The Kidney Trumps the Prostate

Today our family met with Dr. Thomas Takayama, a renal surgeon at the UW medical school. He explained that the kidney tumor extended into the kidney vein and up into the inferior vena cava. That has become the immediate focus of concern. He ordered a chest MRI to determine if there were evidences of embolism in the lungs. He also indicated that his preference for a blood thinner was aspirin. Clearly there are positive and negative aspects of every medication. All things equal I would much prefer to swallow a bunch of aspirin than to receive two injections each day. Dr. Takayama was cordial and direct and instilled great confidence in all of us. Pending the results of the MRI he is scheduling surgery for Thursday, August 19th. The surgery will take about eight hours and I can expect to be hospitalized from seven to ten days. Posted by Donel at August 6, 2004 06:01 PM