Friends reading this, I want you to know I am writing this after the fact. I am in my office working. These articles about the surgery will form part of a new book I am working on. Thank you all for praying.

I was experiencing severe diarrhea (15 or more times a day), weakness, and extreme fatigue. I had been under the care of my oncologist for about ten years. Now that he had found the five tumors, I was seeing him every other month for an appointment and update. I went every month for infusions. I took daily medications and had check-ups. However, he missed one of our scheduled appointments, so it had been four months since our last consultation. The medicines used to shrink my tumors were affecting my thyroid, making me feel sick and unhappy most of the time. I prayed regularly to die. And now, my doctor wasn’t even communicating with me as he had before.

I liked my oncologist. He had been good to me and given me hope, but now I was praying to die due to how bad I felt every day. I often couldn’t make it to the bathroom in time.

I couldn’t control my body temperature. I went from hot to cold on a minute’s notice, and to say the least, I was miserable.

My oncologist had taken my case to his review board. They had decided that my five tumors were too large and invasive for surgery even though I was down to three tumors, and they had significantly shrunk. I was now in stage four kidney cancer. They would keep me comfortable till it was over.

I asked for surgery, and he said that it would just be too invasive and not worth it. Since he hadn’t seen me for four months, and it would be longer, I opted to change hospital systems and doctors.

Friends helped me learn about a surgeon who specialized in cases like mine. Betty and I transferred all the files, which are inches thick by now, to him.

He and his team met with us. He was highly confident. I told him I liked him and that he was so cocky. He took offense when I told him I liked him and found him cocky. He said he wasn’t cocky but humbly confident. That was fine with me.

I asked him if he would tell his dad to get this surgery if he were in my situation. He was older than he looked because the surgeon told me he would have him at the surgery table as soon as possible if it were his brother. I told him that my previous doctor had said it was too invasive. He laughed and said he isn’t a surgeon, is he?

I asked him how he could be so confident, and he informed me that only three medical papers on my type of cancer and situation had been presented and published, and he himself had published one of them.

Betty and I were both impressed and ready to proceed with the surgery.

They cut me from my sternum around my belly button and to an inch of my most private part. I lay on the table for over 10 hours. Of course, I knew nothing of this because I was totally out of it.

Read the other articles about how to help your family members while you have cancer or other life-threatening diseases. They are in the waiting room, waiting. Their intention is to provide help. They are hurting, feeling helpless, and terrified of losing you. So, even though we are going through cancer and staring death in the face, we are not alone.

When we had talked, he mentioned I would lose both my adrenal glands and possibly a testicle. I remember being so startled that I questioned. Did I hear you right? You are going to take my right testicle, perhaps. He said if it is cancerous, and I think it might be, I will have to take it.

I was shocked and thought, well, that won’t happen, but it actually did.

Now I was down a right kidney, right testicle, and both adrenal glands. The damage to my thyroid means I will have to take medicine every day for the rest of my life.

After the surgery, we found out that I lost all that he had mentioned but that he thought I was cancer-free now. They had pulled out and inspected all of my intestines, liver, and everything else.

There was a 50/50 chance that the cancer would come back, but for the moment, I was cancer-free.

Quite a team of doctors in the surgery were taking care of me.

God had blessed me, and though I was hurting, I was happy

They put me in a tight girdle to hold all of my guts in.

Over the next eight days, I walked, learned how to live with the new medicines I would have to take, and prepared to return home.

I would take steroids a minimum of twice a day to replace what the adrenal glands would have done for me. I would take thyroid medicine to make up for the damage done to my thyroid by the cancer treatments.

I had gone from no medicines to taking about nine pills a day.

But for the moment, I was cancer-free.