Question about Kidney Cysts? - Kidney Disorders Message Board

LoisL · 10-18-2007, 11:38 PM

About a year ago I was diagnosed with a left kidney cyst.
I was also diagnosed with a cyst on my right ovary.
I went in for exploratory surgery last November.
The surgeon was going to explore my ovaries and kidneys.
During the surgery he accidently cut into my small bowel
having to remove a foot of it. He also had to fix
some ahesions, and cut my bowel away from
the stomach wall.
Because of this accident, he did not get a chance to
explore what he wanted. Another surgeon was called in to fix
my bowel and I spent 4 days in the hospital and that was that.
For a couple of months my pain went away.
Here recently my pain has gotten worse.
I started not only having lower right abdomen pain, but am now
having right side and back pain. It gets really bad sometimes.
I went to the ER the other night. They ran some different test.
He found some kind of fluid floating around in my abdomen
but was not able to determine what it was. They also found
a large cyst on my right kidney, as well.
He recommended I see a surgeon to have the cyst drained.
I do not have insurance right now, and just can't afford to have this
done, but can't stand the pain. He did give me some pain meds
but they aren't really working.
I guess my main question is..should I be concerned having
a cyst on both kidneys..and is there a better way to manage the pain
until I can get the cyst drained?
Any suggestions appreciated.
Hugs, Lois

duzford · 10-19-2007, 08:23 AM

Cysts are normally benign and can be left alone. What you are experiencing is a cyst that is large enough to displace another organ, thus creating the pain. Some cysts will decrease in size on their own. I am assuming (and I am not a MD) that your cyst is caused from scar tissue from the surgery and will not shrink on its own. There may be meds that you can take to have it shrink. They probably want to do a needle biopsy first to drain the cyst. I would be careful about accepting this. If the cyst will need to be removed anyway, it is safer to biopsy it once it is outside the body. A needle biopsy pierces the outside membrane of the cyst and can create leakage in the body. On the off chance that the cyst is malignant and there is leakage, it can cause more serious corrections then removal to begin with.