Randy’s Story

Osteosarcoma at the Distal Femur
Age at Diagnosis: 33
Year of Diagnosis: 2001
Location: Tennessee, USA

Diagnosis: I was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma in April 2001. This was just one month after my wife Amy and I had our first child (Meredith). The tumor was localized in my left femur, but large (roughly 6 inches in length). My first thoughts after reading up on the disease were disbelief. How could this happen at such a good time in my life? Work was going well, I was on cloud nine with the new baby…now I could very likely loose my leg or worse. I was immediately referred to an orthopedic surgeon in northern Virginia who specialized in treating bone tumors and in limb sparing surgery. My treatments and surgery would be at the University of Virginia which is about 4.5 hours from home. We could handle that trip, and come home in between chemo and surgery.

For about the next month, things went progressively down hill. The pathology reports were not looking good and the tumor was determined to be a high grade (more aggressive) cancer. At first, I was fired up to get started with the treatment plan. One bright spot is that we decided to bank sperm in case I survived and we wanted more kids (more on that later). I had faced challenges before in life, and this would be no different.

Treatment: The first chemo treatment was scheduled to begin on 6/1/01 and I would check into the hospital in Charlottesville on 5/30/01 for testing and preparation. My oncologist told me the chemo would be stringent and would include a 72 hour continuous infusion of adriamycin and cisplatin. This would happen every 21 days until 3 cycles were completed, then I would have surgery to remove the tumor. The oncologist told me I would have to have a catheter implanted in my arm in order to receive the chemo drugs and facilitate all of the blood draws which would be required. I was guaranteed of loosing my hair 14 days into the first cycle….no big deal, until it started happening. I also had severe mouth and throat sores. My white blood count would drop to near zero after each round of chemo and I suffered severe fatigue.

During my first round of chemo, the femur was so damaged that it fractured at the tumor site. This was a big strike against the possibility of keeping my leg. The only hope was to be put in traction and stay in bed at UVA until I could get 3 rounds of chemo complete. I remember the orthopedic resident coming to my room in the middle of the night and drilling a hole through my leg just below the knee and inserting a bolt which would hold the resistance to keep my leg straight while the fracture healed.

Amy spent the night with me that night in the hospital, but had to leave the next day to travel back to Bristol. Suddenly that next day, it began to sink in that I was all alone far away from home, basically tied to the bed with traction, possibly dying as far as I knew and very ill from the chemotherapy. I missed our new baby and just wanted to go home. Amy had left for Bristol on Wednesday, and my Mom came to UVA on Saturday. I was so relieved to see familiar faces! She brought my laptop and several things to keep me occupied. Soon thereafter, Amy found an apartment and moved to Charlottesville to be with me. We were going to get through this and return home together to raise our little girl. Over the summer, I was fortunate to have lots of visits from family, friends, and people from our church. I also had lots of e-mail and phone calls from coworkers. If it were not for all this tremendous support, I am not sure I would still be living.

Recovery: Finally, after three rounds of chemo, the surgery to remove the tumor was complete. The orthopedist was able to perform limb-sparing surgery so I could keep my leg. All I could think about was healing enough to travel home. I had over 100 staples in my leg. This was the first week of August and I had not been home since the end of May. The surgeons and pathologists were pleased with the results. Enough tissue and bone was removed to allow for cancer free margins. This all sounded great! Finally things were turning around, but I was left with only about 1/3 of my left quadriceps muscles. After three more rounds of chemo (which seemed to get progressively worse)… I was finished and allowed to return back to work and do some normally life activities. I was hairless with bleached out skin and limping around on crutches, but so pleased with my life. To skip forward….I eventually moved to one crutch, then a cane and then nothing at all. I took around 6 weeks of physical therapy to begin to build the muscle in my leg back. What is gone will not return, but what is there can be made strong. I am now biking and working out on a regular basis to fill the void left by not being able to run. I had to go back to UVA every three months for tests and checkups for the first 3 years. Now I am on 6 month checkup schedule.

Further Treatment: In 2004, the initial limb-sparing surgery that was performed in 2001 was determined to be a failure due to one of the margins not healing properly. I was told I could either deal with the pain or have the surgery again – this time with a prosthesis instead of allograft. This was a very difficult decision because my wife was now pregnant with triplets and I wanted to be there for her, but also knew this surgery would have to be done eventually. I had a second limb-sparing surgery in October 2004 and so far it has been a great success. I am walking much better than before and with much less pain.

Life Now: Life now is very busy with my career as a CPA for a large manufacturing company and with my 4 kids. Three of the kids are triplet boys born in January 2005. This is a good example of life after cancer! Fortunately, we found out that we needed to bank sperm prior to chemo. We eventually took the financial and emotional risk and did IVF in hopes of having another child. To better our odds of a successful pregnancy, our doctor implanted two embryos and we hoped for the best. We really wanted another child and only prayed that one of the embryos would attach and grow to be a baby. Well, both embryos attached and we now had the possibility of having twins. We were cautiously optimistic. We began to talk about the wish to have a son to go along with our daughter. An ultrasound revealed that indeed both embryos were growing rapidly and one of the embryos had split into twins! That’s right – TRIPLETS. We were quite shocked! As it turns out, we have ended up with three healthy baby boys who were born in January 2005. So far, life has been an amazing experience – sometimes filled with disappointment and other times filled with joy and success. The longer I live, the more I realize that is what makes life so special and unique for all of us. If anyone had told me what my life would be like 4 years ago when I was diagnosed, I could not have believed.

Thoughts and Hints for New Patients: Be tough, ask lots of questions, and don’t settle for anything but the best treatment. There is life after cancer, but you may have to fight a tough battle to gain that reward.