I’ve had several people email me asking about a 2019 citywide
garage sale post and I fully planned on putting one together but unfortunately,
I’ve had a health setback and won’t get to it this year.
But you can check out my friend's blog over at Wichita on the Cheap and she'll get you some dates and locations!
Since this is my personal blog and I use it as my voice on occasion, I will share with you what I have going on… On January 24th, I came down with a horrible stomach something. I say ‘something’ because the mystery is still there.
Shortly after dinner, my stomach started cramping severely bad. Up high in the middle and maybe an inch to the right. It was a pain like I’ve never felt before. It felt like someone was punching me in the gut over and over and over again. It hurt so bad that I eventually got sick. I felt better after I got sick and so I went to bed for a bit. Then it started back up again. Repeat this all night, overnight Thursday until about 7am that Friday morning. I ended up sleeping on my bathroom floor. I mentioned to my husband a couple of times that if our boys weren’t sleeping, I’d go to the emergency room. This is coming from a girl that waits until she’s barely breathing to go to the doctor. So yeah, that was the pain. That next day (Friday) I had zero energy (to be expected after a night of hurling) but still didn’t feel the greatest. I never ran a fever and never had body aches so I was pretty sure I had food poisoning and so that’s why I didn’t make an appointment on Friday.
Since this is my personal blog and I use it as my voice on occasion, I will share with you what I have going on… On January 24th, I came down with a horrible stomach something. I say ‘something’ because the mystery is still there.
Shortly after dinner, my stomach started cramping severely bad. Up high in the middle and maybe an inch to the right. It was a pain like I’ve never felt before. It felt like someone was punching me in the gut over and over and over again. It hurt so bad that I eventually got sick. I felt better after I got sick and so I went to bed for a bit. Then it started back up again. Repeat this all night, overnight Thursday until about 7am that Friday morning. I ended up sleeping on my bathroom floor. I mentioned to my husband a couple of times that if our boys weren’t sleeping, I’d go to the emergency room. This is coming from a girl that waits until she’s barely breathing to go to the doctor. So yeah, that was the pain. That next day (Friday) I had zero energy (to be expected after a night of hurling) but still didn’t feel the greatest. I never ran a fever and never had body aches so I was pretty sure I had food poisoning and so that’s why I didn’t make an appointment on Friday.
I went through the weekend and went to my kids’
basketball and soccer games even though I still had a slight twinge. I was
still pretty sure it was the food poisoning.
On Monday, I decided I’d go ahead and make a dr’s appointment since I still had that dull ache. None of my family members on my mom’s side have their gall bladder anymore so if I didn’t have food poisoning, maybe it was gallstones.
At the dr, he was palpating my stomach and was pretty sure I had gallstones or a gallbladder attack and so he ordered an ultrasound as well as a CBC and a urinalysis.
On Monday, I decided I’d go ahead and make a dr’s appointment since I still had that dull ache. None of my family members on my mom’s side have their gall bladder anymore so if I didn’t have food poisoning, maybe it was gallstones.
At the dr, he was palpating my stomach and was pretty sure I had gallstones or a gallbladder attack and so he ordered an ultrasound as well as a CBC and a urinalysis.
The next day I had my ultrasound and noticed that the
technician only spent a couple of minutes on my gallbladder but about 10-15
minutes on my right side, down low and towards my back as well. I’m no doctor
but I always thought the gallbladder was higher up.
The next day I received a call from my doctor and said my gallbladder and liver were great, however, I had hematuria (microscopic blood in my urine) as well as a mass on my kidney.
I didn’t hear anything other than “mass on your kidney”.
They set me up to have a CT scan with contrast the following week and the day after that, it was determined that I have a 2.5cm cancerous mass on my right kidney.
I was sent over to a Urologist to have him look at the report and the scan and he came to the same conclusion. I have Kidney Cancer (AKA: Renal Cell Carcinoma) and I will need to have surgery to remove the tumor as well as part of my right kidney on February 28th, 2019. Oddly enough, the month of March is Kidney Cancer Awareness Month and come March 1st, I will hopefully be able to say that I am a Kidney Cancer Survivor.
I’m on autopilot right now. I don’t quite know how to feel about having cancer other than I just want the fucking thing out of me.
