Giving of yourself---Literally

2012-01-27T20:35:00.000-08:00

While I was going through chemo treatments, many people asked me how they could help. Here is an idea that I have seen other cancer bloggers do. I think it is a great idea. Donating blood or becoming a bone marrow donor can help save lives. While a cancer patient is going through treatments they will often need blood tranfusions. The person will become anemic. People who have anemia may need RBC transfusions because they don't have enough RBCs to carry oxygen to all of the cells in the body. Many times the red blood count will be so low that a transfusion is necessary. Can I just say that after I had a blood transfusion I could tell a BIG difference. I felt so much better and not as weak. If you go to this website you can find when a blood drive is near you. This is a great way to help.
http://www.redcrossblood.org/

Another great way to help is to become a bone marrow donor. There are many leukemia cancer patients and others who need this.

http://marrow.org/Home.aspx

This is one of the many blood transfusion I had over the year.

Milestone

2011-12-16T20:49:00.000-08:00

Me doing one of my favorite things.

I am happy to say that I have now been in remission for 2 years!!! This makes me so incredibly happy! Also last month I had another check-up. I only have to go every 6 months now instead of 3. This means a lot. It means I am getting out of danger of cancer coming back. My doctor told me that I shouldn't be worried about cancer reoccuring but rather the long term side effects from chemotherapy and my hardware in my leg.

A couple of the things that I will have future problems with is my heart ( from chemotherapy), hearing loss, I already have hearing loss and a constant ringing in my ears (from chemotherapy), and my hardware in my leg (wearing out over time). My doctor keeps comparing my metal in my leg to a car, the better you take care of your car, the longer it will last you. It is sad knowing that I will have problems with these things and crazy to even have to worry about this, but I will face them as they come. Another surprising thing that I deal with even 2 1/2 years after surgery is my leg hurts everyday, some days worse than others. Sometimes I don't feel my leg/pain and it is such a sweet feeling. It is truly amazing to have a glimpse of feeling like my leg is normal. I sometimes even have dreams about going through it all again. Boy, am I glad when I wake up and realize it was only a dream.

There is something else really awesome I have learned from my doctor. At the time of my surgery I was the first person in the world with my type of surgery/hardware. He says that now I am probably the 2nd or 3rd. Kind of cool to know I am famous in the medical world. Life overall is going pretty good. I have great friends and my family who are always there for me. The other day I came across this quote and really like it. It has a special meaning to me because my goals are taking me longer than I hoped, but with determintation I will be able to accomplish them.

"You are stronger than you think. One little setback is not enough to stop you from achieving your goals. Neither are 10 or 100 or 1000 setbacks." ---Author Unknown

My mom and I at my check-up. I have the best mom in the world. She has been there for every appointment I have ever had! She has been such a great support to me.

My brother Nathan came along too.

Each day life is a gift.

Bone cancer and how it has changed my life

2011-09-30T17:38:00.000-07:00

Taken one month before I was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma Dec. 2008

January 21, 2009 I was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma stage 2B while attending BYU-Idaho starting my 2nd year of college. My tumor's growth was fast and aggressive and my tumor was large in size. I was only 20 years old.
SYMPTOMS: In the fall 2008 I felt pain in my leg. I thought it was due to my work in a grocery store. I was also in physical therapy for my other knee that I was having problems with. I noticed that sometimes after working for awhile it was hard to be bending at my knees and then to stand up, or it was painful to walk. I dismissed this pain as I thought I was just tired from work. I was also sleeping a lot and did not feel the best. It wasn't until I was back to Rexburg and going to college that I realized something was seriously wrong. It hurt to walk to and from classes and to go up the stairs. It hurt to put something on my lap, it hurt to sit down and then stand up. It wasn't until I came home for Martin Luther King holiday weekend that I told my mom of the pain. That day you could see and feel a large bump through my levi pants. My thigh was hard but I thought it was muscles until the bump appeared. This explained why my pants were feeling tighter. My mom told me that once I got back to school to go to the student health center to have it checked.

