Savannah's Osteosarcoma Fight
UPDATE as of October 15th, 2017:
t's been awhile since I updated this page and I apologize.
On September 8, Savannah has surgery. They removed part of her tibia bone that had the cancer in it. They replaced it with a cadaver bone and cadaver tendon. (Bone graft)In order for the tendon to attach she is unable to bend her knee for 6 weeks. She will require physical therapy. The cancer in her bone was so close to her growth plate they were forced to remove it because of this... bone lengthening surgery will be in her future. After surgery, part of her skin was starting to bruise and lose blood flow. She had another surgery to clean the wound and had to have a wound vac on the affected area for several days, luckily there was no infection. Savannah then had a skin graft surgery to replace the skin. They removed a patch of skin from her thigh for the graft. She once again had the wound vac placed on that area to help with the blood flow. Savannah then had to go to the OR for a fourth surgery to remove the wound vac and remove the 47 stitches from the original surgery. She finally got to come home on September 22nd. Savannah does have a full leg cast, that will be coming off on October 23rd. On October 24th she will be starting chemo once again. She has had 6 rounds of chemo and has to complete a total of 18 rounds. The pathology report from her bone did show that 90% of the cancer had died from the chemo. She will be on crutches for another 3 months until the bones start to grow together. Savannah has been having a teacher come to the house in order to keep her up to date with her school work.
We as a family cannot express the heartfelt gratitude we have for everyone that has been there through this emotional journey. We are convinced that all of your support has helped Savannah stay strong. Love to all.
Imagine your child tells you that their leg is hurting them so you take them to the doctor and the doctor assumes it is growing pains. Then after a few weeks, your child tells you that the same leg is in extreme pain and that THEY want to go to the hospital....On June 1st 2017, my sister and her husband were told to drive nine year old, Savannah Rose immediately to Lurie's Children's Hospital in Chicago. The doctor noticed a mass on her leg which was detected by an x-ray. This was the beginning of what would be the scariest experience for Savannah and our entire family.
Savannah went through many tests and the final result was our worst nightmare, she was diagnosed with a cancer called, Osteosarcoma. Savannah has since began a 30 week process of chemo to remove the cancer and hopefully save the leg. She will undergo surgery to remove the mass on her leg in August.
It has been emotionally and finacially difficult for my sister Tammy and her husband, Steve. They also have a younger daughter named Cheyenne. Savannah and her family travel an hour and a half to downtown Chicago to receive the treatment her illness requires. Tammy had just started a job in which she had to quit in order to be there for all of Savannah's chemo appointments which last for days at the hospital.
I am asking for any donation, no matter how small, for my sister Tammy, my brother-in-law Steve and their two children. Steve has taken many days off of work to be by his daughter's side. Our family is working together to take care of Cheyenne, when her parents are with her sister at the hospital. We are all pitching in to help wherever help is needed so we can pull together and kick Cancer in the butt!!
If you cannot donate monitarily, we ask that you PLEASE keep Savannah in your thoughts and prayers. My hope is that we make OSTEOSARCOMA known and eventually find a cure for it. It is the third most common cancer in children.
OSTEOSARCOMA: "is a cancerous tumor in the bone"
