March, a noun and
the 3rd month of the Gregorian calendar, is designated as Kidney Cancer
Awareness month but if you're like me, you probably never knew this and there's
practically zero push to promulgate awareness of this dis-ease.
For me, Kidney
Cancer awareness is similar to breathing. I'm consciously aware of the dis-ease because of the scar on my body and the fact that it metastasized to other parts of my body and as such, on a daily basis, I put on my armor to fight this nasty dis-ease with chemotherapy, clean eating, exercise and tremendous outpouring of love. Both my parents had/have kidney cancer; I have a sister with kidney disease and a cousin who is in & out of the hospital with problems due to renal dis-ease. It was during the month of March
that I had a radical kidney nephrectomy (total removal of a kidney) due to Kidney Cancer. The dis-ease came
and infested my left kidney like a master thief...quietly and in my most ignorant state of mind, with few warning. I say ignorant and few warning because I just didn't know what to look for. Unlike breast
cancer, they're no monthly recommended self checks and the symptoms are easy to ignore - but alarms should have gone off when for 9 months, ALL I did sleep...when I gladly gave up my lawnmower and hired a landscaper. I didn't have blood
in my urine or a lump on my lower back or side. But, I have every other classic
symptom.
Some symptoms or
signs of kidney cancer include:
- Blood in the urine (hematuria)
- Low back pain on one side (not caused by injury)
- A mass (lump) on the side or lower back
- Fatigue (tiredness)
- Loss of appetite
- Weight loss not caused by dieting
- Fever that is not caused by an infection and that doesn’t go away
- Anemia (low red blood cell counts)
The
American Cancer Society’s most recent estimates for kidney cancer in the United
States are for 2016:
- About 62,700 new cases of kidney cancer (39,650 in men and 23,050 in women) will occur.
- About 14,240 people (9,240 men and 5,000 women) will die from this disease.
These
numbers include all types of kidney and renal pelvis cancers. Most people with
kidney cancer are older. The average age of people when they are diagnosed is
64. Kidney cancer is very uncommon in people younger than age 45.
Kidney
cancer is amongst the 10 most common cancers in both men and women but few promo,
education and awareness is made of this dis-ease. Marketers aren't stocking
shelfs with orange colored kidney shaped items, Cancer centric organizations
aren't organizing walks to stomp out kidney cancer, no one is fighting to save
our Tatas, I mean kidneys and it's an organ we really can't live without.
Our kidneys filter
the blood flowing through our body 24x7x365 or 366. We can live without our Tatas but
we cannot live without one good kidney...Living without 1 properly working kidney means living on dialysis. Know anyone getting dialysis? It's DRAINING!! It's sitting in a center for about 8 hrs., having all your blood removed, clean and replaced - several times a week. According
to the National Kidney Foundation, the average life expectancy on dialysis is
5-10 years. Getting a kidney transplant means going on a register and with much
favor from above, you'll find a match and your body wouldn't reject that kidney
- never, ever.
I promised myself to be publicly mute about my battle but I want everyone to be aware of Kidney Disease. I want people to become aware of the symptoms, to become empowered patients and if that voice of reason tells you something is wrong, to seek help. Should routine well-being exam found the disease I battle? I don't know...I have my blood examined monthly and the #s are good but I'm battling stage 4 cancer. Go figure! So this is my P.S.A. to advocate Kidney Cancer Awareness. I'll slap magnets on my car, wear an orange wrist band and spread the word on this disease. Any ranking on the cancer scale sucks and kidney cancer is #10 on the most common type of this dis-ease.
References:
1 -
American Cancer Society www.cancer.org
2 -
National Kidney Fund www.kidney.org
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