My swollen leg all the way from my hip to below my knee (biopsy scar after I was diagnosed).

I went back to school and had my leg looked at. The doctor was mainly concerned about blood clots or that I had a muscle strain. He told me how to take care of it and to come back in 1 week...the following week it did not get any better...the bump on my leg was getting bigger and harder. I went back for my check-up and I simply told him that nothing had changed. He took one look and said I think we better get an x-ray of that. I remember feeling a little uncertain. After the x-ray I waited in a room. The doctor came in and I could tell he was anxious. He showed me my x-ray and my leg had a huge shaded area around the left femur above the knee. He told me of the possibilites it could be, and he did mention cancer but said not to jump to conclusions. He told me that this was more important than school right now. He referred me to a specialist the next day. I was so nervous and knew that something serious was wrong.

My tumor.

The next day Jan. 21 2009, I had an MRI and later saw an orthopedic specialist who diagnosed me with Osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer. He referred me to Dr. Randall at the Huntsman Cancer Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah . I immediately had to withdraw from college and return home so that I could be treated. After seeing Dr. Randall I was told that my treatment would be better at Primary Children's Medical Center in SLC. My type of cancer is considered a childhood cancer. PCMC was better equipped to treat and deal with my case. I was also put on crutches right away so my femur wouldn't break as it was already weakened from the tumor. My treatments lasted from Feb - Nov 2009. These months were harsh, hard, and challenging. They were also months where I learned, grew, and became a stronger person.

ICS Unit where I stayed for my treatments. You had to go through 2 double doors to get to the rooms.

I had 19 in-patient treatments in the ICS unit and they would last anywhere from 3-6 days. I had a total of 5 different chemotherapies and many blood and platelet tranfusions.  I was originally only suppose to have 18 treatments but was given an extra one because one of my chemos had to be stopped. This chemo caused hearing damage and they didn't want my hearing to be even more damaged. These treatments made me very sick, weak, and changed me. These treatments also saved my life and stopped the cancer from growing and spreading.

I had an expereince after about my third treatment where I faced many complications and was in the hospital for my longest stay, 15 days. I had difficultly breathing, talking, and moving. I remember I had only eaten 1/2 a saltine cracker in 3 days. I later found out I had pleurisy which is fluid around the lungs which made it hard to breathe, talk, and move. I was also having severe back pain, liver, and kidney problems. Instead of clearing my chemo, methotrxate, in 5 days it took me 15 plus days to clear. I remember at one point 5 different doctors came to my room at once to confirm that my pain was NOT cancer. This was my fear as to all the pain I was experiencing and it was such a relief to know it wasn't cancer. Luckily with time I was able to overcome these many problems and get out of the hospital after 15 days.  Chemotherapy can cause many unexplained complications that Drs. don't always have the answers for. They say the drugs affects everyone differently and sometimes it is hard to predict the side effects from them.

Until you go through it yourself or someone close to you goes through in-patient chemotherapy it is hard to imagine the sickness, the pain, and the feeling of dying and wondering if you will ever feel better. There are many different medications that are given to help you, but also at the same time they make you feel like you have hit rock bottom. The many times you do throw up.  The times you are so nauseated and you wonder if you really will throw up? Feeling pain and wondering if it is back... is the cancer back?

My first treatment of chemo at Primaries

Puzzles, one of the many things I did to pass the time in the hospital.

Pet therapy - one of my favorite things at the hospital.

Getting my chemo - Methotrexate.

Trying to sleep through the awful chemo that made me so sick!

My awesome cousin, Heather and her husband Ryan, and my aunt Maxine brought horses to my house so I could go horse riding. This was 1 month before my surgery.

