Today I saw my kidney surgeon for a 6-week post-op follow-up. Pretty good news; he said that the lab results show a very good negative surgical margin, but that it's a very good thing it was caught when it was because the tumour was starting to break through the capsule wall into the layer of fat surrounding the kidney. He also said that it's fortunate he did a full nephrectomy rather than the partial that was planned, because if he had done a partial, with these lab results he'd be going back in to remove the rest.
So, I'm "cured", but he's classified my kidney cancer as "intermediate risk", meaning there's a small risk (<5%) that it'll show up somewhere else at some time in the future. I'll be having a "baseline" abdominal and chest CT scan in the next few weeks, and then annual scans for the next five years which will be compared with that baseline.
The 5 surgical wounds, one large and 4 small, have all completely closed up now, and he said that in a year they should be no more than faint lines.
So, all things considered, pretty good news. I think I can now reasonably say that I used to have kidney cancer, but don't have it any more! Two major conditions sorted, one more - the prostate cancer - to go.
I think this calls for a celebratory cup of tea!
Chris