"You Have Cancer" - Not What You Want to Hear

Until you've heard these chilling three words, "You have cancer," you can never know firsthand the impact cancer has.

Once those words are out of your doctor's mouth, you're flooded with emotions and questions - "Am I going to die? Just how bad is it? What's going to happen to my family? What are we going to do?"

As the cancer news sinks in, the first thing you do is seek doctors' opinions on treatment options. That was the case in May 2009 when D heard that she had a tumor on her right kidney. Three doctors said, "Take your kidney out." But one doctor had a different opinion. "There's something new you can try...a relatively new technology that will remove your tumor but let you keep your kidney."

Since most of D's working career has been in technology and life with just one kidney didn't sound that appealing. Instead of the scalpel and removing a kidney, D chose ablation, a technology option that uses needle probes to either freeze or burn the tumor, leaving just little pin pricks in the back. No surgical scars. No long hospital stays. No long recovery.

The bad news, in D's case, is that the first procedure - cryoablation (freezing the tumor) left a small piece of tumor so a second procedure was needed. This time doctors tried radiofrequency ablation that burned the tumor.

Unfortunately, even after the second ablation, an itty bitty spot was still there. The doctors watched that spot closely to see if it changed or grew...and then after a CT scan in 2011, the doctors saw the tumor growing.

Again, D was faced with a decision of gigantic proportions and again two doctors said "take that kidney out." But Dr. James York of Gwinnett Medical Center, D's original radiologist oncologist wasn't ready to give up. "You've fought so hard to keep the kidney," he said. "There's one more procedure...one that wasn't even approved in the U.S. a few months ago...that could work."

The downside - only one doctor in Atlanta in February 2011 was performing this new 'miracle procedure.'

Enter Dr. Henry Krebs, radiologist-oncologist at St. Joseph's. Dr. Krebs is one of the few doctors in the U.S. who performs the revolutionary IRE Nanoknife procedure. And Dr. Krebs and his Nanoknife worked a miracle for D. Ten months and four CT scans later - each scan shows that the kidney tumor is dead, dead, dead. And D's right  kidney is alive and functioning at 85%.

D. set a medical record with her NanoKnife procedure - the first patient in the U.S. to have had all three CT guided treatments -  radiofrequency ablation, cyroablation and the IRE NanoKnife.

Now after three worry-filled years, thanks to technology and the lovingest support system of Team Fran and dear friends, D is cancer free and I celebrate my one year anniversary of being cancer free.

The morale of our journey - While "You have cancer" are frightening words to hear, don't settle for the first treatment option a doctor presents (or the even second or the third.) Do your own research and, if need be, trust in technology.