After 6 treatments I had a major surgery on my left femur to remove the tumor. On May 21, 2009 this surgery involved the total removal of my knee, all of my femur except for about 3 inches at the top, and 60% of my thigh muscles. It was mostly the muscles that are used to lift the leg. I was given a cobalt chrome rod to be my femur and a total knee replacement. I now have a 19 inch scar from the top of my leg to below the knee. The goal for the chemo is to have 90% or better of the tumor killed. This is considered good response and anything less is considered poor response. When I got my report my tumor kill was 80%, not what I or my Drs. were hoping for, but still good. My Dr. felt he was able to remove all of the cancer with a good margin. The chemo before the surgery was to stop the cancer, all the treatments after were to make sure that all and any little cancer cells were killed. After surgery I had 13 more treatments and finished my last chemo the day before Thanksgiving!

My new cobalt/chrome leg.

After surgery getting ready to go to physical therapy.

After surgery I had physical therapy for almost 1 year to help me to learn to walk again. Learning to walk again was very painful and hard. There were times I didn't think I could ever do it and would never have a normal life...But today I now can walk without a limp if I consciously think about it. I have to think about every step I take. I can't run. I can't do stairs normally but I can go up and down one at a time. I can't do some of the things I loved doing like water-skiing or snow skiing. I have fallen a few times without any warning. For some reason when I am either not thinking about walking or I don't step right, my knee sometimes gives out on me and I fall down. The first few times it happened I fell hard but I am getting better at catching myself. :) I am grateful though that I still have my leg and that I can walk and do a lot of the things I love to do like ride a bike, swim, and horse ride to name a few.

My friends came to visit me between treatments while I was home.

On a 4-wheeler ride with my nieces. Trying to do things again after surgery.

My brother and I after my doctors appointment, officially free of cancer!

Even though cancer has now changed me and limited me on what I can do, I am happy to say that before cancer I was able to do some amazing things. I grew up being able to go horse riding just about any day I wanted, my family owned a boat and I went water skiing many times. I was able to go snow-skiing with friends and my family, go 4-wheeling, snowmobiling, and do a hike to a lake called Bloomington Lake that is about 10 miles and is a pretty intense hike. I was also able to do a midnight 5K with my roommates my first year at college. I am so grateful I was able to do some of these things that I no longer can do.

I am happy to say that I am now in remission and 20 months of being cancer free. I have had to have check-ups every 3 months consisting of blood draws, x-rays, and chest x-rays. At the end of this year I am so excited because I will be able to go every 6 months for my check ups! Since being in remission I have completed my Associates degree in Medical Assisting from BYU-Idaho.

I have met some amazing people and have been shown wonderful support from many. I know that from love, encouragement, and people being there for me is what pulled me through this very difficult time. I had many prayers in behalf and I know God has blessed me. I never in a million years thought I would hear "You have cancer...." You never know when life will take a turn whether from illness, death, or an accident. I have learned to appreciate each day and to love those that you have in your life. You never know what the next day will bring. My life was changed in less than 24 hours. It has been difficult and I had no idea how I would be able to face the next year. But with faith and determination you can pull through life and face the challenges that are handed to you.

There are many reasons why I decided to put my blog back up to share my experience. While going through treatments I read many other cancer blogs that have helped me. I still follow blogs and am aware of many who are still fighting cancer. It is interesting to read about others and to see that they have some of the same experiences as I have, and to know that you aren't the only one going through these challenges. I am aware of some of these fighters who didn't beat their battle. They hold a special place in my heart. I hope that by sharing my experience it will help others. Even though I have had this HUGE set-back in my life, I can say today that even though it was hard and still effects my life now, I do love my life and wouldn't have it any other way.

Me at a petting zoo, Fall 2010

On a horse ride in Star Valley, Wyoming. (I am on the left)

Brittany and I floating the river. July 2011

Graduation from BYU-Idaho with an associate degree in Medical Assisting-July 2011

My Cancer Journey

Giving of yourself---Literally

Milestone

Bone cancer and how it has changed my life