Late last year, I started feeling discomfort in my left leg when riding my motorcycle. It didn’t hurt bad, it was just uncomfortable. I thought I pulled a muscle or had a pinched nerve and taking Advil helped. Over Christmas, we went to New Jersey, where it started to hurt more. I just thought it was because of the cold. We got stuck in the first blizzard of the season, and once we dug ourselves out, I slipped once but didn’t fall. This caused my leg to hurt more. I was taking more Advil, which wasn’t helping as much as it used to. When we came home, I went to my family doctor. She looked me over and sent me for x-rays of my spine thinking it could be a herniated disk that was causing Sciatic pain. After that, I went back to get the results and was informed it wasn’t a herniated disk – it was probably a pulled muscle or pinched nerve and it was recommended I see an Orthopedic Specialist. She gave me a list of 3 or 4 different specialists and told me to pick one and go. Here’s where dumb luck came in – the Orthopedic Specialist I picked, which I just picked because he was close to my house, partnered with the doctors at University of Miami. This would later become very helpful.
He checked me out and sent me for a non-contrast MRI. This was in early to mid January. A week later, I got the MRI of my spine. A couple hours after the MRI, the specialist called me and told me the technician happened to notice, on the very edge of the scan, that there was a one to two inch mass in my pelvic wing (the Ilium bone). The Orthopedic Specialist told me I would likely need a biopsy, and that he couldn’t perform the biopsy – I would need to see a different doctor. Since he partnered with UM, he quickly got me in with one of his partners, a Musculoskeletal Oncologist with the UM Sylvester Cancer Center.
She was very upfront, but she was very assuring and comforting. She told me I needed to go and get both a non-contrast and contrast MRI of my pelvis, as well as blood work, which I did the following week. She also ordered a biopsy of the tumor. The biopsy was performed in early February at the UM Hospital in downtown Miami. A week later, we saw my Musculoskeletal Oncologist again and she informed me that the pathology, while not complete, showed preliminarily that there was a type of round blue-cell cancer present. It was a type of bone cancer. She referred me to a Medical Oncologist she works with at UM. She called me the next day with the final results and it was determined the type of cancer is Ewing’s Sarcoma. Ewing’s Sarcoma is normally a juvenile form of cancer, but can rarely appear in adults.
The next day, I saw the Medical Oncologist at the UM Sylvester Cancer Center, who looked over my tests and discussed my treatment with me. He told me that Ewing’s, while rare, is definitely treatable with an aggressive chemo schedule, and likely surgery, radiation or a combination of both. I’ve since had more blood work done, as well as a bone and CT scan. It does not look like the cancer has spread and my prognosis is very good.
My chemo treatments will be every three weeks, and will alternate as follows: the first treatment will be as an outpatient for one full day, followed by an immune booster shot the next day. Three weeks later, I will be an inpatient in the hospital for 5 full days for treatment and observation. 3 weeks later, we alternate back to outpatient and this alternation every three weeks will happen for approximately one year. The reason why it’s going to be so long is because this is to cure me of cancer, not just treat it. This blog will help keep all of my friends and loved ones informed of how I’m doing and any new updates as they become available. I will be updating my blog about my chemo adventure – feel free to comment whenever you’d like.
