If there is one thing Maritza Job Giordano knows, she is not a high-risk candidate for kidney cancer. “I did do the genetic testing,” she said in a recent telephone interview. “For me it was negative.” There is irony, a boatload, in fact, in her declaration. And Job knows it oh so well.
The Parker mother of two is, in fact, a kidney cancer survivor who today is the embodiment of gratitude, both for a mother who insisted she visit the emergency room and a doctor who gave her the news that changed her life.
The August 2023 ER visit was the result of what she thought was a ‘bug’ that had made her ill and dehydrated. While she was there, she thought, she’d ask about some ‘abdominal pain’ she’d been experiencing. She imagined, the pain, while uncomfortable, was just that. It certainly was that—very uncomfortable—but a whole lot more.
The ER tests, including the abdominal scanning, were followed with a few more questions. ‘Blood in the urine?’ ‘Any lower back pain?’ All routine, she guessed. She was wrong. When cancer is suspected, nothing is routine.
While it’s impossible to know the ‘how, when or why’ of her cancer, Giordano recalled moments during both of her pregnancies of “feeling congested under my left rib.” It was, she thought, normal. “I just carry these babies the same way,” and it was just her unborn babies kicking or moving. Both deliveries were ultimately normal.
But before and throughout her pregnancies, a tumor was growing. As she whiled away in the ER just wanting to go home, the doctor returned. Tests confirmed a “7cm mass” on her left kidney, roughly the size of a baseball.
A fortuitous next-day appointment with an oncologist, a cancer specialist, came with a recommendation of surgery. But before any surgery, there would be more testing, more scans. Ultimately, the surgery confirmed cancer. Luckily, it had not spread.
Cancer is a generic term for the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body. The growth of these cells can form tumors and spread. Giordano’s cancer, kidney cancer, is known as renal cell carcinoma.
The kidneys—we each have two—are bean-shaped organs in the abdomen that are responsible for filtering waste from the blood and producing urine.
Giordano’s tumor was removed but “after the surgery, my kidney had a hard time closing.” She later experienced bouts of fever, infections and urine leaks from her recovering kidney. There were also moments of emotional difficulty. Recovering meant not fully connecting physically with her growing babies. But a physical connection is also a nurturing one. One wrong lift of her eight-month-old or her two-year-old could cause a setback.
Now going on nearly twenty-one months since surgery, Giordano still requires testing but appears to be on the road to full recovery. But the disease, says the American Cancer Society, is often more than a physical condition. It can be accompanied by a lingering shadow that never strays too far from its victims.
Giordano still wonders the proverbial ‘why me’ of her cancer. Statistically she should not have been a victim. Of the more than 81,000 diagnoses in 2024, about 65 percent are in men between the ages 50-70. Kidney cancer claimed more than 14,000 victims last year, a third of them women. If there is a ‘why me,’ for Giordano. It’s understandable. Kidney cancer is unusual in people under age 45.
It is estimated that there will be more than a thousand Coloradans diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2025. It will be fatal for 180.
Few days pass for Giordano when she isn’t grateful for a whole host of people, including the medical team that treated her, and especially Dr. Suzanne Merrill, whom she calls ‘an angel.’
Merrill, she said, was uncommonly compassionate during the journey, both to her and her family. “I think there is that female component in the nurture and compassion that is needed in every medical space,” said Giordano. “I am so lucky to have her…she was always straight forward.”
Giordano’s family also provided invaluable and timely support. There was always someone to help with her growing children. Her husband, Jeff, of course. “My mom lives here,” and was always available. “My dad lives in Florida, and he would fly in for 90 percent (of my appointments).” A sister would come from Texas and her stepmother also helped when it was needed. There were times, she said, when her condition challenged doing even the most normal of everyday things. But family always filled the breech. “I was never short on love or care.”
Giordano does not swim in self-pity and has now reached the point of near normalcy in her recovery, both at home and professional life. “I’m a pretty strong person,” she says. “I can carry a pretty heavy weight.”
From where she was not that long ago, Giordano is now living as normally as she can. She and her mother operate a DIA concession and, physically, she can pick up and squeeze her children with no fear. But what she does fear—and not so much for herself—are the almost daily announcements of funding cutbacks across the government by the White House.
“Kidney cancer was eliminated” in federal funding, she said. Research money—privately raised—is now the engine to aid scientists.
Giordano’s desire to give back is why she is so focused on raising money for the Kidney Cancer Association. Kidney Cancer Awareness, she reminds, starts in March and ends in June.
As she reminds people several times a day, there will be a 3/5k Kidney Cancer Walk/Run at Tallman Meadows Park in Parker set for June 21st. Because 81,000 people will be diagnosed with the disease this year, the goal for the run/walk is $81,000. Giordano, herself, has raised more than $8,000.
For information on making a pledge or to find out more about kidney cancer or the June Walk/Run, visit kidneycancer.org or office@kidneycancer.org.
