Tom Hickok Tom Hickok

Hi everyone!  On November 7, I will undergo surgery at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to remove a small mass in my kidney that the doctors believe is likely cancerous.  Surgery is the standard of care in most situations of this kind.  In my case, the surgery will be robot-assisted, and performed by a good and caring doctor, Dr. Shawna Boyle.

This is Dr. Boyles second chance to operate on me, having (with Dr. Peter Pinto) performed surgery to overcome my prostate cancer in April of this year.  There are two theories behind my electing to have a second surgical procedure at NIH:  One is that I really like the hospital food at NIH.  Actually, the food is plentiful, and "not bad".  The second theory is that the NIH will sometime in the future establish a "frequent patient" award program, and retroactively include me.

In any event, I am fortunate that the mass in my kidney was detected early, thanks to a pre-prostate surgery CT scan.  Better to find out about this now than in four or five years when my system is a mess!

With many friends kindly expressing concern for my well being, I thought this site would be an efficient way to update interested persons on my progress.  Thanks!