A winding road to a mysterious diagnosis

Last spring, I had the surprising urge to walk 100 miles to raise money for the American Cancer Society.  It was one of the most beautiful months of my life, even though my husband was dealing with a mysterious undiagnosed illness.  Every day after school, I walked and prayed, delighted in all the spring beauty, and listened to amazing audiobooks.  Eventually, we found out that Pat had sarcoidosis and his treatment was a success, but in the interim, those 100 miles kept me sane.  However, as I walked in April of 2023, a lump developed on my right ankle.

I remember requesting prayer for my ankle during Sunday small groups at our church.  I said, "I'm making a doctor's appointment this week -- but wouldn't it be wonderful if the lump went away before I got to the doctor's?"  My friend Terri scolded me, knowing that I don't like medical appointments -- "You better go to the doctor's regardless!"  Well, that Monday, I tripped over the garbage can at school.  I basically did a belly flop because I was carrying a pile of books, and when my leg hit the floor, the cyst on my ankle burst.  There was a pain for about twenty minutes, and then it disappeared.

I went to the doctor the next day regardless.  There was no sign of a lump at this point, and the first question my doctor asked was, "Do you wear boots a lot?"  I said, "All the time -- I'm a boot girl."  My doctor told me that it had likely been a ganglion cyst and to cut down on my boot wearage and it might not come back. 

In the autumn, I once again felt the urge to walk for a cause. I chose 60 Miles for St. Jude's. Walking helped me get through another unexpected health crisis—this time, my daughter's.  (She is also doing so much better!)  However, once again, I developed a lump on my ankle.  I was in the process of being introduced to a new family doctor, so that took a few weeks.  Eventually, my new doctor sent me to sports medicine.  When that doctor couldn't drain what he thought was a ganglion cyst, he referred me to an orthopedic surgeon.  

The orthopedic surgeon was confident I had a cyst as well, even after an MRI.  At my second appointment with him, he asked, "Well do you want it out?"  I said, "Yes!!!"  He said there was a very small chance that it could be a tumor and that the reason he had sent me for a scan was that he wanted to rule out sarcoma because he would hate to get in there and risk microscopic cancer being left behind.

So I had the surgery to remove the cyst on April 12th.  Afterward, the surgeon came out and talked to my parents while I was still in recovery and told them that it hadn't been what he expected.  On April 19th, I was using my phone to check emails and such while my students were taking a test (we had no internet access at school at the time due to a ransomware attack), and all of a sudden, a message popped up from my virtual medical chart.  I opened it up, and read the words "Synovial sarcoma, monophasic -- margins are positive."  My heart began to race and my belly felt like it had dropped five inches.  I texted a friend, "I think I have cancer."  Having to finish the day teaching kept me from panicking.  It sounds terrible that I found out that way, but it worked out for the best.

That night the surgeon who had removed the growth called me.  He had already made arrangements for me to meet with an oncologist who is an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Bowen.  Since then it has been a whirlwind of scans and appointments.  What ups and downs emotionally as I over-investigated synovial sarcoma online, imagined that my aches and pains I'd attributed to arthritis might be cancer, put my fears in God's hands, and then would take them back again at random moments.  As I told my co-workers, family, and close friends, I could feel the results of their prayers.  Worry dissipated.  I was able to sleep like a baby.  Still, it was such a relief when I received the news on April 29th, that I had low staging.  The cancer is only in my lower leg, and I am somewhere between stages 1 and 2 because the tumor was just short of being 5 centimeters.  

This Tuesday, May 7th, I will undergo my first surgery to clean up the mess left from the earlier mass removal.  There are microscopic bits of cancer surrounding where that mass was.  The surgeon will go in and clean out the flesh and tendons until he finds no more cancer cells under a microscope.  Then he will cut out a margin of healthy flesh to decrease the risk of cancer coming back.  

This means I will have a gaping hole that will have to be filled in with muscle.  So, within a few days of my first surgery, I will go back in for a six to eight-hour plastic surgery to reconstruct the tendon that lifts my foot and to attach all of the blood vessels, muscle, and skin they are grafting to my ankle.  Yuck, right?!  I will be in the hospital for a couple of weeks with my foot in the air so that swelling doesn't complicate the healing process.  

I have to be out of school for the remainder of the year due to the seriousness of the surgery.  Yesterday, I broke the news to my students -- that was harder emotionally than finding out I had cancer.  But boy, did I feel loved by those kids!   I loved some of their questions and comments -- but I will share those another time. 

I covet all your prayers and positive thoughts.  Please pray for my healing and for all of us to grow in faith and love of God through this journey.