Health Update

A recopy from Amanda’s Facebook post:

First, I am blessed to be loved by so many of you! I will forever be grateful for your prayers and well wishes. Not a day goes by that I’m not extremely humbled by your support. All of this is so hard for me to process and your love has helped me stay strong. We will beat this together!

Big news, no evidence of metastasis! I do have some spots they are monitoring, but they didn’t change in size. This is huge! I will continue to have scans every 3-4 months to make sure nothing has spread.

The mass in my thigh did not respond to chemo. It grew another 2 cm on each side. It’s now about 10 cm x10 x10. This is not all together surprising, but still incredibly disappointing.

I met with my surgeon yesterday. He is going to advocate for me doing a new procedure, which would take the normal five weeks of radiation and pack it into one week. Then I would have about four to five weeks of cool off before surgery. This new procedure cuts the timeframe to surgery by at least five weeks, which is important in my case. The radiation may not shrink it, but it will really harm it. Maybe even kill it off!

I meet with the radiologist in charge of this procedure on Monday. Interestingly enough MUSC in Charleston and UCLA are the only places doing this new type of radiation. Hopefully I will start this radiation soon!

Currently my surgery is scheduled for May 2nd. It may get pushed up earlier depending on a few factors. It’s going to be a doozy, at least six hours. He is going to have the other orthopedic surgeon in with him and the vascular team. It’s going to be complicated because it’s in a very vascular area and my tumor is wrapped around my femoral vein and femoral nerve. And he has to be sure to take out the large mass with enough margins. He’s confident, but says it won’t be easy. Recovery will be months long. I will have long term leg issues the rest of my life. But as long as I have a life, I don’t really care!