Another Kidney Cancer Survivor!

MaryO'Note:  This article says: Rowell did not have to have chemotherapy or radiation for his tumors because such treatments are rarely effective for his type of cancer.

I'm so glad to see that they printed this.  When I tell people I didn't have chemo or radiation they think that means my cancer wasn't a serious one and they dismiss it.  It's nice to have this bit of validation!

From http://www.duncanbanner.com/local/local_story_365122658.html

Fighting the good fight

Pastor learns valuable lessons from battle with cancer

Jayne Boykin
The Duncan Banner

DUNCAN — Billy Rowell enjoys Christmas. In fact, the Duncan pastor enjoys every day of the year because it wasn’t too long ago that he thought those days might be coming to an end.

A self-employed carpenter and pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Rowell’s life was fairly routine, revolving around work, his church and family. He’s lived east of Duncan all his life, and graduated from Comanche High School in 1978. Rowell served as youth minister at the church for three or four years, as song leader for a year or two, then became its pastor almost two years ago, succeeding his father-in-law, the Rev. Bill Florez, who was pastor for many years.

Early in 2003, however, he began to have some “minor” health concerns. A trip to his doctor proved to be an eye-opener and the beginning of a long journey through the valley of the shadow of death to a new appreciation of life and a realization of the many blessings that life bestows.

“I was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma — cancer — in my left kidney. That was a shock. I now know how people feel when they hear the ‘C-word.’ My kidney was removed in March of 2003 in Lawton, just before my 43rd birthday.

“My prognosis was good until July 2004. You know, when you have a serious illness like that, they watch you carefully. I had check-ups every three months, and PET scans, and they’d give me a good going-over. In July of that year, the tests showed two spots, lesions, I guess you’d call ’em, on my liver.”
A fairly new technique called radio frequency ablation literally “zapped” the liver spots away, and Rowell thought he was home free until his doctor walked into his hospital room.
“He said, ‘The liver is OK, but I found a tumor in your right kidney.’ I knew then that I was in trouble,” Rowell said.
Because Rowell had already lost one kidney, it was vital that his remaining kidney be saved, if at all possible. The tumor was removed but the kidney was severely damaged. What followed was a miserable year of bleeding, inability to work, pain, 23 times under anesthesia and four major surgeries.

“I have three scars over 14 inches long each on my gut. When they have to make an incision like that, they make the cut through all the muscles and stuff and then insert this huge stainless steel ring to stretch the opening and give them room to work. It takes a long time to recover from something like that,” he said.
During 2005, Rowell had at least one hospital stay every month except for April and May. The attempts to save his remaining kidney were making him really sick, he said.

“I learned then that Duncan is one of the greatest cities in the world. I love the people of Duncan. The whole community pitched in to support us with prayers and donations. One anonymous donor alone gave $16,000. Some oil field workers in Velma held a golf tournament and raised over $9,000. The outpouring was amazing.

“I’m so grateful for all the prayers. A man in Iowa learned about me on the Internet and put my name in a Catholic prayer chain that went to computers all over the world. Me, a Baptist preacher, and Catholics I never knew were praying for me. I’ve seen how God works, and it’s miraculous!”

Finally, his remaining kidney failed and had to be removed at OU Medical Center.

“My right kidney was the first known kidney to have been removed with radio frequency ablation. All of the surgery was done through a chest tube. A week and a half later, I was able to work again,” Rowell said.

Rowell did not have to have chemotherapy or radiation for his tumors because such treatments are rarely effective for his type of cancer.

“Not good enough odds,” he said.

“I’ve learned you had better enjoy every day you’ve got. Don’t take family or friends for granted. Life was OK before, now I love life. Faith got me through some difficult times. I feel blessed,” Rowell said.

Rowell credits his wife, Kim, with helping him get through the worst days. Kim Rowell is a human resources coordinator at Hydra-Rig. She stayed with her husband constantly during his hospitalizations, making sure he got the right medications and that his condition was carefully monitored as his disease progressed.

