First signs of Sarcoma

I have decided to start a blog to keep everyone update on the progress of my cancer treatment I am currently undergoing. You have all be so Supportive and Loving and I want to make sure everyone knows what is going on and Blogging seemed like a great way to get all the information out there to all of you! 


To Start off this Blog I would like to just go over the information and the timeline of events that lead up to diagnosis and treatment I know a lot of you have followed this in FaceBook but some of you have not been able to so I would like to put everything down from the beginning so we are all on the same page. I ask for your Patience at I will work to get you caught up to where we are now and then once there I hope to kind of update you as I can :) Again all your love and positivity has really been a strength to me thank You all for the Prayers, Positive thoughts, and words they mean so much to me. 

For those of you who do not know, my Tumor that is the Synovial Cell Sarcoma and is located in my very upper right thigh. I first noticed something in this area about mid December 2011 while taking a shower, It was nothing that grabbed my concern because it could only be felt and was the length of my inner right thigh muscle and felt like maybe the muscle was just more firm on one side. I didn't think much of it however over the next two months it begin to grown still traveling the length of the inner thigh muscle but then also starting to get large in size and visible. On February 17, 2012 I finally gave in thinking that it was some sort of cyst and it would need to be drained and went in however upon the the Dr seeing the size (which is about the size of a small Nurf ball) and the location she stated her concern that it could be 1 of 3 things. The first of her concerns was a Hematoma= a localized collection of blood outside the blood vessels,^[1] usually in liquid form within the tissue. This distinguishes it from an ecchymosis, which is the spread of blood under the skin in a thin layer, commonly called a bruise. Internal bleeding is generally considered to be a spreading of blood within the abdomen or skull, not within muscle.
The issue with this possibility is that I had no recollection of any sort of recent trauma to the area. The other two concerns she expressed to me was two types of cancer that it could be. From this point she scheduled me an appointment same day at IHC in Riverton to have the mass biopsied and it was from there we discovered that it was not in fact a Hematoma but a very large Tumor. She immediately called me with the results while I was still in the Ultra Sound room and kindly explained that she was sending me to a Cancer Specialist Named Steve Scott and explained that he was out of town till Tuesday (this all happened on a Friday Feb. 17th) it was a very long weekend :) Tuesday February 21, 2012 I went in for my First MRI of the area. This part was a little hard for me  because I am claustrophobic so it was a little unnerving, but throughout this whole thing I have been given so many little blessings through this process and one of those blessing was that fact that a close friend who works in MRI at IHC was able to tell everyone I was coming and they were very kind and quick with everything especially the IV I was so so grateful!!! 

My First Meeting with Dr. Steve Scott was on a Thursday February 23, 2012 to discuss what he saw on the MRI and actually evaluate the mass visibly as well. After review of the MRI and Mass, as well as the ultrasound Dr Scott informed me that he did believe this to be a type of 
           A sarcoma which is a cancer that arises from transformed cells of mesenchymal origin. Thus,malignant tumors made of cancerous bone, cartilage, fat, muscle, vascular, or hematopoietic tissues are, by definition, considered sarcomas. This is in contrast to a malignant tumor originating from epithelial cells, which are termed carcinoma. Sarcomas are quite rare. Common malignancies, such as breast, colon, and lung cancer, are almost always carcinoma. 
He was not sure what type of Sarcoma but was concerned it my be a type called Ewing sarcoma which is a malignant round-cell tumor. It is a rare disease in which cancer cells are found in the bone or in soft tissue. The most common areas in which it occurs are the pelvis, the femur, the humerus, the ribs and clavicle. As Ewings is known to quickly spread and metastasize in the lungs  he ordered that I have a CT bone and soft tissue scan to see if there had been any Spreading. He also ordered a biopsy of the tumor to identify the type. 
I went in to IHC in Riverton on Friday February 24,2012 for these scans. Once there I drank a gallon of yucky dye and also had an IV so that they could watch how the fluids spread through my body and mostly the mass. This took a good portion of the day me and Mike were there for about 5 hours.


 Despite the Nuclear medicine I was getting while there sadly I have noticed no current signs of any type of super powers however, I am hopeful something will manifest ;)