Magdalena's surgery underway

Hi All,

Just a quick note letting you all know that Magdalena is now in the middle of her open partial nephrectomy surgery for her left kidney renal cell carcinoma with kidney cancer expert Dr Christopher Wood at MD Anderson in Houston. We are both very glad and relieved to get this big step behind us now and I should hear within a 45 minutes to an hour or so that it's all over.

Will post back later today when there is more news and she is settled into her room for the next 4 to 5 days.

Many thanks once again to all of you for the kind outpouring of support for her. She has been really touched and bowled over by all that she had read here.... Thank you all very much!

Until next update ... Cheers!
Shannon

Sending prayers, hugs and good wishes for a successful outcome and speedy recovery!

Keep us posted please ~ Barb

Shannon,

Woke up thinking about you and Magda this morning.

Here are good wishes for a very successful procedure!

George

There is outstanding news.

Shannon phoned me briefly just as Magdalena was out of surgery. The tumor was benign... no trace of cancer. They spared 95% of her kidney.

Woo hoo!!!... Such a blessing. All the good wishes, prayers, positive energy and more paid off in big dividends.

I'm sure Shannon will be posting soon with the details.

Clink, clink... it's celebration time!!!!

Jackie

I am so happy to read the words: "no cancer". Wishing Magdalena a very speedy recovery!

John B

This is marvelous news and what a tremendous relief for both of them! Thanks, Jackie, for letting us know.

Doreen

Great news.

Hi All,
As Jackie noted above, I receieved some wonderful news from Dr Christopher Wood after he finished what he called a fabulous surgery on Magdalena this morning.

Not only was it a rousing technical success, as he was able to spare 95% of her left kidney while removing the tumor in the inferior pole of her kidney (that's a good example of why it pays to seek out the very best surgeon you can find and with her losing less than 30mls of blood volume total ... about a tablespoon full of blood...remarkable!), but the best news of all is that her tumor is benign ... Not cancerous at all ... Yippee! :-)

We knew from or last meeting that there was a small 5% to maybe 10% chance at the outside that her tumor could turn out to be benign, but with kidney cancer they remove typically even benign tumors so that any likely continuous growth does not impair or destroy kidney function over time. As such, it is rare for any doc to biopsy a suspected RCC tumor before removing it entirely. This decision is also strongly driven by the very real risk of nicking a key spot within such a highly vascular organ as a kidney and possibly causing uncontrolled bleeding just for a biopsy when the best step is to remove it anyway.

In any event, Magda's tumor is what is called 'a lipid poor AML tumor'. An AML tumor stands for 'A -angio or blood vessels' 'M = Myo or connective tissue' and 'L = Lipoma or lipid/fat containing'

AML tumors are uniformly benign and the large majority contain a lot of lipid fat which shows up very clearly on contrast CT and other imaging. When a surgeon sees a relatively small to medium size tumor under 4cm (like Magdalena's) that is an AML tumor they will usually not operate and just do watchful waiting to see the rate of growth and then remove it, if and when it begins to threaten kidney function.

In Magda's case she had this more rare 'Lipid poor AML' which does not light up as a fat containing benign AML on contrast imaging and is impossible to distinguish as anything other than a solid Renal cell carcinoma.

Dr Wood said its a good thing now to have it out even though it's benign, as hers was getting larger and was embedded near important structure. The best news is that after healing from this surgery there will be No more need for anymore follow up for kidney cancer .... Ever ... Knock on wood!!

She still needs to take care of her large fibrotic uterine mass that is pressing on the left side of her bladder and causing urinary frequency and feelings of urgency, and possibly remove one or both ovaries. Her right ovary is of mixed consistency being half liquid (or cystic) and half solid mass. If her right ovarian cyst had been pure liquid, then nothing more would need to be done, but with the mixed bag make up at her age well past menopause, and with her family history of Cancer the MDAnderson main gynecological ongologist and surgeon strongly recommended removing those ovaries to prevent any possibility of this mixed bag ovary turning malignant ... along with a possible hysterectomy to remove the large symptomatic fibroid mass. But we will thoroughly evaluate that area with good second and third opinions once she is well recovered from this tough major kidney surgery.

In any event, none of those two gynecological issues appears to be cancerous so there is no urgency to get that part addressed.

It's a huge relief to learn Magdalena does not have kidney cancer, as you can imagine.

Just this past week, I told her that my fondest hope and wish was that we discover the tumor was benign, in spite of the apparently small odds of that being the case, but that I had at least some real reasons for optimism that we just might get lucky in that the size and location of her tumor was favorable for still possibly being benign (though right on the border), and because after we first got the Initial contrast CT report several weeks ago that first showed the suspect ovarian cyst too in addition to the suspected RCC in her left kidney, the next day I asked our primary care doc in the Bay Area of California to order a CA125 blood test for her that came back completely normal.

CA125 is a very strong marker for Ovarian cancer when it is consistently high, and also can be high for a good number of other cancer,, though to a lesser degree of accuracy as compared to its close association with ovarian malignancy. For RCC , CA125 has a 30-40% accuracy for kidney cancer too. They repeated Magdalena's CA 125 test 10 days after the first reading, when we were first here at MD Anderson and it had not even budged from the first reading.

