Julie Parrish Schwarzkopf

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place regarding Julie's kidney surgery. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting. Julie's Story: In Sept 2018 after a routine hysterectomy Julie was experiencing abdominal pain and went to the ER. The ER did tests including a CT scan. the CT scan showed an incisional hernia but it also showed a small mass on her left kidney. In Noveber 2018 the hernia was repaired and tests were ordered by Dr Moncrief (Urologist) to see what the mass is. After an MRI and Ultrasounds it was decided that because the mass was small we would watch it and reevaluate it in 6 months. In April 2019 Julie had another MRI and the mass (now called Steve) had grown and has characteristics for being renal cell carcinoma which is Kidney Cancer. Steve is about the size if a quarter and is located in the upper left kidney. Because of where Steve decided to reside, which is right next to Julie's spleen, laparoscopic surgery cannot be done and Julie needs to be completely opened up on the left side. Julie is having a partial nephrectomy on June 27th. A tenth of her left kidney will be removed which includes Steve and his neighboring tissue. Julie will be off work 6-8 weeks. we have set up a GoFundMe me account to help with on going medical costs and lost wages. the link is under the way to help tab. We will update this site after surgery to keep everyone informed of Julie's progress.