Matt Kleinschmidt knew gastric sleeve surgery would help him lose a lot of weight and give him the energy to keep up with both his newborn son and a career in the entertainment industry working with bands and comedians. . But he didn’t think it would save his life in another way.
Rapid weight loss can lead to painful gallstones, explains Alexander Abkin, M.D., medical director of bariatric surgery at JFK University Medical Center, who operated on Matt. “We have a standard protocol of medicating patients to reduce the risk of gallstones from 30% to 5%,” he says. “But just to be sure, a year after surgery he’ll have an ultrasound of the right upper quadrant. There’s a gallbladder there, and there’s also a nearby liver and kidneys.”
Matt adds: Just before vacation he went to Dr. Abkin for his one-year follow-up, and a routine ultrasound to check his gallbladder found a lump in his kidney. “
Matt was referred to JFK’s head of robotic surgery, urologist Michael Lasser, M.D., who confirmed the mass with a CT scan and had extensive follow-up by an oncologist, including PET scans, biopsies, and other tests. ordered a scrutiny.
lucky catch
Malignancies of the kidney are not uncommon, with approximately 80,000 cases diagnosed each year, with a median age of diagnosis of 65 years, and Matt was nearly 40 years old. Dr. Lasser says. “Nowadays, 90% of his kidney tumors are found incidentally before he has symptoms, but it’s not common to find kidney cancer in a young man like Matt.”
Dr. Abkin adds: For Matt, a sleeve gastrectomy was not only life-changing, it was life-saving. “
During the months it took to determine the extent of his illness and the best course of treatment, Matt was understandably apprehensive. However, he says the attitude of Dr. Lasser and his other doctors put him at ease.
“I hadn’t yet thought how lucky I was to be caught early during what I was going through,” says Matt. “But none of the doctors seemed panicked, so I stayed calm. Dr. Lasser explained everything very thoroughly and clearly.”
Doctors determined the mass was stage T1A renal cell carcinoma, but it had not spread to the suspected lymph nodes or elsewhere in Matt’s body. Dr. Lasser next performed a robotic partial nephrectomy.
“We had a partial resection of Matt’s right kidney in July 2021. His cancer was gone. No additional treatment was given and no recurrence was expected,” Dr. Lasser said. increase. and remove the tumor. “
quick recovery
Matt says recovery from minimally invasive surgery was easy. “I had surgery on Wednesday and went back to work on Monday,” he says. “My scars are so small you won’t be able to see them unless I point them out.”
Dr. Abkin says Matt’s new smaller body allows for minimally invasive surgery. At his previous weight, he was probably not a candidate and would have had to endure the much longer recovery of open surgery. It’s a true success story about what we can do to live life to the fullest,” he says.
Today, Matt is worry-free and cancer-free, playing with his 3-year-old son, doing woodworking in his basement shop, and checking out the latest music, comedy shows, and podcasts.
“When I’m not building or playing with my kids, I’m talking, watching, and listening to pop culture,” he says. “I’m not a fortune teller, so I don’t know what it would be like if cancer were found 15 years later. This thing could have been growing and spreading long before we discovered it. In hindsight.” , I am very lucky.”
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