Honestly, I feel really, really good. Which is the scary thing about Kidney Cancer. Call it divine intervention or a guardian angel watching out for me or whatever you want to call it but the fact is, they found my cancer by complete accident while it’s still relatively small. Most of the time, by the time someone finds out they have kidney cancer, the tumor is quite large and causing noticeable symptoms and possibly already spread to nearby lymph nodes.
Sure I’m going to have to have a pretty major surgery and be down for the count for several weeks - but I’m so ready to get this thing out of me and get on with my life!
My boys don’t know that I have cancer. We’ve decided to wait until the pathology reports come back after the surgery. They have too much other stuff to worry about right now ~ stuff like, “where did I put my other shoe and why do our parents always make us take baths in the middle of a video game?!” type of worries.
My husband has been amazing through this with me. He’s been my punching bag and my shoulder to cry on and a face to scream at and the reason that I’m honestly still standing. I have fallen soooo many times during our relationship and he always picks me up and dusts me off. I couldn’t do this without him, honestly. And even though my boys don’t know what I’m going through (other than that I have to have surgery on a kidney), their little faces are the other reason I’m not only standing, but smiling as well. When I feel weak, they are the strength that keeps me going. When my mind turns dark, they are the light that I need.
I believe in the power of prayer. So if you wouldn’t mind saying this little prayer for me, I’d SO appreciate it…
“Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.””
-Luke 8:50
If you have another prayer, feel free to share it!
And even if prayer isn’t your thing, your thoughts and virtual hugs are plenty!
Thank you to my faithful followers who have been here since day one. Thank you to my new followers who found me after my Fortnite post and realized we had stuff in common. Thank you for being my people.
It’s time to go kick Cancer’s ass!
The next day I received a call from my doctor and said my gallbladder and liver were great, however, I had hematuria (microscopic blood in my urine) as well as a mass on my kidney.
I didn’t hear anything other than “mass on your kidney”.
They set me up to have a CT scan with contrast the following week and the day after that, it was determined that I have a 2.5cm cancerous mass on my right kidney.
I was sent over to a Urologist to have him look at the report and the scan and he came to the same conclusion. I have Kidney Cancer (AKA: Renal Cell Carcinoma) and I will need to have surgery to remove the tumor as well as part of my right kidney on February 28th, 2019. Oddly enough, the month of March is Kidney Cancer Awareness Month and come March 1st, I will hopefully be able to say that I am a Kidney Cancer Survivor.
I’m on autopilot right now. I don’t quite know how to feel about having cancer other than I just want the fucking thing out of me.
Honestly, I feel really, really good. Which is the scary thing about Kidney Cancer. Call it divine intervention or a guardian angel watching out for me or whatever you want to call it but the fact is, they found my cancer by complete accident while it’s still relatively small. Most of the time, by the time someone finds out they have kidney cancer, the tumor is quite large and causing noticeable symptoms and possibly already spread to nearby lymph nodes.
Sure I’m going to have to have a pretty major surgery and be down for the count for several weeks - but I’m so ready to get this thing out of me and get on with my life!
My boys don’t know that I have cancer. We’ve decided to wait until the pathology reports come back after the surgery. They have too much other stuff to worry about right now ~ stuff like, “where did I put my other shoe and why do our parents always make us take baths in the middle of a video game?!” type of worries.
My husband has been amazing through this with me. He’s been my punching bag and my shoulder to cry on and a face to scream at and the reason that I’m honestly still standing. I have fallen soooo many times during our relationship and he always picks me up and dusts me off. I couldn’t do this without him, honestly. And even though my boys don’t know what I’m going through (other than that I have to have surgery on a kidney), their little faces are the other reason I’m not only standing, but smiling as well. When I feel weak, they are the strength that keeps me going. When my mind turns dark, they are the light that I need.
I believe in the power of prayer. So if you wouldn’t mind saying this little prayer for me, I’d SO appreciate it…
“Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.””
-Luke 8:50
If you have another prayer, feel free to share it!
And even if prayer isn’t your thing, your thoughts and virtual hugs are plenty!
Thank you to my faithful followers who have been here since day one. Thank you to my new followers who found me after my Fortnite post and realized we had stuff in common. Thank you for being my people.
It’s time to go kick Cancer’s ass!
