After countless bacterial and fungal infections, clinic visits, scans and hospitalizations, Nick decided to undergo a surgical procedure to remove dead and infected bone, clean up the opening he has in his cheek and take a few biopsies of bone that was left when the tumor was removed. Through all of these infections they were never able to find a source and as we were hoping that this last surgery would be a ‘gift’ from the Gods to clean out the general area, discover the source of infections and give us the all clear from cancer. In addition, they found a spot on one of Nick’s lungs so he would undergo a biopsy of the lung as well.
We anticipated there would be no cancer left since the area around his tumor had received radiation therapy. In fact, Nick’s body is accustomed to osteosarcoma and the two other times that it reared its ugly head, it came on fast and furious and Nick was pretty sure he would know if cancer was growing. We were also encouraged and felt good about the spot on his lung as most of the physicians that looked at it felt that it was not really behaving like what could be metastasized osteosarcoma.
I remember getting a phone call from Tammy: “Great news…the biopsy of the lung looks normal.”
Four hours later she would call me again to tell me that the biopsies taken from the bone were both positive. In effect, 9 months of chemotherapy, multiple surgeries and 4 weeks of radiation therapy had not been able to stop this horrible disease. This cleanup surgery that was to be a gift from the Gods brought great harm. The cancer is back and there is not much left in the arsenal to stop it.