Hi,

Sorry it's been awhile, but wanted to post some still incomplete followup info.

I did see the interventional radiologist awhile ago, but he hadn't had experience aspiring renal cysts, so I didn't feel comfortable with getting it done.

I had a subsequent appointment with a different urologist in my area who does laparoscopic surgery, and he suggested that I get the aspiration done. He said the interventional radiologists at the hospital that he was at had a lot of experience with that, and gave me some names.

I continued to research, and I found an article on the UK Kidney association, by a patient who had had an aspiration, and he reported that the procedure was really painful, esp. the anesthesization (sorry, I've looked for the article, but can't find it now), so I kind of chickened out...

I finally got up the nerve in mid-October, and had a consultation with one of the radiologists that the urologist recommended, and we spent quite a bit of time discussing both the procedure and his experience with aspiring renal cysts, and he assured me that it was nothing like that UK article, so I went ahead and scheduled and had it done at the end of October (2013).

They did the aspiration using CT guidance, and I was in what they call "twilight"... I was awake, but didn't feel any pain throughout the procedure, except for the slight pain from the initial shots.

They said that they removed ~220 cc of fluid from one large, and several smaller cysts, and they said they had removed all of the fluid from those cysts at the time.

After the aspiration, the lower left back pain was gone... for about 1.5 - 2 weeks. After about 2 weeks, I started feeling the same "pulling" feeling in that area, and then it started hurting more as time passed. At this point, in mid-November 2013, it's about as painful as before the aspiration, but not as constant as it was before the aspiration.

So, I went to see the urologist again this week, and discussed my situation. During the appointment, I asked him if it was possible that just the remnants of the anesthesization might have stopped the back pain for that 1.5 - 2 weeks, and he said that he didn't think so, and he had me get an ultrasound done to see if the cyst(s) had re-filled.

The ultrasound found that the cyst was now ~2 cm again (it was like 5-7cm before the aspiration), so it seems like between the end of October to mid-November, it's started to re-fill.

I got a call from the urologist's office tis week, and I now have another upcoming appointment with him next week, to discuss how to move forward.

I'm not sure what he's going to say, and I guess that in the back of my brain, I still have a hard time believing that the cyst(s) would be causing the back pain, but I think that at this point, if he suggests or recommends the laparoscopic ablation, I will go ahead with that.

I'll post back if I do do that, and how it turns out with respect to the lower left back pain.

Jim