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Hi,
My name is Selena Williams and I have cancer. I was diagnosed with uterine leiomyosarcoma December 1, 1999.
It started as just a mild ache in the left middle back rib area. I could pop 2 Advil first thing in the morning and be good for the rest of the day. I was walking 4 miles a day at that time and was in terrific physical and mental condition. I went along for maybe a month and a half still taking the Advil first thing every morning. Then I would have to take a couple more late in the afternoon. I was straightening out the fridge one afternoon , was bent over and coughed. And WOW a pain hit me under my left shoulder blade that almost sent me to my knees.
The next day I went to see a chiropractor that I had been seeing for years on and off . He told me I had most likely popped a rib out of place. He put it back in place, he said. I was sore for a couple of days but then was OK.
I went along for a few more weeks and then the pain in the rib area began to get worse. I thought that maybe I had popped a rib out there too. So I went back to see the chiropractor again. For 2 weeks I would go in, he would try to get what he THOUGHT was a rib also, back in place. Every time I went I was hurting SO bad when I would get off the table I could hardly walk. I asked him about x-rays and he just blew me off. I knew then I had to get somewhere else and find out what in the world was wrong.
I made an appointment to see a GP. And I have to admit that I had not been for yearly checkups in over 5 years. LADIES...PLEASE DO NOT DO THAT TO YOURSELF! I had no regular GYN. The GP ordered a CT scan of the pelvic area because upon examination he discovered that my uterus was enlarged. I had to be given pain meds to even lie down long enough for the scan. (I had been sleeping in my recliner for 4 weeks. I could NOT lie down!) The scan revealed that the uterus was indeed enlarged and the GP THOUGHT that the pain I was having in the rib area was because the uterus was pushing on the kidney. He sent me to see a GYN...THANK GOD! The first thing the GYN told me was that the uterus HAD to come out , but that he wanted to know for sure what was causing the pain in my back.
He set up an MRI for me. (One of those mobile deals) Again, I had to be sedated in order to lie down for the scan. By this time the place in my back had started to burn terribly at times. Not ALL the time.
I wasn't in the MRI machine very long before they brought me out and told me that there was a mass on my spine. They immediately contacted my GYN and he in turn contacted a neurologist. The neurologist told me that he had to send me somewhere that night. This was the day before Thanksgiving 1999. I started making excuses that I had 3 children, that I needed to make sure were taken care of before he sent me somewhere. I told him if he would let me go home that night ,I would go somewhere the next morning!
He quietly looked at me and said, "Mrs. Williams, There is no way in hell you are going home. You could wake up in the morning and be paralyzed!" I knew then how serious this really was! He gave me 3 choices of hospitals. And I know without a doubt I chose the right one. They shot me full of Demerol, put me in an ambulance and sent me to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Ga. It's an 85 mile drive from here. I couldn't lie down on the stretcher so they let me sit in a chair on the way. I wobbled all over the place! HaHa One thing that never dawned on me during the transition was that my brother-in-law lived 20 minutes from the hospital they were sending me to. I spent many a night at their house and they have been precious to me.
We arrived at Emory and I remember stepping out of the ambulance and getting into a wheel chair. After that everything is sort of a blur. My husband has filled me in on things that I had no idea even happened. Each floor of Emory has it's own ICU unit. I was taken into the 3rd floor ICU.
They had my room ready as the neurologist had already called ahead and told them I was coming. I remember them running my husband out of the room and jerking the curtains shut. That thoroughly ticked him off. But they had a job to do! I had numerous CT scans and I believe 3 more MRIs before they told me exactly what was going on. I had a tumor on the T8 vertebrae between the dura (the covering of the spine) and the spine. It was a good thing they said that the tumor was NOT touching the spine itself and that they would not have to touch the spine during the surgery. I had surgery on December 1, 1999 and got the word that the mass was malignant the next day and that the tumor contained uterine tissue. They had never heard of such a thing! The good word that day was that the tumor was encapsulated and they were able to get all of it! I have had no neurological problems. There was some speculation from the CTs that there was lung disease also.
