Julie’s Story

Site created on June 20, 2019

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.

Newest Update

Journal entry by Julie Schwarzkopf

Recovery has been slow with a few set backs now and then. I started back at work on Monday August 12. Wednesday August 14th I went to the ER due to excruciating pain by my incision and nausea. They admitted me during to not knowing the cause of the pain. After running tests, ruling out blood clots (huge relief) and then thinking it was blood leaking from my kidney, they determined that there is inflammation and fluid (this is typical fluid after this type of surgery and not a leak) they are treating with an antibiotic and also that on top of it there is muscle pain from ALL the muscle they cut through to get to my kidney (yes there is muscle under there...lol) I am now on a steady dose of ibuprofen and am starting PT on Tuesday to help with the muscle pain. I was discharged on Friday and laid low this weekend except for bringing Tanner to hockey Sunday evening. The current regime seems to be working... we will see that throwing PT into the mix does... hoping it helps with sleeping more comfortably and healing even faster so I can be me again. 
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