Follow-Up

Just a brief post today. I wanted to post what my surgeon told me last week when I went in for my follow up appointment. He checked everything out and concluded that everything seems to be healing quite well. He also was able to give me an official official diagnosis. So, before surgery, all we knew was that I had Renal Cell Carcinoma. A rarer type of cancer. After Pathology, it was concluded that I had Type 2 Papillary Renal Cell Carcinoma. 80-85% of Kidney cancer patients have what is called Clear Cell RCC. Those few who have Papillary, typically have type 1. Because I have type 2 papillary, this means I have a rare type of a rare type of a rare type of cancer. No that was not a typo. Type 2 also means it is more agressive. Seeing as all of my treatment has been with the Cancer Care Alliance, I am now a general contributor to the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research. I'm certain that my uber rare cancer, and rare gender and age, will give them much to ponder about. One other thing my surgeon informed me of was that the drugs I took before surgery usually have no effect on Papillary RCC. Gee, I'm just a friggin' enigma, aren't I?

Well, I also visited a nutritionist a few weeks back. She was very nice and helpful. She helped me come up with a plan on how I can eat better to try to gain and maintain a healthy weight, which is possibly the only thing I can think of that lead me to have cancer. She didn't want to overwwhelm me at first, so it's very basic stuff. She advocated smoothies and introduced me to the word "spelt." I have yet to try it. (This was mainly in regards to spelt tortillas.) I'm doing ok but it's taking some time adjusting to all of it. One cool thing is I have been making new meals, and from scratch! I am actually enjoying myself! I downloaded an app for my phone from allrecipes.com called the Dinner Spinner. I know it's in the Android Market for free. If you have access, download it! I bet there is one for Apple too. It has been quite useful. :)

I have an appointment with my doctor I think in like a week, so I'll update again then.