Surgeon

Dec. 22 for my surgery! Merry Xmas! The surgeon, Dr. Gill, has done more laproscopic surgeries than any other team in the world. His team has developed some of the techniques used.
Dr. Gill asked some history questions and typed as we went. This allowed him to have his report done while we were there and he gave us a copy. He explained how they will make 4 small incisions and not cut any muscle. It's a major surgery with a major vein that needs to be cut off. I'll be in the hospital for 2-4 days with 2-4 weeks further recovery at home. Normal "open" surgery is about double the hospital time and recovery time at home.
To get prepared for it they need to do a heart stress test, an MRI for the extent of the tumor invasion of the main renal vein (to know exactly where to cut it off) and a Mag3 test (some sort of scan) to see how my other kidney will handle the increased workload (is it currently doing 50% of the kidney work or less?).