Small indeterminate kidney lesion - Very Nervous

@abbigail89 sometimes CT scans see fluid filled masses better. If they are cysts for sure then look for a nephrologist who specializes in kidney internal medicine. Ask them for a referral.

abbigail89: How are you doing? Thoughts and prayers have been with you. Blessings

@susanris this has been an extremely crazy roller coaster of a ride. My primary just ignored it all. Sent me over to urology my appointment kept getting cancelled so I just found my own. First thing the nurse practitioner said was why did you wait so long to come in. She was like I can see the scans date back to January. She said also there are some older scans showing some of these issue before they decided to address them at all. I told her I’ve been calling and seeing primary to being completely blown off. She was like there are a bunch of tiny lesions throughout both kidneys they are all under a centimeter. The bigger one she said the ct was wrong previously it said it was almost 4cm the mri showed that it’s 2.8 cm not to big. But the biggest concern to her at the moment is the large amount of blood in the urine, bilirubin and high protein. She said she can see that blood in the urine and the bilirubin has been a thing for the last year. She asked if I’ve even been made aware or had testing done I said no. So she said she sent my urine out and will let me know about setting up some kind of scope thing to be done. Then will take it from there. She said she was going to have the doctor look further over my scans and my next appointment they will fully address everything. It makes me just want to go elsewhere all together. Because vascular surgery called me and said your torn aorta completely healed on its own no need to follow up anymore for any reason. But when I saw urology today she ask if anyone has ever mention the torn aorta. I told her that’s funny you mentioned that. Because I was going to ask you to pull up my scans to see if it’s actually gone like they said. She was like I’m no expert or anything but it’s 100 percent still there. I said ya I thought that was weird they told me that it healed on its own and I’m good to not follow them any longer. I just figured I would update y'all it took forever just to get to this point.

It sounds like you are proactive and finally got to someone questioning the findings. Good for you! You sound like you are in the right hands. Maybe polycystic kidneys and someone getting the aorta situation addressed. Good work and good luck. Keep us posted on your progress!

I’m 77 and developed left flank pain about 3 months ago. I still have the pain. Two weeks after the pain started, I developed a uti, my second one in as many years. The first UTI was preceded with left hip muscles clenching - took months for muscle to loosen up/heal. I suspect there’s a nerve pathway in the gut area that sets muscles off when infection is first detected - I have fibromyalgia, so nerves are super-sensitive to pain. The UTI cleared with antibiotics. Never ran a fever.

I had a CT for the left flank pain and it was ruled musculoskeletal - but an incidental finding was a 14mm kidney lesion. I’ve seen a urologist & am getting more imaging this week to determine if it’s a benign cyst or solid tumor.

The lesion is located in one of those vessels that drains urine to the bladder. The urologist does not think a needle biopsy or surgery is recommended if it’s a tumor, just active imaging surveillance. He believes its location is tricky in terms of quality of life outcomes to have surgery or biopsy. They grow slowly and someone my age, I guess they think something else might get me first. He’s also concerned about complications at my age, like slow-to-heal infection, with any treatment of it.

I can’t help but wonder if my very sensitive nerves are able to detect the small cyst and causing muscle tension in that area.

BTW, I’m getting a different type of CT scan this week, not an MRI.

@abbigail89 I was able to look at the ct scan. Not sure exactly what I am even looking at. But looking at one kidney to the other whatever that circle thing is. Looks like it shouldn’t be there. They are just telling me to do nothing to sit and wait.

Ask your doctor what would they tell their family member to do- sit and wait is not treatment! Did you get a referral to a kidney specialist? If your insurance permits, schedule it yourself snd bring that film with you!!

@susanris it feels like I’m just going in circles with these drs. I’ve had another ct scan done been waiting for the results for a week. Usually they are posted in my chart within a few days. I called the office today they said the hospital hasn’t finalized them yet. Which I find odd. I have the disk so after a week I got curious and I put it in my computer to look at it. Even though I really don’t know what I’m looking at. I know I can see the kidneys and the lesion on the one kidney. It looks big I tried calling to get an answer from my from doctor just based off the disk. They said to just wait for the report. I’ll add a photo of what I see. It uploaded sideways. It’s just been a very long process it seems. At this point I’m just trying to be sure that it’s nothing and I can’t just go about my business and leave it be if it’s nothing. They aren’t making this very easy at all.

@abbigail89 Do not stop advocating for yourself and contacting a kidney specialist!

@abbigail89 I can relate to your frustration. Blood tests, ultrasounds, MRI and a tentative diagnosis of renal carcinoma ( 3 cm lesion on right kidney). All within 2 weeks. One thing I have learned is that kidney cancer is relatively slow growing. I saw the lesion on the MRI report but it was impossible to determine the size and extension of the tumor. My GP was able to read it and said it most likely cancer. After repeated calling to surgeons office I now have an appointment 2 weeks from now just to talk about the testing results. My feeling is that I just want it out but waiting for the best doc to do the surgery will have to take precendence. Very hard to wait.