Dani's Warriors

Welcome .  Dani had been experiencing knee pain since April 3rd, 2020.  Knee pain wasn't unusual for her since her knees have been sublexing for many years now.  Mom gave her the usual regimen of ice, elevate, Ibuprofen and compression.  A couple weeks later she was still complaining of pain.  I stated to actually DO what I suggested and if it isn't better in a week to let me know.  Dani was living in her apartment in Winona at this time as she is a Junior at Winona State University majoring in Studio Art.  After a week of the "Mom regimen" she was describing the pain in her knee as a 9 out of 10.  She had my attention now and I thought maybe she had torn something in her knee.  I agreed that we should get hold of Mayo and see if they would see her for knee pain during the pandemic.   Indeed they did see her on May 12 and sent her home with instructions to ice, elevate, Ibuprofen and rest.  They planned to start physical therapy on Wednesday and if it continued to hurt for six weeks, they would get her in for an MRI. Three hours later, after the X-rays had been examined, they noticed some Sclerosis (hardening of the bone which appeared more white in the xray) in the femur and a possible mass.  Instead of waiting 6 weeks for an MRI, we were scheduled for one the following day as they already suspected sarcoma.   After the MRI we met with Dani's surgeon (Dr. Rose) where he talked about the tumor he found in her femur and marked on her leg where the incision would be.   May 13-15 were filled will appointments that included a biopsy and plenty of additional testing to get baselines on just about everything and of course Covid testing before each and every procedure. We were told that biopsy of the bone takes longer since it has to decalcify, but we were called to report at 8 a.m. on May 20th already.  Dr. Rose informed us that we were dealing with Osteosarcoma of the femur, a rare form of bone cancer.   Next steps were to see if it was localized to the bone or if it had metastasized.  We met with the Oncology team where they came up with an aggressive plan of chemo - surgery - chemo over the next 29 weeks.  Dani will have 3 different types of chemo administered.  She will have chemo that will require 19 hospital stays throughout her treatment.  The lesser 2 chemos require a 2-3 day hospital stay and the tougher one can be up to a 7-day stay which they give during back-to-back weeks.  At that point they will see if this plan is working and may plan additional chemo and/or radiation.  We were blessed with the results of the PET scan which showed that the cancer had not spread and chemo was to start the next week.   May 26th brought about the procedure to have a port placed in her chest that would allow them to administer chemo directly into her veins. She did well with her first major procedure and  our afternoon was filled with plenty of appointments which included learning about preserving her eggs as chemo may put her into menopause.  The ultrasound showed 18 follicles that we will try to grow with the 'go ahead' from Oncology that we could pursue this avenue for a couple weeks before chemo.  So I learned how to give Dani shots in her belly 2x every night as we grow these little buggers.  It is our hope that by the end of the process we may have about 4 viable eggs to cryofreeze for future use.  So for now, Menopure and Gonal are our nightly routine with blood tests every other day in Rochester.   We are so grateful for many of you asking how you can help and asking what we need - for now, we are not even sure ourselves.   Thank you in advance for your support and for being a part of our journey.  We will try to keep you updated throughout this process.