Claudia Tatum is a retired oncology nurse from Tulsa, Oklahoma, which afforded her a sophisticated eye when she went through her cancer journey. It began with a chronic cough, pelvic heaviness, and back pain.
Because of the cough, Claudia requested a CT scan of her chest. Her patient portal revealed a large, left renal mass “consistent with RCC,” meaning renal cell carcinoma, a mass measuring close to 10cm. That is when she said her life changed.
Shocked from this diagnosis, she met with her primary care physician, who said Claudia needed to see a urologist. The urologist pulled up the CT scan, said the mass was “really big,” that it had to come out and so did her kidney. It would be a couple weeks before she could go in for the surgery and said that waiting was very difficult.
As a nurse, Claudia knew that most kidney cancers are found incidentally. In her case, a CT scan of her chest led to her kidney cancer diagnosis, so she is very grateful for the brilliant radiologists for their ability to see the mass.
The surgeon performed a procedure called a hand assisted laparoscopic nephrectomy. That entailed a small, five-inch incision above her navel. The care team used a laparoscope, “disconnect everything and goes in there with their little, tiny hand and pulls out the mass.” The mass turned out to be 12cm, not 10cm, and there was an additional 4cm mass that was malignant that was pressing against Claudia’s pancreas. After the procedure, Claudia was pleased to learn she had clear margins.
Claudia Tatum’s type of kidney cancer is rare type of kidney cancer in that hers is a chromophobe, which comprises only about five percent of kidney cancers. It is less aggressive, slow-growing and less likely to metastasize. Because of her clean margins, Claudia is now on active surveillance. She still finds it a challenge to think that she has only one kidney. Claudia feels fine, but if her remaining kidney runs into problems, she would have to go on dialysis three times a week.
Claudia Tatum monitors her blood pressure and her sodium intake and avoid soft drinks and processed foods. She says after her nephrectomy, her GI symptoms got better and back pain got better. Claudia says she is not going to die from kidney cancer, but knows she has to keep one kidney healthy.
By way of advice, Claudia urges one diagnosed with cancer to do the necessary research, get a second opinion, and reach a point in which they feel comfortable with their care team.
Additional Resources:
Support Group:
Kidney Cancer Association: https://www.kidneycancerassociation.org
TRANSCRIPTION
Bruce Morton: For our guest on this episode of the Cancer Interviews podcast, her journey did not end with survivorship. Greetings, this is your host, Bruce Morton. Claudia Tatum of Tulsa, Oklahoma survived kidney cancer, but she has made it her life’s mission to give back, to help others. This is her story, and now, let’s hear it. Claudia, welcome to Cancer Interviews.
Claudia Tatum: Thanks, Bruce. Thanks for having me. This is exciting. I have never done a podcast interview before.
BM: Well, there is a first time for everything. It is our custom to begin our interviews by learning a bit more about our guests, learning about the parts of their lives that have nothing to do with cancer. So, if you would, Claudia, tell us a bit about where you are from, what you do for work and what you do for fun.
CT: I grew up in east Mississippi and west Alabama, Meridian, Mississippi, to be specific. I live in Tulsa now. I am a longtime radiation oncologist nurse, so the world of oncology has pretty much been my life all my adult years. I retired from fulltime work as an oncology nurse in February of 2020. I was turning 65 and retiring and had all kinds of great plans and that was when the COVID shutdown happened. So, my retirement plans and my 65th birthday plans kind of changed. I enjoy being outside, walking, hiking, traveling. I was a scuba diver for 15 years and I realized all my vacation time was underwater, then I started having some issues with my eyes, and figured I was ready to do something else, but as you mentioned, I like to volunteer. I am not married, I am divorced, I have no children, so I have no grandchildren. Work and volunteering, those are my hobbies. I like cooking, hanging out with friends, doing different things, getting off the beaten path, mainly being with people and experiencing new cultures and learning things, that’s what I like to do.
BM: For all of us cancer survivors, there was a time, a stage in which from a physical standpoint, things went from normal to abnormal, and from that, resulted a cancer diagnosis. For you, how did that happen?
