My story...

The day of May 19, 2009 (Tuesday) was a day of pain and shock.

I was at school and was experiencing pain in my right leg. This pain was going on for quite sometime. I figured about 2 months. I text my mother telling her that I was in a lot of pain. After school she took me to the emergency room. A lot of x-rays were done. Like on my chest and on the spot that was giving me pain which was the right fibula bone. As I was waiting in one of the emergency rooms my mother and I were joking around and I said well it might be cancer knock on wood. The emergency room doctor came back and told me it was cancer. Shocked and devastated I started to cry of course. My mother comfort me and the first question I asked and everybody would ask this question "Am I going to die." Her immediate answer was "No" she started to even cry due to this horrible news. I was transferred to a children hospital. I stayed there from Tuesday night to Saturday morning. I was questioned by my oncologist about many things that went on that might of caused this pain. Confused I didn't know what might of caused this. They did a biopsy on my right fibula were it look like it was a grape fruit looking since it looks so swollen. They confirm it was Osteosarcoma.

Osteosarcoma occurs most frequently in the long bones. Symptoms usually include pain, with or without an associated swelling. The affected area may have an increased temperature. Often, the child will be limping, since about 80 percent of these tumors are located near the knee. The range of motion ofjoints may be decreased.

I went through months of chemo therapy from the beginning of June all the way until now. I had a surgery on August 28, 2009 where my surgeon Dr. Mary O'Conner of the Mayo Clinic removed my fibula bone and the tumor. After they sent it off to pathology there was a waiting time of a week. We were wanting the tumor to be killed 90 percent. When pathology came back the tumor was killed 20 percent. That means there was still viable cancer cells in my leg. They went into the outer margin meaning she didn't get all of the cancer cells that she could see.

Amputation isn't something that no one wants to go through. Due to the cancer cells still being in my leg she told me that it was a 70 percent chance of it coming back but not necessarily in my leg. Osteosarcoma has a tendency to move to the lungs. So it was either my life or my leg. So I told her to go ahead and take it. On October 27, 2009 at 3:00p.m. I had the amputation surgery. I stayed at Mayo for 3 day's. Then I went straight to a rehab center. Brooks Rehab Center. I enjoyed it very much that I got to stay there. Thank the Lord that my insurance paid for it because its $1200 to stay a night. And I stayed there for 2 weeks. Rehab started at 8am and ended at 3pm. I had wonderful therapist that made things fun for me. They did a great job of teaching me how to be independent with only one leg (there's more to talk about Brooks so I will blog it in another field).

I came home to enjoy my time before I had to start chemo therapy again.
That's the story so far. I will blog more about things that went on when I got home from chemo therapy. Thanks for reading

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Christopher