A Girl With a Fight: Round Two

Sometimes - It only takes a few words to change your life forever.

In our case - These words were said late Friday night/early Saturday Morning (10/10 - 11). I had just returned home from a quick business trip to NYC. A young ER doctor looked at my CAT scan and then into our eyes and said - "I'm afraid it isn't good news - it appears you may have bone cancer." Alan and I just looked at each other in shock and a couple of tears escaped from my eyes.

Let me back up - Since the end of June of this year - I have been experiencing 'hip/leg' pain. It came on strong and suddenly but just as quickly went away. My assumption was my chronic lower back issues had flared. I spoke with my oncologist - and we did an MRI on my lower back with nothing abnormal appearing. Phew.  There is always a concern that cancer has come back and metastasized. We were incredibly relieved.

The months passed and the pain slowly became chronic and more and more painful. I went to an orthopedic sports doctor and did physical therapy - with no relief. I went to another doctor and was within one week of having another MRI - this time on my hip. But first - I had the NYC trip.

My intent was to walk as little as possible in NYC due to the pain in my hip/leg and my dreadful limp. Unfortunately - the yellow taxi stop at JFK had other ideas. There were no taxis available and the gypsy cabs would not take me to Long Island City as they prefer to catch fares to Manhattan. More money for them as they are almost guaranteed to get another fare/customer in the city. I ended up taking the Airtrain and Subway to my hotel. And - as is typical - there were complications on the trip which required more walking. Of course there are a couple funny stories involving a homeless man and a bag of rice...and another involving an elderly polish man who was trying to convince me to move with him to his homeland. If you want to hear those - I'm happy to share. They are both quite amusing tales in and of themselves.

By the end of the trip - my leg was UNHAPPY and my limp more pronounced. After the business meetings the next day - I went to the airport and was lucky enough to catch an earlier flight home. This welcome news allowed me to go to a family event after Alan picked me up from the SLC airport at 8pm. We left the party early (10pm) due to the pain I was having with my leg...and while walking out to the truck (with Alan carefully holding my arm)...the ground opened up under my good leg. A water main cover was loose due to an overgrown tree root and my leg fell down the hole clear up to my upper thigh. The result was a painful wrenching of my bad leg, torn nylons and a missing shoe. I was also covered with dirt.

I was in tears from the pain and we quickly made the decision to head immediately to the ER...and this is where we heard the words we weren't prepared for after the CAT scan. It appears to be bone cancer. As luck would have it - my oncologist had recently retired. I was without an oncologist to go to the next day. However, we have two very good friends - husband/wife - who have recently each gone through battles with cancer - and they were able to get us into their oncologist very quickly. Dr Stinett likewise got us over to an orthopedic oncologist surgeon - Dr Miles. They were both fantastic. The first course of action is to try and stabilize the pain (which is pretty severe). The ER had given me crutches and we bought an inexpensive wheel chair - as the second course of action is to avoid fracturing my leg. The edict - put no weight on your left leg. I guess we were pretty lucky that it didn't break with my fall. I also now have some pretty strong pain killers that I take around the clock. And the third course of action - involved a bone biopsy of my upper leg to verify this is bone cancer - as well as verify it is secondary bone cancer (breast cancer primary) and not primary bone cancer. The biopsy was painful. I won't lie but I was luckily quite sedated and have very little recollection of the procedure except when they woke me up while hammering in the needle into my bone. Right after that - I had a PET scan. This was for our fourth course of immediate action - determine if there is any other cancer in my body. It was a long test but fairly easy. This time there was no 'wild berry chalky flavored drink'. The drink was more like Crystal Light spiked with Lysol. :) Still - much preferred. No threats of vomiting involved.

So - for now - we wait for the results of the biopsy and PET scan to determine the future course(s) of action. We know that I will have surgery on Tuesday of this coming week to stabilize the weakened bone impacted by the cancer. If this is the secondary bone cancer - the surgery will entail putting a metal rod in my hip - down to my knee. The hospital stay will be two days, with therapy for at least two weeks. My hope is to return to work (at least from home) after that - although it will be with a walker or cane for a couple months.

Beyond that - we have yet to make plans until more test results are in - which I am hopeful will be Monday.  

While I never planned on continuing on with this blog - I will now reopen it to keep everyone informed.   Already - we are grateful to family and friends who have immediately rallied around us. Whatever the future holds - we know with the love of so many good people - we will be just fine.