Personal Narrative: My Nephrectomy

There was a blizzard, in December 2013. My family was busy shoveling snow all day. We were getting settled after the work when, my father started having cold sweats and a tightness in his jaw, furthermore he complained about chest pain. Me, being a science student, knew what this meant. We rushed to the hospital distressed. Later, the doctor told us that he was lucky to be here as he was having a heart attack . He had a stent placed via the latest technique; which was inserted through the wrist. Thanks to this method, my dad had a speedy recovery. The entire procedure fascinated me as it had quick recovery and least amount of blood loss. Doctors told us that my dad had CAD (coronary artery disease) and that he had to be cautious about his health.
That point of my life inspired a new dream within me, I wanted to be a cardiologist.

One year later, my dad faced another traumatic experience. It all started with throwing up, visit to gastroenterologist, elevated enzymes and then sonograms that depicted a solid mass in his left kidney. Sonograms drifted us towards the urologist, my dad had a left renal tumor. The tumor was 8.4 cm. As it was enormous , the Doctors didn’t take a risk and suggested a “Complete Nephrectomy”. A Nephrectomy is suggested to treat kidney cancer or to remove a seriously damaged or diseased kidney. Fortunately, a new technique for nephrectomy was introduced using robots. The surgeons did not risk doing a partial nephrectomy. If a partial nephrectomy was carried out, the team would run the risk of spreading a potential / most likely cancer. After the procedure, they send the solid mass for Biopsy. Astoundingly, a lab report declared that the tumor was benign. My motivation and passion towards the medical field was so strong that this propelled me into the Bio-Med program in high school. The Bio-Med students are exposed to a science enforced curriculum. That means, being taught new things and going in depth in the origins of life. I still