What all that implied to me was that while she still very likely did have true RCC, at least all these findings gave a decent shot at us winning the lottery and winding up in the lucky 5% or so of people diagnosed with suspected RCC after all the imaging and tests were done yet prior to nephrectomy, that nevertheless turn out to be benign.

Thank our lucky stars we made it into that small lucky and grateful group this morning...

Any thanks again so much for all the kind support and best wishes from so many of our friends here.... it has meant so much to both of us!

Be well All,

Shannon and Magdalena

PS ... We have been thoroughly impressed so far with the highly efficient and skilled team here at MD Anderson from the nurses and resident docs on up to Dr Wood.

Dr. Wood has been everything as advertised as a truly top level kidney cancer expert surgeon with the kind of reverential gratitude and respect shown to him by literally everyone we have met here at as many of us have witnessed with Dr Natale and the Bordeaux team in the EP world. He typically does only the most challenging RCC cases sent to MD Anderson from all over the US and world.

I'm so glad we found him, and he said today how happy he is that we will not have to come see him again after our final follow up visit with him here next Wednesday before flying home for Magdalena's full recovery over the next 6 weeks to 3 months.

Cheers!



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/2015 08:43AM by Shannon.

This is the best possible news! I am so happy for you both!

Louise

Wonderful new Shannon. It will be a Happy New Year in the Dickson household.

Billk

So glad to hear this great news!

Jean

So glad to hear this wonderful news, Shannon. I can only imagine the relief after having to consider something so serious.

All best wishes to you and Magdalena,

Rob

Oh thank God - so happy to hear this wonderful news! You and Magdalena must feel like a HUGE boulder just came off of your shoulders! So very glad to hear that things turned out so well and she will be fine now. We are all so thrilled for you both.

Time to breathe again and look forward to a happy and healthy future.

Best to you both ~ Barb

Great news Shannon!

Now for a seemless recovery for Magdalena!

Happy New Year!

Craig

Shannon and Magdalena what outstanding news. So happy for you both. I know you are more than grateful for having sought out the best care. Best to you in 2015 and beyond. Thank you again for the tireless help you have given all of us. What a gift. Lynda

Spectacular news for Magda & you, Shannon!!

So Very happy to hear the news , the surgery is over with the best possible outcome. Blessings to you Shannon and Magdalena .

Fantastic! Great to hear!

Fantastic news my Friend. I pray for a speedy recovery for your wife and Happy Days ahead!

What a huge sigh of relief. I can't imagine the feelings that flooded through Magdalena and you when you found out. This is just another strong reminder to go for the very best medical help you can find when faced with serious challenges.
Kindest Regards, Ron

Great news Shannon. All the best. R.

That's great news, Shannon. I'm so happy to hear it! All the best to you and Magdalena!

Marg

Wow...that's incredible what her doctor was able to do. I'm always amazed at what skillful doctors can do.

I'm so happy to hear her tumor wasn't cancerous. I can't imagine how relieved and happy you both must be. What a blessing from God!

I wish you both well during this process and I pray for a quick and total successful recovery for her.

Travis

Such a wonderful outcome! Hoping her recovery is comfortable and fast. Great to know about this good surgeon. All the best to you both - Cindy O

Oh wow ! So happy to hear this. Happy healing x

Wow Fantastic News! You deserve the best my friend, you've helped so many.
Sorry I'm late to the party, been engulfed with work!

Godspeed recovery Magdalena,

McHale



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2015 10:53PM by McHale.

Great news, Shannon! I hope things continue to go well with you both!

Doctor's conveying positive health news after such a scare - the best new you can get!

Speedy recovery...

Phil

Many thanks once again to all of our friends here.

Magdalena and I returned home from Houston night before last and are trying to catch up on some real R&R at home sweet home after the last seven weeks of a real roller coaster.

We are very grateful for the far better than expected outcome in learning that her tumor was benign and not renal cell cancer after all as we had been given a 95% certainty that it was.

We are taking a couple days to unwind here at home and Magdalena will be in recovery from some weeks yet but it slowly progressing and shuffling along a bit better each day. No driving yet for another week or two though until she can turn around while seated without pain or spasm from the long incision on her left flank.

In any event, I'll be busy as usual the next two weeks in starting the next AFIB Report and preparing to fly to Scripps in La Jolla again on Feb 3 for my second follow up TEE the next day on Feb 4th for checking out the healing of my ADO-II LAA plug procedure done last July to stop my Lariat leak, and also to attend the third annual two day International Symposium on the Left Atrial Appendage held this year just up the road from La Jolla in Los Angeles starting, conveniently, the day after my TEE at Scripps. I hope to share either in the Feb/March or April/May issue of The AFIB Report on new findings of interest and relevance from the conference.

Thanks too to all of you who have kept the ball rolling here and for the help from Jackie and George as well. Will gradually be getting back in the swing of things as Magdalena heals and I get the next newsletter finished within the next month.

Be well,
Shannon and Magdalena



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/2015 01:12PM by Shannon.

Great news for you Shannon.
All the best
Mark