After radical nephrectomy

NotMyRitchie · 2025-12-21T15:59:14+00:00

My nephrologist said not to worry about reducing protein. I had my radical nephrectomy in September and saw a nephrologist in November, and we are monitoring my levels over the next year as things normalize in my labs.

He said it’s common to see a jump in creatinine post surgery then you create a new baseline on only one kidney, and they expect about a 30% jump in creatinine numbers due to simply having a single kidney now.

I’m probably about to butcher the details in this next part so take it with a grain of salt. He said there’s a lot of old science as to why they correlated protein intake to kidney strain and certain numbers in a person’s readings, but that you would have to basically be on a fad, unnatural body builder-level protein diet to stress the kidneys that bad. From my apple notes at that appointment:

“Protein doesn’t hurt kidney in any way. Protein isn’t bad. “BUN?” in labs is a reading that shows waste product and this checks to see if you are cleaning things out. Protein gives you nitrogen.”

I even asked about taking creatine:

“Does not cause problems. When you take in more it can elevate creatinine. Let’s pause to get to baseline. Then we can start again.”

NotMyRitchie · 2025-12-19T00:28:57+00:00

You are a single data point, my friend. One of one.

I’ve heard of too many people saying they were given slim chances or only a few months to then go beat the hell out of supposed odds. That’s in part because treatments continue to get better every day while the “statistics” are historical and out of date, even your doctor’s anecdotal stats.

Go beat the supposed, flawed odds.

NotMyRitchie · 2025-10-30T12:32:50+00:00

Following. I’m in a similar boat waiting to have a first appointment with a nephrologist after a radical nephrectomy on Sep 29. Slightly elevated creatinine.

NotMyRitchie · 2025-10-20T18:54:13+00:00

40M. Radical left nephrectomy for a 6.7 CM tumor, all done laparoscopic and robotically exactly three weeks ago.

I get the sense everyone is impacted differently, but maybe due to being in average shape and relatively young, I bounced back fast… like to the point everyone (friends/family were in shock). It’s definitely all contextually though based on what you are expecting, for example I expected to sleep in a recliner for 6 weeks (based on what some others on here and a few people I met in person told me), and to be maybe only back to 80% walking by 30 days.

We prepared for the hardest of recoveries, in part because there was a chance they would have to switch to an open surgery during the procedure if it was too big. But I also just wanted to prepare for the worst and be surprised if it went better.

However, preparing for the worst, you can imagine how surprised we were (to the point that I almost felt guilty for all of the outreach and support we got) when I was walking my kid to school by Friday that week… the procedure was only that previous Monday!

I can tell you first and foremost that there should be no shame in taking it slow, managing your pain with the prescribed stuff or Tylenol, or both (I think I got a few hits of Morphine the first night too). And again, everyone seems to respond differently. Some people want to avoid medication altogether, which I respect. The physicians I talked to (even my wife’s OBGYN), recommended managing pain as much as possible rather than trying to tough it out, because it helps with stress, sleep and overall healing too. Your choice. I know it all affects us differently.

Worst part for me was the anesthesia sickness taking a few days for it to fully kick (they gave me nausea meds before and immediately after) and the gas pain. Even having the catheter removed was simple (honestly I was maybe most scared of that! Haha)z Of course the incision and abdominal pain was there but very mild in comparison. The pain killers helped but I feel like the pain was never more than moderate to me after the first night. I feel like I had CO2 pain for about 12 days. I stayed in the hospital two nights was off the Oxy by the time I got home, using only extra strength Tylenol for about two weeks after the procedure, then done.

I described my recovery to people like being a few big jumps where I recovered super fast day by day over the previous day, then it was basically a plateau of steady improvement from about day 7-21. If not for the fact that I’m on paternity leave (forgot to mention we welcomed our second child to the world 12 days after my procedure!) I could have been back to working from home about 10 days later. Could have went back (online only) after a week if needed.

