Too much information can make you crazy!
Armed with an iPad and an active imagination I took on the role of armchair doctor - determined to figure out what was going on and make sense of it all.
I ran across all types of possibilities: Sarcoma, Plasmacytoma, Myeloma, Carcinoma? Is everything that ends in "oma" a bad thing? Makes me never want to get into another Toyota Tac"oma".
Of course, maybe it was nothing but a harmless growth. I imagined relaying the story years down the road of how we had " freaked ourselves out" thinking it was actually cancer. "Wow! maybe I should just put a little Compound W on my worry wart. But the more I researched the more fleeting my hope became that this was all a benign joke we could laugh about someday.
A much more serious reality was becoming apparent.
1 - Primary bone cancer is rare.
2 - Cancer that starts somewhere else and metastasizes in the bones is extremely common.
3 - The most common site?......the hip.
4 - It's not uncommon to have bone pain as the first sign that cancer has run amok everywhere.
After a week of becoming a self-proclaimed WebMD expert, my medical opinion was that the most likely diagnosis would be a metastatic bone tumor - stage IV cancer spread from some unknown location. A very grim prospect. (See, that's what I mean about WebMD causing you to spin out into crazyland).
It was time to get a more balanced opinion while we were waiting for the real diagnosis. Fortunately I have a doctor friend who knows a thing or two about tumors - my daughter Kassie. She had reviewed his MRI images and I called her and asked point blank if she had reached the same conclusion. I could almost see the hair twirling and nervous fidgeting on the other end of the line. I practically forced her to say that a metastatic tumor indicating Stage IV cancer was extremely likely. Then she said, "BUT".....I held my breath as she finished her sentence. "But, it seems too large considering there was no symptom of cancer elsewhere". "It's impossible to tell the difference between the two types of tumors from the MRI alone but the size doesn't fit". That thought kept me going for the next couple of days.
It seems a little wacko to be praying your husband has some rare type of primary bone cancer, but at least it would be a fair fight. One sleepless night I ran across a type bone cancer that fit everything I knew about his symptoms....
Multiple Myeloma
It wouldn't be until the next morning that we would know if I was right.
Step-by-step, we'll get there.
Lynn
PS: Just a word of advice, DO NOT Google images of cancer tumors! You are much better off looking for pictures of cute puppies. Here's one to get you started, and I am done with WebMD.
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