And something kind of humorous: The surgeon that was scheduled to do my surgery told me the day before that he had been called for jury duty . Would you believe they would NOT let him go to come and do my surgery? He called me from the courthouse just as they had come to take me to pre-op and told me the man that taught him everything he knew was standing by to do my surgery and if I would consent they would proceed. God had His hand in that too. Dr. Haid is a master at what he does. I had THE best!
After the team of neurosurgeons did their job they called in a gynecologic oncologist. His team had come in the night before he ever came to see me and they scared me to death! Here I am, just having had back surgery the day before and the head resident tells me that my hysterectomy will be in 2 to 3 days she feels sure! I almost lost it! The oncologist finally comes in and asks me if I'd like to wait till after Christmas! I wanted to know if he felt it would be safe to do that. He said that it would be fine. That taught me right there NOT to listen to the residents...To wait for the doc himself!
I had a total hysterectomy December 29, 1999 and it was confirmed that the cancer had started in the uterus as a malignant fibroid. My uterus weighed 4 pounds...The normal size is the size of an adult fist. I came through the back surgery and the hysterectomy without any major complications or pain. My oncologist also believed there to be some lung disease. This cancer usually metastasizes to the lungs or the liver. He had a protocol program open for this at that time. But in order for me to qualify we had to have proof of the disease in my lungs. They did a CT direct biopsy which came back inconclusive. My oncologist then sent me to see a chest surgeon.
Little did I know what I was in for. But being scared out of my wits already, I followed their direction. I had a mini thorocotomy on February 22, 2000. What the CT scans were showing was indeed the leiomyosarcomma. Numerous lesions, with the largest being, they said at that time, 2.5 cm which they were able to remove. The next largest was 2 cm, which they were not able to remove. That was the toughest surgery of the 3. And then after I go through all that....The protocol had been closed! I had already been told that chemotherapy or radiation didn't do much for this type cancer. So I thought my oncologist was telling me there was nothing he could do for me. He had the lady from the infusion center come and talk to me about Taxol. He was planning to try that and see what results we would get from it. At the next appointment I believed I was going for my first chemotherapy treatment. Instead, when I got to his office, he wrote me a prescription for Megace. A synthetic progestrine. He said he thought this was the best way to go. And I see now how he spared me the side effects of chemotherapy because he knew the drugs they had at that time weren't doing anything for this cancer. I started on the Megace April 3, 2000. They were having me do CT scans with contrast and an MRI every 3 months. The MRI report would go to my neurosurgeon's office where he and his PA would look at the films themselves and call me with the report. I felt really good that they were doing that. The CT scan reports, however, were another story. Every time we got a report it was not consistent with the previous one. One time they even got the largest lesion in the wrong lung! It was then that I decided to go back to the cardio thoracic surgeon who did my chest surgery so HE himself could look at my scans and tell me exactly what he saw. That was one of THE best things I have done. I felt a lot more comfortable knowing that he had looked at those films. And the first thing he told me was that I didn't have a 2 cm lesion. It was 1.4 cm...Those numbers make a BIG difference, don't they?
I had my latest CTs and MRI June 13, 2001. And I got a FANTASTIC report. Nothing new in the pelvic or abdominal area. Nothing on the spine. And some the nodules they saw on my last CTs of the lungs they are NOT seeing this time. My oncologist was thrilled when he read the report. ( I already had it..I try and get the reports before I go to see the docs.) He told me for the first time that he believes the Megace is working. This is such a slow growing cancer, he wasn't sure if the stability of the lesions was because of the growth rate of the cancer or whether the Megace was keeping it from multiplying. When your oncologist is smiling....You can smile too. The chest surgeon and my oncologist agreed that I don't need to have any more scans until December! I feel like a bird out of prison.
I have learned some valuable lessons during all this. And I can see God's hand in it all from the very beginning. I was physically fit to go through the 3 surgeries I had to have. Although the last one was really rough! I am very thankful for the blessings I have been given. Sometimes I wonder WHY I have been so blessed and others have not. It's not ours to question but the human part of us thinks about these things. I have truly learned "One Day At A Time" . God Bless everyone who reads this!