A few months after my 1st back injury and resulting surgery 11 years ago, thinking I was on my way to a full recovery, I woke one morning to lose the use of my whole right side of my body. I coudlnt talk properly, I couldnt sign my name as I had no control over my hand and my right leg would give way every now and then. Obviously worried, I went to the doctor's who ordered a brain scan, obviously this scared the living shit out of me. Luckily for me, spending the previous 15 months lying on the ground with my back injury had trained me to have a solution focused mindset and attitude, as opposed to worrying about the problems that might be there. The scan came back and showed what is called a demyelination on the brain, or in other words, a spot on the brain. This spot could either be a one off spot or the onset of MS, being ordered to have further scans 3 months and again 12 months later, to ensure that this was just a one off spot, luckily for me at that stage it remained as one spot, with no new spots appearing.
Im not sure what it is with me and scary health problems while recovering from a back injury, but this time proved to be another scary moment health wise for me but at the same time, possibly one of the luckiest days of my life!
A few weeks back in early October, I had an appointment with my surgeon to see what was actually happening with my back, as I was still in a lot of pain and extremely limited in regards to what I could do. I was lucky to walk 10-15m without having to stop and stretch or kneel down to help release some of the pain. I was ordered to have a cat scan to see what damage there was to my back, no drama as I have had approx 8 cat scans for my back in the past, but this scan would end up being the most important scan I might ever have!
The scan showed a small cyst in my kidney, not related to my back injury at all, but they could see a small cyst type growth in the lower portion of my right kidney. Seeing my back pain was causing me a lot of grief, I had that as the number one priority, but when I went to see the doctor a few days later, she ordered me to have a Ultrasound on the kidney to see exactly what it was.
Well the news wasn't great, as they found what is called a Type 3 Bosniac Cyst slightly larger than a golf ball filling the entire bottom portion of my right kidney. I was told I had a 50% chance that the cycst is cancerous and I was extremely lucky to have caught this thing so early. The type of cancer it could be is a slow growing, slow spreading cancer but to think it was sitting there like a ticking time bomb in my kidney with no signs at all, was just crazy!! That fateful day in Vegas where I had the golf cart accident that triggered the back injury, could be a life saving incident that I will look at as the luckiest day of my life!
The Urologist ordered me to have another scan where they inject me with dye so they can see the make up of the cyst to give them a little more insight into what they are up against and the results of this scan was fantastic, with the cyst being downgraded to a Bosniac Type 2F, lowereing it to 25% cancerous. So the next step is having surgery to remove the bottom half of my right kidney and take out the entire cyst and any part of the kidney that might have traces of the cyst. There is a small chance that they will need to take out the entire kidney, but at this stage I go in for surgery on the 21st of November to get half my right kidney removed.
It is has been a really weird feeling knowing there was something that could have been life threatening, growing inside me, causing me no drama's at all. My back injury is still extremely painful and debilitating, but pales in significance to what I could have been dealing with. I received a cortisone injection in my spine 3 weeks ago to help reduce the pain and inflammation, with no real success, so I am headed back to my surgeon next Monday to possibly get another cortisone injection so I can try and be pain free for my kidney operation.
So you could say it has been an interesting few months but I can say one thing, the impact that this experience has had on my outlook to life and the people that are in it, has been so profound I would never change a thing!! The upcoming surgery is going to be a costly event, but for how it has helped me to appreciate the smaller things in life, it will be worth every cent.
I have always felt, with the help of my initial back injury, that my outlook on life and my perspective has always been pretty good, but when all of a sudden you are dealing with the "Cancer" word and the not knowing of what it can or will do to you, you look at things like never before.
I recall driving back from the Gym a few weeks ago, just looking at the blue sky and the tree's on the nature strip, just thinking how beautiful they are, I then began to take notice of a lot more things around me. For most of us, we live life in the fast lane and rarely stop to take notice of the beauty that surrounds us. Whether it be a smile on a random person's face, a total stranger doing a good deed for another stranger, life is full of amazing events that go on all around us EVERY MINUTE OF THE DAY! So this has really taught me to slow down and appreciate the smaller things in life!! It also taught me how valuable it is to have a mind that is totally focused on solutions and not problems. I was lucky enough to ingrain this years ago in regards to a lot of smaller, perceived unimportant components of my life, but I knew if that foundation was solidly built in those areas, if I ever faced a larger more daunting situation, my mind would automatically click into solution mode. This was such a massive help in dealing with my situation the past few months, together with the smazing support of my wife, who during times like this just astound's me at how amazing she is and how damn lucky I am!!
Also the massive support I have been shown by an enormous amount of friends and acquaintances, some of whom I have never met, was such an uplifting experience and I want to thank all those people that sent me kind messages of support, it will never be forgotten!!
I will end this blog with a few recommendations, live your life for 1 week as if you were told you had cancer and see if you see life in a different way and secondly, try and begin to create a solution focused mindset for all things in your life. The smaller aspects in your life where you could be focused on the problem, try and create a solution focused mindset for all those small issues and begin to see what impact it might have on your life.
For me, these 2 components of how I have functioned the past few months have been the most amazing assets I could have, and I hope you all get a chance to experience them in the near future!!
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