CHAPTER ONE - ALMOST HOME

 In the early months of 2017 I had a couple of episodes with my heart. I was averaging about 2 or three a year and I got to where I hated the routine of going to the ER and having to wait in an exam room for hours at a time. Usually, my heart would convert on it's own. My heart has only been shocked once to get it back in rhythm. So after a while when it would go out of rhythm I started hanging out at the house instead of running to the ER. After a few hours my heart would convert on it's own. Most of my episodes happened after I went to sleep at night. A few occurred while I was awake and it seemed to be related to how late I ate supper and the kind of food that I ate. Foods high in sodium or spicy foods seemed to be the worst for me.

The doctor told me that my heart was showing some signs of enlargement. Nothing to really worry about in the short term but in the long term it could lead to heart failure. My heart rhythm specialist told me a few years ago about a heart procedure known as an heart ablation. Doctors go up through your crotch and into the heart. To the best of my knowledge they cauterize sensors in the heart that cause an irregular heartbeat. At first I didn't like the odds for success because I was told that there was about a 60% success rate. If it worked I could be cured, if not I might have to have a 2nd or third procedure. Or, I might be forced to wear a pacemaker. I reached the point that I was willing to take the risk and surgery was set for June 2, 2017 at Vanderbilt. The doctor went into three areas of my heart and I was disappointed when he told me to stay on my heart medicine after the procedure. The ablation improved my quality of life dramatically. I still have short term afib if I eat the wrong foods or eat too late but overall I feel that my heart is strong and I am able to stay physically active without any problems. 

Almost immediately after the procedure I began to show symptoms of a urinary tract infection. I must have gotten it from the catheter that they put in me during the surgery. A few days after the surgery I developed a severe pain in my left side that came on very suddenly. It became more and more intense to the point that I asked my grandson Connor to ride with me to the Stonecrest hospital ER in Smyrna Tennessee. I checked in at the desk and the pain was worse than anything I had ever experienced in my life. Nothing I did eased the pain and I felt like a caged animal. It was around 11:00 PM and the waiting room was packed. The medical staff was walking around like they had dead lice falling off of them and finally I just couldn't wait any longer. I told Connor that we were going to Vanderbilt in Nashville.

At Vanderbilt it was the same situation. The ER was packed and I had to wait. The pain became so intense that I closed my eyes and prayed that God would take it away. It was really weird because almost as soon as I said that prayer the pain went away. After that I sat in the ER waiting room for a pretty good while until they finally took me back. They put me on a gurney and rolled me into the hallway. I figured that maybe I had passed a kidney stone because I began peeing blood when I gave them a urine sample. When the doctor finally appeared he confirmed that I had a bladder infection and he agreed that I had probably passed a kidney stone. He sent me to get a ct scan on my kidney without using the contrast dye. The doctor told me that he wanted to see if I had anything else going on beside having a kidney stone. When the doctor returned he told me that I had passed a kidney stone but the ct scan revealed that I had a mass in my left kidney. He said that if it was cancer it hadn't metastasized yet but I should have it checked out. It was about 5:00 AM and I was so tired that his words didn't quite sink in at that moment.

I made an appointment with a urologist and he did another ct scan using the contrast this time. A few days later Debbie and I went back to see him for the verdict. He said that I had a four centimeter tumor in my kidney which had a 60 to 80 percent chance of being cancer. He told me that my only options were to remove the kidney or I could wait a few months to see if it had grown any. Removing the tumor, without removing the kidney was too dangerous for two reasons. It was in a bad place and I could bleed to death on the table he said. In addition, if it was cancer  there was a chance that he couldn't get it all and the cancer could spread. Waiting was not an option for me. I gave him the green light to remove my kidney and surgery was scheduled for August 10th.

This was in early June and I couldn't figure out why they didn't schedule the surgery earlier. I took this to mean that they weren't all that concerned about the cancer spreading that fast or at least I was hoping that is what they were thinking. This was the first major surgery that I had ever had and it was a success. The doctor told me that tests showed that the tumor was cancer but it was the least likely to reappear and was not aggressive. I have since had ct scans and ultrasounds on a yearly basis and I am cancer free. When my heart doctor took me off of my heart medication he said that the medicine could kill me since I only have one kidney. I have not missed it at all and I am actually doing much better since I have been off of it. That kidney stone saved my life. Until that point I had never had a kidney stone. The doctor told me that kidney cancer is a bad cancer to have because there are usually no symptoms until the cancer is very advanced and he said that there is no cure. Apparently God is not finished with me yet.