My story

I’ve been on here a few months and haven’t shared yet. Sometimes it feels like writing it down makes it more real somehow? 8 months ago I felt a lump/fullness in my side, I had just had my second daughter who was only four weeks old at the time. I thought maybe it was something to do with her birth. I went to the Dr and was sent for an ultrasound, the technician doing the scan acted a bit weird but didn’t say anything, I then got a call from the Dr asking me to come in. Even then I wasn’t too worried - even went to get my eyebrows done that morning (seems stupid now). I was coming out of the eyebrow appointment and I had a missed call from a nurse - she left a message saying I should bring a support person to my appointment. It was at that point that I realised it must be really bad - I drove home in tears. My husband and my baby came to the doctors appointment with me, she didn’t sugar coat it - “there’s a tumour in your kidney, it’s most likely cancerous and it is very large”. I felt like the world had fallen away from under me. I kept looking at my daughter and saying “but she’s so little”. I was referred to a specialist and had an MRI that confirmed RCC. Luckily contained to my kidney. During the two weeks waiting for diagnosis and surgery I was a mess, I also started getting a lot of blood in my urine. Genuinely thought I was going to die. Fortunately the surgery went well, the tumour was the size of a grapefruit (still don’t understand how it wasn’t picked up during pregnancy scans). At the moment things look good, I have to keep going for scans for the next 10 years. I’m trying to enjoy every day that I get with my girls. I am so grateful to be here. But I still get bad days, when I’m scared, broken and angry. I’m working on my well-being, trying to focus on health and happiness. Thanks for taking the time to read. X