell him I've called them three times since our annual physicals and they haven't responded yet. It was another two weeks before they did. The lesion is nothing to be worried about, just a fatty deposit.
We're told at this point things can start moving. But we have to wait for an opening for surgery. A month later (last Friday, February 16th), the call came in. The surgery is happening on March 21. This coming Friday he's getting labwork done, then a consult with the surgeon next week.
The amazing thing is the Tuesday after we went to emergency, his urine was clear and the pain was gone.
And that's where we stand at this point. He has some concerns that all of those over-the-counter supplements he'd been taking for years had something to do with this. He told me last night he was taking twenty-two (!!!) a morning. I knew he was taking a lot, but nothing like that. He's not doing that anymore, he actually was scaling back last November.
About Fury. He'd been coughing for a while and we took him in. The vet saw something concerning on his x-rays. Antibiotics helped with the cough, but the follow-up x-rays didn't show any improvement in the mass in his left lung. We ended up going to a specialist at the beginning of January. An MRI was over $3,000 and to biopsy the mass would be a least an additional $1,000. I was ready to go for it, but Brian wasn't. I was looking at the screen for the estimate options and surgery was $14,000 to $21,000! They were going to email an estimate, but they never did. What we decided to do was to get follow up x-rays with our family vet. He's had two sets since and there has been no change.
At this point, we're just watching for any changes, with the occasional follow-up x-rays.
And that's life in the cathouse.
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