I f*cking kicked cancers ass, what did you do today...
WARNING
Hi Folks! The following blog post contains some super gnarly post-op pictures. Graaaaaphic. If you get squeamish just pull up your socks, suck it up and look at these photos!
-Jer & the boys
My name is Brandon Thomas i'm 19 and I was diagnosed March 10, 2015 with an osteosarcoma bone tumor in my left femur. I discovered my tumor about three months after dropping a seventy pound dumbbell on my quad up until then I was treating it as a sport related injury and doing everything you should never do to a tumor such as deep tissue massage, foam rolling, and acupuncture.
I reached my diagnoses after a series of scans along with a needle, and surgical biopsy, it was at this point I was told my tumor was likely in stage two and close to becoming stage three, my life soon after became the true story of a series of unfortunate events, I was truly dealt the shittiest fucking hand I could of had, with complication after complication. I developed a bleed in my tumor after my first round with chemo, I had my left lung collapse from laying in bed to long, from the chemotherapy and stress alone I developed Supra Ventricular Tachycardia (SVT) in my heart and received three episodes during my entire treatment, but it doesn't end here I soon learned what was going to be a simple removal of a tumor had become so much more. My tumor had reached stage three and had infected the surrounding quadriceps and hamstring in my leg and could no longer be saved and had to go.
I was given three surgical options, high amputation up to my hip, replace my entire femur with a metal rod but lose all mobility in doing so, or to have a Rotation Plasty or Van Ness procedure where they would remove almost all of my thigh down to my knee, then rotating my lower leg 180 degrees and re attaching it making it so that my foot would now face backwards and be at equal level as my right knee, my ankle would then become my knee joint. After hearing this immediately I freaked the fuck out! with only a week to decide. Me and my family then began doing as much research as we could and came to the conclusion that the rotation plasty was truly the only option that would allow me to return to a normal functioning life.
The surgery date came and i found myself there laying down on the cold operating table surrounded by doctors in their scrubs, I knew from the moment I began to drift under that when i awoke my life was never going to be the same again. The surgery was a success the tumor was removed and at that point I was cancer free and from there I was going on a journey that I could only go alone. but of course not until i had some more complications!
After I had recovered from surgery the second phase of my chemotherapy began, my clean up chemo as they called it was quickly halted by my kidneys due to the intense first phase of my chemotherapy and other drugs I had received at the time my kidneys were functioning at about 50% the doctors then began to fear that if they continued treatment I would very well end up on a dialysis machine. Not to long after stopping the treatment the doctors almost lost me on the operating table while cleaning my wound, my wound had became grossly infected and the infection got in my blood stream and I was going into septic shock but luckily my heart responded to the blood pressure medication and they were able to regulate my blood pressure. After spending a week in the intensive care unit I made a recovery some thought may not be possible. Once my strength was back we gave the chemo a go again, but my body still wasn't done with me, this time around the chemo had taken out so many of my bodies good cells that I became septic a second time with a fungal sepsis in my left lung they quickly surgically removed a fraction of it from my lung through a biopsy and started me on anti fungal medication
At this point and time I was 22 treatments in out of 28 but with my kidneys and infections my body finally decided it had enough. I was given two options continue treatment but have to undergo a full amputation to lower my chances of going septic again and maybe only receive 2 more of the 28 treatments before my kidneys completely gave up on me, or stop treatment let my leg heal and end this.. I listened to my body and what it was telling me enough was enough I was cancer free and I was done with this shit.
After a long nine months I was finally discharged and on the road to recovery that I find myself on now. I learned a lot about myself over those nine months I learned how important mental strength was, I quickly realized how little somethings matter like a break up or a bad day at work, what mattered was your health and your happiness, I became a strong believer in the power of the mind and that what doesn't kill your truly makes you stronger. I am no longer the same person who was diagnosed with cancer I am much stronger and wiser then that individual now.. and of course I would like to thank the guys at Sickboy for allowing me to tell my story.
I fucking kicked cancers ass, what did you do today...