transitional cell carcinoma,age 30 yrs
Update: 01/23/06:
Its been a year since I was initially diagnosed. Finished my chemo in May. Have been cancer free since then. My last cystoscopy was in december and had an MRI scan in Jan. Am back to work and leading a normal life.
-Shoba.
dated 3/2/2005
Hi,
I am a 30 yr old cancer survivor patient.
Actually, my story starts when I was 23 yr old .
I had a kidney transplant in India due to chronic renal failure. My mom donated one of her kidneys and give me a second life .
I was leading a very healthy life with regualar
exercising,proper diet though I was taking a
lot of immunosuppressant pills due to my transplant.
During Nov 2004, I started noticing blood in my urine which was very alarming. Being very paranoid,I immediately contacted my nephrologist who found that there was some sort of blockage in one of my native kidneys.( Yes, I had three kidneys, two of my own and one from my mother ). He put me in touch with an urologist who suggested a cystoscopy to find out the reason for the blockage.Cancer was the last thing on their minds. They were almost 99% sure that it wont be cancer. Well, I guess the 1% came into picture and the blockage was due to malignant tumor in the ureter of my right kidney. My surgery was scheduled within a couple of weeks and it was a complicated one as my tranplant kidney was very close to the bladder and was hiding the ureter that had to be removed.Fortunately, my surgeon did a great job and got it through.
I am consulting an oncologist and am undergoing 3cycles of chemo(cisplatin and gemcitabin) to hopefully remove any microscopic cells as my tumor was muscle-invasive and is considered very aggressive.Since I cannot reduce my immuno sppressant medicines because of the transplant, the doctors want to to take extra care in treating my cancer.I might be having some radiation therapy later on . I guess I was lucky to have a very good doctors around me who took immediate action.
Will keep the story updated once my chemo is finished.