CT: In retrospect, I can put the whole puzzle together. I had probably, as I was retiring in early 2020, as COVID was starting to happen, we were pretty sedentary then, you couldn’t get out, couldn’t do anything and plans were cancelled, I was fatigued then, but didn’t realize it because we weren’t doing very much. I was still doing some walking and enjoying myself, but I guess it was October of 2022, I was having my annual Medicare physical with my primary care. You know, lab work’s good, everything’s fine, and she asked if I had any problems. I said I had a little bit of pelvic heaviness, so she sends me to an OB/GYN. It turns out I was recommended to have a hysterectomy. I wanted to be smart about and mentioned in passing I want to get rid of this cough because I have had this chronic cough that I have had for almost two years. Meanwhile earlier in 2022, I was going to this orthopedic guy, I was getting some physical therapy for some back pain. I have some vague GI issues, which I am just attributing to my age, as I was almost 70. There were a lot of vague things that really didn’t add up to too much, but as I tell my primary care that I want to get this cough worked out, she sends me for a chest x-ray. Everything looked pretty good. I had a couple of 3mm lung-based nodules and because of that, they recommended a CT of the chest. So, CT of the chest confirmed that I had these lung-based nodules that have stabilized since 2011. Heart and lungs are good. There were some densities in my left breast. I knew that, but there was also a large, left renal mass, “consistent with RCC,” as in renal cell carcinoma, so I am reading this on my phone on my patient portal. It was like a nine- or ten-cm mass. I remember going in the break room at cancer center where I work part-time. One of the nurses asked me what’s going on and I said very large renal mass, “consistent with RCC”, so that was when my life changed.
BM: We’re confident you’ll be able to learn some tips and tools to help you through your personal cancer journey, but first we’d like to invite you to give us a ‘like,’ leave a comment or review below and share this story with your friends. Kindly click on the Subscribe button below and click on the bell icon, so you’ll be notified when we release our next cancer interview. And if you or a loved one are facing a cancer diagnosis, please click on the link in the Description and Show Notes below to check out our free guide, “The Top Ten Things I Wish I Knew When I First Got Cancer.”
Speaking of that, Claudia, you had learned of this diagnosis of renal cell carcinoma. It is not a question of whether this is awful news, of course, it is; but every person is different, every diagnosis is different. If you take that whole equation into account, how did you handle this horrific news?
CT: Shock, and I still wasn’t putting that puzzle together that all those symptoms I had were probably leading me to this point. So, now it looks like I have kidney cancer. What am I going to do? My motto my whole life has been, “Let’s turn worry into action,” so of course I hooked up with another nurse and we looked up with the report of my renal cell carcinoma again. By this time, my primary care who I have known for a long, long time, she said she had gotten the results of my CT scan and said I needed to see a urologist. That was when I started getting my oncology family together. I went over and saw my urologist. We immediately established a great connection. He pulled up the CT scan and said the mass was “really big”, said it had to come out and so did my kidney. Turning that worry into action, I cannot sit and fret about it or lose it right then and there. My world has been oncology. I know I would be well cared for, and I know what’s going on, but I really didn’t know that much about kidney cancer. Needless to say, I do now. So, that’s how that went down, and it was a couple of weeks before he could get in to do my surgery. Those two weeks were really the toughest weeks, but that was when I sprang into action, and I know that you have to be careful using Dr. Google. You want to use reputable sites and I know what those sites are, and I started looking at disease-specific sites for renal cancer and getting myself psyched up for whatever’s coming my way.
BM: Claudia, you mentioned turning worry into action. You’ve told us about the research you’ve done. Are there any other ways in which your being a nurse affected your approach to your cancer journey?
CT: Oh, I think it made it easier, much easier. Of course I was in shock. I just read on a cellphone that I have cancer. The point I want to make here is that most kidney cancers are found incidentally. For me, this was a CT of my chest. Your kidney is not in your chest, it’s in your abdomen. So, thank God for these brilliant and diligent and thorough radioloists as they were able to see the mass. It was very big. So, I think it helped me because I knew people that knew a lot more about this disease and what was going to happen.
