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Scott's Battle with Kidney Cancer

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Please read Scott's story provided by his loving wife Maurine (Moe).....


January 30th 2015 was like a any other work day, Scott got up very early so he could be to the jobsite early enough to get the concrete trucks backed in and set up because of the large concrete pour they had going on that day. He worked very hard all day (as usual). The only thing that didn’t seem quite right to him was the constant painful leg cramps he kept getting along with a painful pulling in his groin area. But as usual he shook it off to the type of work he does. Later, that night at dinner he was unable to sit down at the table due to the continuing painful cramping in both of his legs and the pain in his groin area. He said he felt light headed and nauseated, but again kept shaking it off to the hard day he’d had at work.

Saturday morning Scott woke up still having a lot of pain but now it was centered more in the groin area. Between his son Peyton and I, we were able to talk him into going to a walk-in clinic to get checked out. After over 4 hours at the clinic we were told that “the pain in his groin” could be that he had developed kidney stones and they wanted to set up an appointment for him to have a cat scan of his kidney in the next couple of days.

Monday morning Scott got up and went back to work, but was in so much pain that he had to go home early. On Tuesday Scott went in for his cat scan and immediately the technician was alarmed by what he saw. He told Scott that something wasn’t right and that he was going to get a hold of the Dr. from the clinic so he could read the scan and tell Scott and I what was going on (technicians can’t give out medical information). Unfortunately the walk-in clinic that had seen Scott the previous Saturday was closed.  We left and immediately went to our local hospitals emergency room. There they did another cat scan adding the dye this time. The results were not good.

What they had found was a large mass on his right kidney (almost 10 cm long – how deep into the kidney it was wasn’t known at that time). We were referred by the hospital to a urologist who scheduled surgery to remove his kidney and also a few swollen lymph nodes by the kidney.  They told us removing the swollen lymph nodes were a precautionary measure to make sure that whatever was in the mass on his kidney hadn’t spread to his lymph nodes.

Scott had his right kidney removed the next Thursday. His surgery went very well, the kidney and lymph nodes came out just as expected with no complication and were sent to one of our local universities for biopsy. Scott’s recovery from surgery was amazing, he was up and out of the hospital 5 days later. At home he tried to go back to his normal activities but felt weak and tired. We were told this would be the case for the next few weeks.

Scott is a union laborer concrete worker he has built all sorts of commercial type projects including high rise buildings, an airport expansion, parking garages, a car museum, hospital buildings etc. If you don’t know what this type of work entails, it is extremely dangerous hard manual labor. You work off of the sides of high buildings a lot of the time. There is a lot of heavy lifting, and it’s very dirty work sometimes having to wear protective gear because of asbestos and other chemicals that can be found in the ground or walls of old buildings.
Scott has done this type work for the past 15 years. He rarely misses any days of work whether he feels sick or not, most importantly because we have 5 children, and also due to the fact that by being a union worker if you don’t work you don’t get paid.  

Last Friday February 27th, we went back for his 2 week checkup. That appointment changed our lives. Scott was told that the kidney and all 3 lymph nodes came back positive for Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma; he was also told that he is at an aggressive stage 2.  Our next step is to see an oncologist this week. He will go over the treatments that are available.

This news totally devastated our family (from what we have researched the prognosis for survival of this cancer is typically about 41% when the cancer has gone into the lymph nodes). Scott on the other hand remains positive and hopeful. He still says he can’t wait to go back to work and to “feel better”. He is such a wonderful, strong, brave man that I love with all my heart and I don’t want to lose.

Our family would appreciate you sharing Scott’s story with your friends and loved ones! Updates will be posted throughout Scott’s treatment.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Maurine (Moe) - Scott’s wife

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    • 9 yrs
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Moe Irvine-Trujillo
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Jackson, WY

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