No visitors

No visitors at this time.

Cancer. It is a horrible word. Probably worse then the F*@! bomb. Unfortunately we had to hear this word today. I never in a million years could have seen this curve ball. The doctor tried to convince us that it is not such a bad word, but who is he kidding.

There was a cyst on Ryan's kidney, which is very common. The cyst was studied and they concluded it is multilocular cystic renal cell carcinoma aka cancer. You are probably asking why did they not test this first. According to the surgeon, a good percent of people have cysts, so they were not surprised when they saw it. The cyst was removed before the kidney was put into Neal, however there could still be some remaining on the kidney. We are both going to meet the oncologist to talk further. Luckily Les' brother is a doctor and had just recently read an article about this same case. What we know is that it is extremely rare and does not spread aggressively. Ryan's other kidney looks good, but he will need to have some further follow up. As of right now, Neal is scheduled to have surgery again tomorrow for a partial nephrectomy. They do not believe this will affect Neal long term, it is simply another bump in the road. The kidney should remain working after the partial nephrectomy. They also think Ryan will be just fine. The cancer is rare, but since it is not aggressive many people never even know they have it. The doctor stated that if Ryan had not donated his kidney, he may have never known he had this type of cancer. Neal should still be home by next week and Ryan should be home in the next day or two.

Ok so again I ask why. Neal has been through enough and we do not want to drag Ryan and Leslie into this mess. I just want them to get to move on with there life and not have any effects from this. It has soaked in now and we are feeling optimistic, but it is a bit much.