“She’s also got good medical insurance through her job. They don’t tell me what things cost. She and the insurance just take care of ’em.”

The couple has been married 30 years, and has two sons: Chris, 28, who lives in Blanchard, and Ryan, 26, who lives in Duncan. They also have a 19-month-old granddaughter, Brooklyn Grace, who is the apple of her grandfather’s eye.

Rowell went on kidney dialysis in March of 2005. He still takes the treatments that cleanse his body of toxins and fluids three days a week, along with about 30 pills a day. He continues his carpentry work on the days he’s not taking dialysis, and carries out his pastoral duties day and night, according to the needs of his congregation. He was ordained earlier this year.

Rowell said he’s learned some amazing things during the course of his illness.

“This body isn’t an accident. It’s too complicated not to have been made by God. It works good, too, until people mess it up,” he said.

Along with the support of his family and the overwhelming outpouring of help from the community, Rowell credits his recovery to staying positive and staying busy. While he’s taking his lengthy dialysis treatments, he talks with the people around him who are also taking treatments, and asks them how they’ve made it this far. The overwhelming response is “prayer and staying positive.”

“I want to last a while. I push myself and stay strong. You go downhill when you sit around,” he said.

“When you get a diagnosis of cancer, you’re going to have fear. You might act tough, but no matter what you do, you’re not dying until God says it’s time. Pain lets me know I’m alive. I look at things differently now.”

Rowell hopes to get on a kidney transplant list soon. He has to live nine more months cancer-free, then he can begin the lengthy testing process to get on a waiting list.

“I’m not sick. I don’t have kidney disease, I just have to depend on a machine to carry out the functions my missing kidneys would ordinarily do. I don’t feel normal, because of the poison levels in my body, but I choose to stay positive. I look forward to days. Worrying burns energy, takes away your life force. When things get to be too much for me, I just say, ‘God, you’re doing to have to deal with this.’ I don’t have to understand it all. I trust God and I know he has a wonderful place waiting for me, and that’s fine with me,” Rowell said.

It's Almost Endo Time Again

This Thursday I go back to Johns Hopkins for my annual post-Cushing's checkup.  I used to go twice a year when I was on growth hormone but thanks to the cancer I can't take GH anymore.

I hope to have the courage to ask my endo for a script for Provigil.  Dr. Dori mentioned it to me before an online interview and it sounds like something that would work for me. 

But I don't know, if I get the script, if my kidney surgeon would let me take it.  He's very protective of my one remaining kidney.  I still wonder, though.  If I took one pill, how much kidney "life" would I lose.  Would it be worthwhile to gain a day of wakefulness and energy to lose an hour of kidney time?

At this stage of my life, I think that the trade off would be worthwhile.  Of course, that's easy to say now.  I'd probably feel different if I were undergoing dialysis!

But my endo might not even prescribe it so this may all be a wasted argument, even with myself.

Donor kidneys removed with single bellybutton cut

From http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080717/ap_on_he_me/med_bellybutton_kidney_5

By THOMAS J. SHEERAN, Associated Press Writer Thu Jul 17, 5:18 PM ET

CLEVELAND - Brad Kaster donated a kidney to his father this week, and he barely has a scar to show for it.

The kidney was removed through a single incision in his bellybutton, a surgical procedure Cleveland Clinic doctors say will reduce recovery time and leave almost no scarring.

"The actual incision point on me is so tiny I'm not getting any pain from it," Kaster, 29, said Wednesday. "I can't even see it."

Kaster was the 10th donor to have the procedure done at the Cleveland Clinic by Dr. Inderbir S. Gill and colleagues. The 11th was done Thursday. Gill said the technique could make kidney donations more palatable by sharply reducing recovery time.

