The story of Janet
Waking up Sept, 2018 in excruciating pain was the start of a long unexpected journey. After three ambulances to A&E, refusal to be given a scan I was consistently given Morphine and sent home. My family were looking after me day and night and my left leg was completely unusable by this time.
End of October, a bony lump appeared in my spine and an emergency Drs apt led to an X-ray. The following week my GP arranged for an apt with a Spinal Consultant who was certain it was nothing awful but arranged two scans to see what it was. Two weeks later Dec 2018 after the scans I had to go straight to a spinal ward where the Consultant I had seen before told me I needed a biopsy and would not be going home. The biopsy or emergency surgery as it turned out was done and the worst news ever was told to my family and myself. It was an extremely rare Osteosarcoma in my spine and it was cancerous and killing me. The next day I had 12hrs of surgery to remove it all and 7 facet joints and input metal bars and screws to hold me up. Three weeks later another 5 hr surgery to remove the last cancer cells, followed by gruelling Chemotherapy with the worst drugs. These and the surgery have left me disabled in a wheelchair with horrendous permanent nerve pain and Neuropathy. The final straw was to be told the Radiotherapy was not powerful enough for my tumour type and I spent two months and 37 treatments down in Manchester at The Christie having Proton Beam Therapy.
A whole year later it was done, but everytime I met a new Dr I was told how rare this tumour had been on so many occasions, that and the fact I was a female of 54 years.
I have become fascinated to know how I got such a world wide rare Cancer as it is not in my family.