BM: You had mentioned the two-week waiting period before surgery as being very tough; but what about when treatment began? What was the toughest part of that?
CT: Bruce, I was really blessed to have an easy recovery period. You know, the surgeon is just a tremendous man, and he prepared me for what was going to happen. He performed a hand assisted laparoscopic nephectomy. That meant I would have a small, five-inch incision above my belly button. They go in and use the laparoscope and they disconnect everything, and someone goes in there with their little, tiny hand and pulls out the mass. Well, the mass turned out to be a 12cm mass, it was very, very big. And there was another 4cm mass that was malignant that was pressing up against my pancreas. We got good margins. That’s what you want. You have got a lot of bowel in front of your kidney, so they have to push that bowel out of the way, so they are pretty sure you are going to get that paralytic ileus. They give you a general anesthetic and your body’s systems go to sleep, including your colon. They are pretty sure with your body asleep, you can avoid a bowel obstruction. I ended up spending only two nights in the hospital. Two of my very dear nursing friends stayed in my room, one on one night, the other on the next night. When I came home, a physician’s assistant friend of mine came over to stay for a few days. I am not very good at letting people help me because I am so self-sufficient, so I don’t really need a lot of help, but in a situation like this, I do have enough experience to know things can go south really quick. If you are by yourself and you can’t even dial 911, who are you going to call? So, I had already made my mind up, whatever people are going to offer me I am going to let them do that. I am going to welcome that and cherish that love and kindness that they are pouring out to me.
BM: Claudia, any other sources of support for you during this difficult time?
CT: Getting online, looking at the national disease-specific organizations, I have an amazing church family, my strength is in the Lord, they have been very helpful. My family back in Mississippi, that’s a long way away, but really all my immediate needs were met here in town by my oncology family and my other close friends. When you don’t have a husband and children, you get invited to a lot of things. People are so kind and so gracious to include me. They are glad to share their children and their grandchildren, and I just love that opportunity. So, between my work family, my church family, all my needs were met. I have got dear, dear neighbors, too, so just people, people’s love and people just want to do for you.
BM: This already sounds positive, the support, and a solid care team. Did you find yourself reaching a point in which your journey appeared to be turning the corner?
CT: I am still working on that. It’s kinda that whole mental process until you get over that shock. The surgeon at first talked about some immunotherapy and I don’t know about that. My kidney cancer is a rare type of kidney cancer. Some 85 percent of kidney cancers are called ‘clear cells,’ but I am a chromophobe and only about five percent of kidney cancers are chromophobe. It is less aggressive, slow-growing, less likely to metastasize. But again, only five percent of the kidney cancers are chromophobe. I went down to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas to see an oncologist. I was fortunate to have a retired oncologist friend down there. He was able to get me situated so I have another navigator down there because it is such a rare cancer, I felt like I needed a second opinion. Oncologists follow the NCCN (National Cancer Comprehensive Network) guidelines. They outline how to diagnose, the workup, the medical management of every kind of cancer there is. I can access them as a medical professional, but you don’t have to be a medical professional. It is open to the public. Anyway, I am now on active surveillance because of clear margins. I get CT, abdomen, chest and pelvis every three or four months for the first two years, then the intervals were spread out. I have turned the corner already because I feel so good. It is weird when I think about how I only have one kidney. If you start thinking about quality of life, if my one kidney goes south, then dialysis, three times a week and that’s not fun. That would really put a cramp in my travel plans. So, we are watching my blood pressure, met with a dietician, we’re watching my sodium, not drinking soft drinks, no processed foods, you know, just cleaned up a few things. Then with the back pain I have, many folk my age are accustomed to taking ibuprofen, but the doctors have said the ibuprofen is not good for your kidney, so all I can do now for arthritis, back pain, headaches is Tylenol. Surprisingly enough, after I had my nephrectomy, my GI symptoms got better, and my back pain got better, and my urologist told me to go and live my life. I accepted the fact that this is going to be chronic. I am not going to die from this, but I do want to keep my one kidney healthy.