More than 80,000 Americans are awaiting kidney transplants. Last year, there were about 13,300 kidney donors in the U.S., and about 45 percent were living donors, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

The first 10 recipients and donors whose transplants used the single-incision navel procedure have done well, according to the researchers. They report on the first four patients in the August issue of the Journal of Urology.

Preliminary data from the first nine donors who had the bellybutton procedure showed they recovered in about just under a month, while donors who underwent the standard laparoscopic procedure with four to six "key hole" incisions took just longer than three months to recover.

The clinic says the return to work time for single-point donors is about 17 days, versus 51 for traditional multi-incision laparoscopic procedure.

"For me, that's huge so I can get back to work," said Kaster, a self-employed optometrist.

Patients of the new procedure were on pain pills less than four days on average, compared with 26 days for laparoscopic patients.

"This represents an advance, for the field of surgery in general," said Gill, who predicted the bellybutton entry would be used increasingly for major abdominal surgery in a "nearly scar-free" way.

"Will this decrease the disincentive to (kidney) donation? I think the answer is yes," Gill said.

Drs. Paul Curcillo and Stephanie King of Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia developed a single-incision technique and Curcillo was the first to use the method to remove a woman's gallbladder through her bellybutton in May 2007. They've since used it for a number of different kinds of surgery.

Curcillo said the bellybutton procedure "will definitely make things better" for the donor. "A donor is one of the most altruistic people you'll ever meet. He's giving his kidney up. So anything you can do to make it better for that patient, they deserve it," he said.

Laparoscopic surgery revolutionized the operating room more than 15 years ago, replacing long incisions with small cuts and vastly reducing pain and recovery time. Researchers are now exploring ways to eliminate scars by putting instruments through the body's natural openings like the mouth, nose and vagina to perform surgery.

The method used by the Cleveland Clinic takes advantage of the belly button to avoid a visible scar. Gill said the procedure was approved by the clinic's internal review board as an extension of its laparoscopic surgical work. He has begun training other surgeons on the procedure. It is not used to transplant the kidney into the receiving patient.

Dr. Louis R. Kavoussi, head of the Arthur Smith Institute for Urology of the North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System in New York and the co-author of an editorial in the journal, said the method needs to be studied to determine if patients fare better. "The reality is that nobody knows if this is an advance other than cosmetic," said Kavoussi.

On Thursday, Scott Bolender, 39, of Washington Court House, received a kidney taken from his niece, Chanda Calentine, by way of her bellybutton.

"I'm just looking forward to getting out of bed," Bolender said in a bedside interview Wednesday.

Bolender, the married father of six children, has been unable to work because of Wagner's disease, an autoimmune disease that attacks the kidneys. He has been undergoing lifesaving dialysis since 2005.

Calentine, 30, of New York City, said she was thrilled to provide a kidney for her good-natured uncle and that she expects to do fine with a single remaining kidney.

She also said she was confident in the promise of a "nearly scar-free" post-surgical bellybutton but was prepared for the alternative. "A week ago I got a one-piece (bathing suit)," she said with a laugh.

The procedure involves making a three-quarter inch incision in the interior of the bellybutton and inserting a tube-like port with several round entry points for inserting a camera and other tools into the belly.

The belly is inflated with carbon dioxide to provide maneuvering room. The kidney is then freed from connecting tissue, wrapped in a plastic bag and removed through the navel when the blood supply is cut, shrinking the organ's fist-like size. The incision is expanded to about 1 1/2 inches to extract the kidney after the port is removed.

The procedure would not be appropriate for those who have had multiple major abdominal surgeries or who are obese, Gill said. Both conditions would limit the ability to look around the abdomen and move about instruments.

Kaster donated his kidney to his father, Phil Kaster, 61, of Canal Fulton, who was on dialysis for 10 months.

"When it's family like that, you wouldn't think twice," he said. "I'm glad I'm able to give somebody their life back."

___

Associated Press writers Joe Milicia in Cleveland and Stephanie Nano in New York contributed to this report.