- D
- D
- r
Hi guys,
Thank you for reading even this far. If I may, I’d like to let you in on a small secret that I’ve been keeping for sometime now.
Since January, I have been going to doctors, complaining about a pain in my left knee. I was told I have a simple muscle deficiency due to lack of exercise. I have been going to PT. Gradually, I started realizing that it’s making my knee hurt more. My doctors didn’t seem too concerned (I’m young and healthy) and thus didn’t take my complaint too seriously. After being rejected repeatedly I got fed up and had to demand further medical attention.
On August 21, I finally was able to get an appointment with a sports medicine doctor. As you can imagine, getting a face-to-face appointment with a doctor was not easy due to our best friend - coronavirus. I told him that exercising makes the pain worse and at this point, I need to rule out anything scary. He performed an xray and found a tumor in my bone.
After getting some tests done, on August 25, I was finally able to see an oncologist who told me they think it’s a chondrosarcoma, which is a cartilage cancer. They needed to perform a biopsy to confirm.
Biopsy was painful and recovering from it was (already) hell. 0/10 would not recommend.
August 31st, my diagnosis was confirmed. Low-grade chondrosarcoma (see MRIs, I named my tumor Karen). This is the type of cancer that doesn’t respond to any sort of chemo or radiation. However, the fact that it’s low-grade, means that after cutting it out, there is only about a 10% chance it’ll come back. Bottom line, I needed surgery.
The tumor invaded a good chunk of my bone and joints in the knee. The doctors had to replace my knee entirely while cutting a good bit of my healthy parts to ensure there is no more cancer left (see current xrays, everything white is metal).
If you are still reading, I appreciate you. I’m very lucky that this is the low-grade kind of cancer. I’ll live and honestly, I feel as if I was reborn and given another chance at life.
Unfortunately, in the meantime, I had a major surgery that put me out of work for 3 weeks. For the first 2 weeks post-op I needed 24/7 care, so Rodolfo had to take some time off, too. Now, I’m almost 2 months post-op, I still can’t walk properly, use stairs, etc. My knee only bends about 100° out of the full 140ish. I’m in pain most of the time, so managing it has become a huge part of my every day life. I go to PT 3 times a week and it seems that I’ll be limited in my abilities for at least another month or two.
This experience is slowly tanking me and my little family financially. I’m asking for some financial help, to help cover bills while I can’t work as much and for some out-of-pocket medical costs. Please also like & share if you can, that’ll also be huge help.
Once again, thank you for taking the interest in this and reading my story. I hope you are all staying safe.
PS. I posted my MRI and xray in an update:)
Thank you for reading even this far. If I may, I’d like to let you in on a small secret that I’ve been keeping for sometime now.
Since January, I have been going to doctors, complaining about a pain in my left knee. I was told I have a simple muscle deficiency due to lack of exercise. I have been going to PT. Gradually, I started realizing that it’s making my knee hurt more. My doctors didn’t seem too concerned (I’m young and healthy) and thus didn’t take my complaint too seriously. After being rejected repeatedly I got fed up and had to demand further medical attention.
On August 21, I finally was able to get an appointment with a sports medicine doctor. As you can imagine, getting a face-to-face appointment with a doctor was not easy due to our best friend - coronavirus. I told him that exercising makes the pain worse and at this point, I need to rule out anything scary. He performed an xray and found a tumor in my bone.
After getting some tests done, on August 25, I was finally able to see an oncologist who told me they think it’s a chondrosarcoma, which is a cartilage cancer. They needed to perform a biopsy to confirm.
Biopsy was painful and recovering from it was (already) hell. 0/10 would not recommend.
August 31st, my diagnosis was confirmed. Low-grade chondrosarcoma (see MRIs, I named my tumor Karen). This is the type of cancer that doesn’t respond to any sort of chemo or radiation. However, the fact that it’s low-grade, means that after cutting it out, there is only about a 10% chance it’ll come back. Bottom line, I needed surgery.
The tumor invaded a good chunk of my bone and joints in the knee. The doctors had to replace my knee entirely while cutting a good bit of my healthy parts to ensure there is no more cancer left (see current xrays, everything white is metal).
If you are still reading, I appreciate you. I’m very lucky that this is the low-grade kind of cancer. I’ll live and honestly, I feel as if I was reborn and given another chance at life.
Unfortunately, in the meantime, I had a major surgery that put me out of work for 3 weeks. For the first 2 weeks post-op I needed 24/7 care, so Rodolfo had to take some time off, too. Now, I’m almost 2 months post-op, I still can’t walk properly, use stairs, etc. My knee only bends about 100° out of the full 140ish. I’m in pain most of the time, so managing it has become a huge part of my every day life. I go to PT 3 times a week and it seems that I’ll be limited in my abilities for at least another month or two.
This experience is slowly tanking me and my little family financially. I’m asking for some financial help, to help cover bills while I can’t work as much and for some out-of-pocket medical costs. Please also like & share if you can, that’ll also be huge help.
Once again, thank you for taking the interest in this and reading my story. I hope you are all staying safe.
PS. I posted my MRI and xray in an update:)