Convinced I have kidney cancer

[Nittyknobhead]

I'm looking for a bit of hope from anyone who's had similar 🙏

Had on and off lower back ache for 2 maybe 3 weeks on left side near top of bumcheek. Started really mild then got really bad about 1.5 weeks in where i felt quite stiff and sore in the morning, then eased off again.

It feels like it's been moving around to middle of back, bum, top of back, so initially I put it down to shit posture as I couldn't think of anything I've done. And I do sit weird but I always have.

It also seemed to pull a bit if I bent down so again put it down to muscular or trapped nerve maybe.

Now for the past 5 days it's settled more towards my side but still lower down, sort of where kidney would be but a bit lower. Not really painful, or achey, but enough to make me 😩 not constant either. Its like a pinching/warm sort of feeling. Now doesn't hurt when I bend over.

Weeing fine, no visible blood, not cloudy unless I've not drunk much. I feel ok apart from when I start spiralling then I feel shit, lethargic, so I convince myself that's the fatigue with the cancer, them I feel even shitter. I'll google (obvs), see something reassuring, carry on googling, then find a story from someone who had my symptoms and it was C, so I go back to shitting myself.

I've been avoiding going to gp in case they do suggest the worst, but feel I do need to acknowledge there's maybe something seriously wrong and bite the bullet. But I'm so very scared.

Does anyone have any stories of hope just to help me get out of this horrible place I'm in just until I do face it and see GP?

Thankyou

Stop googling and see your gp .

Go to the GP.

I know I need to see the GP, telling me that isnt particularly helpful (but thank you!) but i know its what i need to do. Im just looking for something to help me get out of this horrible place I'm in right now 😔

Sounds to me like you have a compressed or spasming piriformis muscle. It is a thick muscle from the base of your spine to your hip that sits at the top of your bum. If it spasms or compresses the sciatic nerve you can get lower back ache and pains down your bum and back of your leg.

I am not a medical professional but I have a spasming left piriformis muscle ( thanks lockdown WFH!) and your symptoms sound a lot like mine - lower left back pain, stiff leg and bum cheek, gets better with exercise and movement.

Do you, by any chance, have a job that involves a lot of sitting? I would consult a physio.

I'm probably a poster child for sedentary lifestyle. Sit in a crap chair for about 8-9 hours a day (but always have) then sit watching TV in the evening. Not 'active' as in I don't exercise but I'm not a total slob e.g. I will walk somewhere rather than drive, and do a lot in the house, but, yea, definitely very sedentary overall.

I'm 44, could it be just general age shite maybe?

Go to the GP I guarantee you’ll be back saying it’s not kidney cancer. Your anxiety is spiralling, so you need to rule it out.

Thank you, I appreciate that.

I will go, am getting a bit teary at the thought though. Only tiny bit of hope I'm clinging on to right now is the pain hasn't really got worse in the last week and it's not constant or this 'dull ache' you read about.

People on the internet can tell you all sorts of stories about their back pain and how it wasn't this , that or the other (and I'd be very surprised if yours is anything sinister) but we are all different and just because person A had cancer it doesn't mean person B had it although their symptoms were similar.
Delaying seeing your gp isn't going to change whatever it is that you have and the sooner you make an appointment the sooner you will know. X

Nearly everyone who comes to the Gp with back pain thinks it's their kidneys. It pretty much never is. Stop googling and s your gp if you're worried.

I have cancer and I find your post really insensitive, which you probably will find mine. Go to your GP and hopefully you'll find its an infection/ nerve / sciatica- trust me actually having cancer is way worse than thinking you may have it is.

Imagine yourself in the doctor's consulting room and they say "nothing wrong, nothing to worry about'. What's your reaction?

a. Thank fuck for that, now I can forget about it
b. What if they’re wrong? Should I get a second opinion?

A - end of story.

B - you should ask you doctor about counselling for health anxiety.

You need to see the go for your health anxiety, not kidney cancer.

Yep see yoir GP. But given this pain has not appeared following an acccident (like a fall or blow to the back) and following your description of your very sedentary lifestyle I would hazard a bet you have compressed a lower back muscle.

While you are waiting to get an appointment keep a note of where the pain is and when it hurts most. If it is muscular it should get better with movement.

There are some simple exercises you can do like glute bridges or lie on your back, bend your right leg and cross your left leg over your right thigh (so your legs form a sort of figure 4) ann then put you hand under your right thigh and pull your legs as far towards your chest as you can (whilst keeping your upper body and head flat on the floor). This should ease the muscle pain.

I have had skin cancer and did the opposite - just brushed it off for months as an itch. Fainted in the consultants room when they told me.

I hope you're going to be OK.

My friend ignored pains, then stronger pains, ending up peeing pure blood and died of kidney cancer he endured symptoms for more than a year. Get checked op.

Your kidneys are a lot higher up than many people think they are. They are actually around your waist area, where high waisted jeans sit. I have had complete renal failure (3% function across both) and a slice taken from one of mine for testing so I know where they went in to get it. They're much higher than top of bum/lower back. I won't tell you any symptoms as you'll start to panic you have it, but from what you've said you absolutely don't have renal failure.

sorry OP, but you are not a qualified medical professional and neither is Google. please just see your GP....

for what it's worth with the symptoms you are describing, renal ca would not be my first differential

Two thirds of people get back pain, renal cancer in people in their 40s is pretty rare. Do go and see your GP but in terms of sheer numbers, muscular pain is overwhelmingly more likely.

44 is just the age for life spent sitting in the wrong chair with a desk not set up ergonomically to catch up with you and start causing all sorts of aches and pains.

Sounds more like sciatica to me. Have you taken ibuprofen?

It could be a urine infection or like someone previously said a trapped muscle. Even if it is kidney cancer it's treatable. I had kidney cancer five years ago. Just ring your GP tomorrow OP and make an appointment and please stop torturing yourself x

Highly unlikely OP. It sounds like muscle spasms. It could even be an infection or stones. But actually, I sounds like muscular back ache/poss a trapped nerve. Stick an adhesive heat pack on it for several days (take off at night).

Thank you everyone (although the post about pains being cancer shit me right up but I know that was more about ignoring it)

I've not tried ibuprofen, just cocodamol. I've not got any but have found some voltarol gel that I forgot we had, have been using Tiger balm (which has been good as the heat off that has been distracting!). Giving that a go now!

Get a dignosis and if it is muscular see a physio. Ibuprofen will only mask the issue, what will fix it is exercise. If you don't you will end up with chronic back pain.

I was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2020. My symptoms were constant microscopic blood in urine which would show up consistently (for over a year before diagnosis) on urine dip sticks, and UTI like symptoms. I was treated with antibiotics for ITI’s for years before finally being diagnosed via an ultrasound.

I never had any kidney pain.

Definitely go to your gp and keep pushing for investigation if you feel something isn’t right - that is what I had to do, and I hate to think about the outcome if I hadn’t.