Peggy’s Story
I had been in pain all year. The pain sharply accelerated during August. Two different sports orthopedians diagnosed me with a likely torn meniscus. I had assumed my arthritis was getting worse. I had been trying to stabilize my knee with grocery store knee braces.
I was very active, running agility in classes and herding sheep in class and trial competion with my dogs. I loved to be outside in the garden and doing team activities with my dogs.
August 21 while rising from a sitting position I felt a pop in my hip. Combined with the ever increasing pain, foggy thinking and fatigue, I was frightened. We hurried to the ER. The triage nurse said my blood pressure was off the chart (sign of pain) and hurried me to the front of the line. The ER doctor ordered a CT scan. He explained he could see fractures more easily than in the set of x-rays I brought with me. …Read More
Marty’s Story
One morning as I was taking a shower I felt a knot on my back. That afternoon, I was told that there was a tumor on my 9th rib.
I never had any pain or discomfort. One morning as I was taking a shower I felt a knot on my back. I immediately called my family doctor and he suggested I have a CAT scan. That afternoon, I was told that there was a tumor on my 9th rib. At first the doctors here thought it was benign after needle biopsies. Then, during an aborted surgery, the surgeon knew it was something much different, took a larger biopsy, sent it to Mayo, and closed me back up.
Mayo returned the verdict, osteosarcoma, and within two weeks I was on my way to M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, where Dr. Wayne L. Hofstetter, a wonderful thoracic surgeon, removed the tumor and two ribs (8th and 9th) on the left side of my body. Dr. Raymond, a pathologist at M. D. Anderson upon receiving Mayo’s diagnosis, questioned if the tumor might not be a periosteal osteosarcoma as a result of the grade. He was correct. Once removed it was determined that it was periosteal osteosarcoma and it had invaded the bone marrow for 7mm. …Read More
Kristin’s Story
When I was in 6th grade I was doing competitive dance and played soccer. I had bad pain in my left knee so my mother took me to the doctor. She said I was overly active and to take a break for 6 weeks. So I did. When the pain came back again the doctor told me to wear a knee brace while doing sports. That helped a little but not much. The pain would come and go, so I ignored it because so did the doctor. In 8th grade- 1996 I was on the high school track team, still dancing and playing soccer the pain in my knee was bad but I was not willing to give any of those up.
That summer I went to sleep over camp. I feel and hit my knee on a rock- no big deal until I got a bump that wouldn’t go away. I had my physical the week after I got home so I mentioned it to our NEW pediatrician. She felt it and kept her hand on it while talking to us. She sent me for an X-ray that day (a Wed), and that night I went to my friends summer home. The doctor called my mom the next day and said I needed an MRI and it needed to be done Friday. I had it done and we received a phone call around 7pm that night saying there was something on the MRI and whatever it was needed to be checked. …Read More
Lori’s Story
In May of 2000, everything I thought I knew about my life changed. I had just come home from a trip to New York to visit my grandparents. It was a very normal day, and while showering I noticed a pain in my right kidney area. Great, I thought, I’ve got a kidney infection. I went to my GYN as he was my closest physician and the easiest place to get a urine test done. There was no infection, as it turned out, but I did have blood in my urine for no reason. He admitted me to run some tests.
He scanned, x-rayed, scoped…you name it, he did it. On the very last day, he opted to run a bone scan to see if he could pinpoint the reason for my now phantom (as in gone) pain. During the bone scan, my tumor was found. Of course the x-ray tech couldn’t tell me that; she simply told me to get it checked as it wasn’t normal. As a side note…no cause was ever found for the original kidney pain. …Read More
James’ Story
I suffered a pathological fracture to the left distal humerus in April of 2008, with no prior signs or symptoms. Diagnosis was confirmed by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology as a De-Differentiated Chondrosarcoma. I was 42 years old at the time, with an excellent medical history, both individually and familial, (parents/grandparents all 95 plus) with no history of cancer in the family. I took no medications, and was extremely active riding BMX bikes, and exploring underwater caves around the world. My world changed at that point, and this became my project. Other than the progression of my cancer, I still enjoy excellent health, and take no medications.
In June of 2008, the tumor was resected, my arm salvaged and rebuilt, and I have a good functional result from that. I underwent a humeral implant w/ a total elbow Arthroplasty. The hand works great; the shoulder works great, although I have significant reduced ROM in the elbow joint. Being that no good treatment exists for this very rare cancer, I still underwent 4 rounds of chemo (Ifosfomide/etopicide a Ewings Sarcoma treatment), and 35 treatments of radiation to the tumor bed. …Read More
Dick’s Story
Chondrosarcoma at the scapula
Date of Diagnosis: June 2008
Age at Diagnosis: 43
Location: South Carolina
Surgeon: Dr. Bryan Moon
Diagnosis: I hurt my shoulder in the spring of 2006 playing basketball with my daughter. I went to the orthopedic surgeon, as I figured it was either a shoulder separation or rotator cuff problem. The doctor took x-rays, and said he thought it was shoulder instability, or weakened muscles from years of overuse playing baseball and volleyball. He prescribed several weeks of physical therapy that seemed to help for the rest of that year. I mentioned this to my family physician during my annual physical, and said that as long as I could handle the pain, that surgery should be avoided. He knew from personal experience that shoulder surgery was difficult and the rehabilitation was quite painful. …Read More
Deborah’s Story
Periosteal osteosarcoma at the tibia
Age at Diagnosis: 20
Date of Diagnosis: 1993
I began having leg pain in 1992 when I was 20 years old. It was a strange pain that I would notice when I was pressing my foot on the accelerator in the car. I had a bone scan that showed a hot spot on my tibia. I was diagnosed with a “stress fracture” and ran around in a cast, a boot, and a leg brace for almost a year with no improvement. A tiny lump started to appear in my x-rays and my doctor felt it was probably new bone growing in to repair the fracture. The lump grew VERY rapidly and I was referred to an orthopaedic oncologist. …Read More
