Beginning the journey

LeeR loves to play handball--even through various muscle pulls and a broken wrist. So in April when his left leg was giving him problems, he thought it was another handball injury. He stretched, massaged, iced, and everything else he could think of (including continuing to "throw the ball around") to make his leg feel better. But all to no avail. On May 3 as he sat down on a sofa in our room, the pain was so excruciating that he went into shock. The x-rays in the emergency room showed some "abnormalities" in his hip: cancer.

After transferring to IMC in Sandy, UT,  and sending the biopsy to Florida for further analysis, it was eventually determined that he had osteosarcoma, which originated in his hip. Sarcomas are the rarest of cancers and osteosarcoma in people over 30 is extremely rare. On May 13 LeeR's left hip and femur were replaced.

At the time of the surgery a CT scan showed three nodules in LeeR's lungs. They were too small to biopsy so it was not possible to tell if the cause of the nodules was environmental, age, or metastasized cancer from his hip.

A few weeks ago another CT was done and we received the very sad news that the original three nodules had grown dramatically and there were over 50 new nodules in his lungs. We are now dealing with Stage IV metastatic osteosarcoma. Although the oncologist says they are very poor at predictions, he was honest to tell us that without treatment we will probably have "more than 2 but less than 9" months left together in this life. If we have one of the most potent combos of chemo drugs administered two consecutive days a month every month for 4-6 months and the chemo works (50% chance), we may have 3 years. LeeR is choosing to have the chemo.

LeeR's plan has always been to celebrate his 100th birthday at a big party, go to bed, snuggle up together (I would be 93), and then go to sleep together and not wake up. Sounded like a plan. While that is still our goal, we are peaceful in the knowledge that the plan of happiness is definitely a plan of happiness and that our birthday celebration may have to wait--but it will take place. We'll just wake up after the party.