Kidney Cancer – My Story of my battle with renal cancer.

G’day, my name is Dan Boulton, I live in Perth, Western Australia

I am married to Penny and I have four sons, I love my family dearly and with all of my heart.

This is my story about Kidney Cancer (renal cancer).

It was Wednesday the 6th of April 2011, about 1pm I collapsed while trying to stand up in the
toilet, I didn’t think much about because for about 3 months I had been having micro blackouts
followed by a tingling sensation over my brain and a chronic head-ache.

After leaving the toilet I got myself a drink of water and went into the lounge room, I put the glass
onto the table and I turned to do something when again I fell this time I fell forward landing with
out stretched arms on to another chair, I got up and went to bed and laid down.

At 3pm when my wife came home she asked if I was OK I told her what had happened and then I
started getting chest pains.
Not taking any risks my wife suggested we go to hospital, instead of going to our local hospital, I said
take me to Fremantle Hospital so we went to the Emergency Department (E.D.)

I was quickly taken inside and they started checking me for heart problems, as I have a family history
of heart problems from my dear old mum, also I was on high blood pressure medication.

I had an E.C.G. I was put on oxygen and given an aspirin, I think was also given a Glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) ?
tablet for angina, I was told to put it under my tongue and let it dissolve it hadn’t completely dissolved
when I sat up I felt terrible, I heard my wife ask if I was OK is there something wrong, I was moving
my arms about sweat started pouring out of me, then the next thing I know doctors and nurses
kept yelling at me.

My wife said afterwards that when I was sweating my skin turned a pale grey color, my eyes rolled back
in my head and I passed out, I also kept going into shaking fits.

The cause my blood pressure dropped suddenly to 80, it was close to 150 when I went in.

Don’t remember much until later when I was moved to another section of the E.D. and I became more
aware of things, a doctor gave me a blood test to see if I had any clotting it came back positive so I had to
have a C.T. of my brain and lungs to see if they where OK.

I was then moved to ward V6, I had spent 18 hours in E.D. I was to spend 7 more days in hospital under
going different tests. It was very thorough and I was very pleased with my treatment.

One of the doctors came and saw me and told me that during the scan of my lungs for some unknown
reason the scan went down a little further than normal and part of my kidneys were scanned, and they
noticed a very small lump on my kidney and not to worry as they don’t think it is anything nasty.

I had an ultrasound to examine the kidneys further.

They said the Urologist would take a look and they would get back to me.

I remember that day, I still smile when I recall it my wife was visiting me, when the doctor came in,
he smiled and said I have some good news…

” You have renal cancer, he then said that’s not good but because my kidney cancer was only small at just
2 cm it was very treatable and I shouldn’t have any problems.”

I turned and smiled to my wife who had started crying, you see my own father died from cancer (lung cancer)
at 54 years of age and Penny’s father also died from cancer at 67 years of age and it is these things that play on
your mind.

The biggest regret that I have about my father dying was he never got to see my family my 4 boys.
I don’t want that to happen to me.

I am now awaiting to see the Urologist to find out what happens next, with my kidney cancer.

In hospital I had an MRI on my head and my neck and examined by a Neurologist they told me I have a
very badly damaged neck that now has arthritis in it as well as pinched nerves, I now await treatment for
that which at this point will be injections to block the nerves which will stop a lot of pain and headaches.

I would have preferred to stay in hospital and get treated all at once even if I had to stay in for another
week or two. But I’m a public patient and I have to deal with that, I can’t afford to go private as I’m on a
disability pension and private health is out of my reach.

I would like to thank the staff at Fremantle Hospital I couldn’t ask for better care and the nurses absolutely
A1 and I think they deserve a pay rise and I will always support them, governments need to wake up to themselves.
An Australian politician once said ” Pay them peanuts and you will get monkeys.” that was when all the poli’s wanted
a $10,000+ a year pay rise well what about our frontline, grassroots people? Don’t they deserve to be better
treated? Don’t they deserve to get paid better? We need our doctors, nurses, orderlies to be paid better with better
resources and conditions.

I can also say the same for others like police officers, teaching staff, fire fighters and the list goes on,
privatization isn’t the answer… WAKE UP – WA State Government.

Sorry about the political rant but when it affects your health, your life or that of your families something
needs to be said.

So I have been out of hospital for one week now and I feel OK so far, I never had pain in my right kidney area,
until I had the MRI on my head and neck and I can honestly say I thought my right kidney was going to be
pulled through my side, after that I did pass a little bit of blood.
Every now and then I get a niggling twinge in my side and I also notice I sit my on my left buttocks more,
which aggravates my lower back pain.

As I go through my treatment I will post updates, on this website.

I will write new pages on major things that occur with myself.

Thank you for reading my story and I look forward to having you follow me on my battle with
kidney cancer, the Big C.

What I will tell you about my experience with kidney cancer…

• About Kidney Cancer
• My Kidney Cancer Prognosis
• My Kidney Cancer Symptoms
• My Kidney Cancer Treatment