BM: Our guest is Claudia Tatum of Tulsa, Oklahoma. She has survived kidney cancer, but as we mentioned at the top, that is not where her journey ends. She wants to help others, she wants to give back, and one way in which she has done it is through the Kidney Cancer Association. I want to ask you, Claudia, what you do with the Kidney Cancer Association and how that relationship came to be.
CT: When I was looking on the internet, and there are several other similar organizations, I tried to figure out which one is the ideal one to get involved with. My urologist did not recommend anything but stumbled across the KCA website. I got on there and I am reading, and they have got a patient education booklet and it is a real booklet and it is a hard copy. So many times, when you go to a website and there is some information it is just a download, but me, I am so old school, I like a hard copy. I can write in it if I want to and you cannot imagine how thrilled I was when I got this booklet in the mail. It made a huge difference. There are plenty of opportunities to be a Kidney Ambassador, so I signed up to do that. They were looking for people to sit on the Patient & Caregiver Advisory Council and I am going to apply. Sure enough, I got accepted for that. Working with patients, trying to meet their needs. I am going to do everything I can to help other people because most people don’t know much about kidney cancer. It is not one of those high-profile cancers that get a lot of attention.
BM: I checked out the website myself and there is a wealth of information on it. The address is www.kidneycancerassociation.org, and again, all manner of information on all things kidney cancer. Claudia, we are going to wrap up now, and just as we begin our interviews in the same fashion, our interviews with survivors pretty end the same way. We want you to imagine you have encountered someone diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma or any type of kidney cancer, and you have a message for them. There might many things you would want to say, but if there is one point that you really wanted to get across, one thing that person would remember, what would it be?
CT: Of course, as we said, the Kidney Cancer Association has a whole lot of information. You have got to ask a lot of questions. Until you get the needed information, you really don’t know what to ask. Communicate, communicate, communicate with health care team, your support team, your family, everybody needs to be talking about this. I have seen a lot of this over the years that people don’t want to tell others they have cancer. Me? I’m tellin’ everyone. I want people to know we are living with cancer. Cancer is a chronic disease. It is not a death sentence. Do your research. Get a second opinion. Feel comfortable with the people that are taking care of you. Somebody’s gonna stick their hand in your abdomen and take out your kidney, your adrenal gland, you want to make sure that the people who are taking care of you know what they are doing. That’s another thing that the Kidney Cancer Association does. They connect you with designated cancer centers that have the right specialist who can give you a second or third opinion. Do your research. Ask some questions. And hydrate. Drink a lot of water when you have one kidney.
BM: Thanks so much, Claudia. Thanks for sound advice and a great story that you shared with us. Anyway, that is going to wrap up this episode of the Cancer Interviews podcast, and as we always do at that time, we want to remind you that if you or a loved one are on a cancer journey or think that one is a possibility, you are not alone. There are people like Claudia, organizations like the Kidney Cancer Association that are there to help. So, until next time, we’ll see you on down the road.
Additional Resources:
Support Group:
Kidney Cancer Association: www.kidneycancerassociation.org
SHOW NOTES
TITLE: Claudia Tatum, Kidney Cancer Survivor – Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
It was only when Claudia Tatum was being checked for a chronic cough that it was discovered she had a rare form of renal cell carcinoma. Removal of a kidney required a radical hand assisted laparoscopic nephrectomy, a procedure that led to survivorship. Claudia puts her journey and her experience as an oncology nurse together to help others through the Kidney Cancer Association.
Additional Resources:
Kidney Cancer Association: www.kidneycancerassociation.org
Time Stamps:
05:19 CT scan revealed a renal mass.
07:16 Claudia’s reaction to the diagnosis.
09:19 Recalls being told she would have to get a kidney removed.
10:40 How being a nurse affected her cancer journey.
12:20 Claudia on the toughest part of having her kidney removed.
19:07 Remembers when her journey changed for the better.
26:40 Claudia’s advice to others diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma.
KEYWORDS (tags):
renal cell carcinoma
cancer
kidney cancer
cancer interviews
hysterectomy
bruce morton
radical hand assisted laparoscopic nephrectomy
claudia tatum
ileus
chromophobe
immunotherapy

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