Hi Olive,

My right kidney was totally destroyed in March 2022. My urine looked like coca-cola. It was a T4 high-grade muscle invasive Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma which is rare and has a poor prognosis (11% chance of surviving 5 years). I had chemotherapy first for 3 months which stopped the progression, then 1 month of recovery before radical Kidney/Ureter/bladder cuff surgery was scheduled for August 2022. Now waiting for a biopsy report on possible recurrence in bladder (50/50 possibility of this happening in 7 months, so I'm on target).

I've read that Renal cell carcinoma only involves the kidney, not the ureter and bladder cuff. Your surgery shouldn't be too extensive. I have an incision from just below my breast bone to my pubic bone – about 15 inches long. They also took alot of lymph nodes out of the pelvis and the area between the kidneys. Still, only in hospital for 5 days, then sent home with 6 weeks before I could go back to normal activity. My scar is still tender when I push on the areas.

Good luck. They should be contacting you a couple of weeks before surgery to set up tests – blood work, chest Xray, ECG. And to tell you to stop taking any over the counter vitamins/supplements that might increase bleeding during surgery.

Jump to this post