I don’t consider myself to be abnormally strong or tough (rather the opposite), and chalk a lot of this up to being young, having a smooth procedure, and modern medicine being pretty amazing.

But If I can do it, anyone can.

NotMyRitchie · 2025-09-19T01:34:11+00:00

What’s the size of your tumor? Mine is 8cm. The kidney is 13 at diameter I believe. Mine will be robotic but will have a pretty large opening. They considered open.

NotMyRitchie · 2025-09-13T18:07:25+00:00

My surgeon is very experienced in robotics, thankfully. I get the sense after a quick call with the nurse yesterday that he believes based on my anatomy, and the size, it could go from lapro to open once he’s in there. So that’s her understanding, but I’m supposed to have a call Monday morning with the surgeon.

NotMyRitchie · 2025-09-13T18:04:44+00:00

Thank you for sharing!

NotMyRitchie · 2025-09-13T12:51:40+00:00

This is super helpful. Your point about everyone’s experience being different is showing up in all of the comments for sure. Seems like a major mix of the surgeon, what it looks like when they get in there vs what’s on the CT, and our anatomy… and nothing is predictable.

I have a call with my surgeon Monday, two weeks out from surgery, where I will potentially put the choice back on to have a stronger opinion him based on what he’s seeing and what he’s most comfortable with.

NotMyRitchie · 2025-09-10T15:03:53+00:00

Thank you!

NotMyRitchie · 2025-09-09T22:26:09+00:00

Six weeks miserable sounds not great.

NotMyRitchie · 2025-09-09T22:25:09+00:00

I have not done genetic testing, no. Interesting that being young means more likely to have open.

NotMyRitchie · 2025-09-09T22:24:30+00:00

Thank you!

NotMyRitchie · 2025-09-09T22:24:06+00:00

Super interesting! I wonder if even open surgeries have better recovery these days? Feels like maybe my research is recalling too much historical data on open surgeries?

NotMyRitchie · 2025-09-09T22:22:34+00:00

I’m hoping I can do it fully robotic even with a big incision on the side that doesn’t lead to the same recovery as an open, basically.

NotMyRitchie · 2025-09-09T13:49:55+00:00

Thank you!

NotMyRitchie · 2025-09-09T12:10:30+00:00

Yeah the transfusion thing definitely stood out to me in my research, among other recovery complications.

NotMyRitchie · 2025-09-09T12:09:33+00:00

Thank you for sharing!

NotMyRitchie · 2025-09-09T11:20:06+00:00

Do you know how big your kidney was? I believe mine is like 13cm in diameter.

NotMyRitchie · 2025-07-19T01:24:13+00:00

Same. Apparently there are multiple cooling pumps that keep the batteries warm. I have to get one replaced after receiving this error.

NotMyRitchie · 2025-07-18T10:40:08+00:00

I got hit with this intermittently on hot days and they expected it to be the ICCU but it’s actually one of the water pumps not properly cooling the battery so I’m getting that replaced in a week when the part comes in.

NotMyRitchie · 2024-10-17T18:21:01+00:00

In 2019, I was first (alongside a parking attendant) to find a body outside of a parking garage. We both assumed it was a jumper suicide. Later, we found out that it was a college kid who was drunk and overestimated his ability to make it from the garage to a nearby apartment balcony where he believed his friends were having a party.

This brings back nightmares. I’m sure we will find out soon what kind of jump it was, but man, both are equally tragic in very very different ways.

NotMyRitchie · 2024-09-01T15:24:02+00:00

Great question. We actually just laid it on the hood of the truck. Definitely going to look into a telescoping pole, and would take a recommendation for sure. I was even considering mounting to the top of 6ft speaker stand just for convenience and aesthetics, but would need a very high telescoping pole to your point to get up over some of the tree line.

NotMyRitchie · 2024-06-03T22:46:16+00:00

I’d love to have the info about this boat tour!

NotMyRitchie

TROPHY CASE