Story so far:
In November 2007 my husband decided to go to see a doctor bout the big lump on top of his foot, which had been present for a couple of years - but due to his parents being ill and looking after them, he put going to the doctors off until then.
Luckily through work he has BUPA cover, so decided to do it privately. He was diagnosed after tests and biopsy to have Leiomyosarcoma in January 2008. He had 5 weeks of radiotherapy first to shrink the lump and in May 2008 had the lump, plus a toe removed. He had a fantastic surgeon and fantastic radiotherapy consultant, with both my husband has had personal contact with all the time via email, so if we ever had a question it was easy to contact them. Since then he has had 3 monthly check ups with MRI scans of foot and chest xrays - all being clear.
6 months ago while driving he sneezed and experienced a sharp pain in his left shoulder, he spent the weekend in bed finding it hard to move - we put this down to a muscle strain cos of the sneeze. Luckily 2 wks after he had a appt with one of the consultants who said it would probably settle but if still hurting when next see him they would do an MRI scan to check due to his history. Chest xray at time was still clear. 3 months later he saw the consultant surgeon and again my husband told him bout the pain, again he was reassured and xrayed and stil nothing. When he went back to his radiotherapy consultant again and he was still experiencing discomfort and aching she decided to order an MRI of his back. Couple of days later we were told the MRI had showed a mass near his spine
He was sent for a PET/CT Scan for further investigation. This showed up no other lesions in his body, apart from the one they already knew about.. sigh of relief there.. but we were still not sure bout the mass in his back as hadnt really been told anything bout it.
Yesterday we went to see a new spinal surgeon he was referred to .. he showed us the MRI which showed a big mass near spine and he said by look of it they are sure it is cancerous due to his history of this leiomyosarcoma. It is just under his left long and just now touching his spine - so that sneeze you can say has saved his life!
We see his radiotherapy consultant on Wednesday, where we will then find out the plan of action as to will he had radiotherapy.
we were told bout the surgery he will have to go through and we know it will be before christmas. The spine surgeon seems confident that he can operate with a good result and he will probably do the surgery with thee surgeon that did his foot .
I am so full of dread and fear. I feel bad that he has to go through this again, but this time it being further up the body it is more scary then with his foot. I feel a complete mess and feel bad if i cry in front of my husband cos he feels bad that he is making me worry so much.
Reading through this site there are so many people so much worse off and it is scary how much cancer is around. I never used a support system when he had his foot done, but this time i feel more of a need for it.
Would love to hear from people that understand what im going through. Plus i dont get that much support from people near to us - His family didnt really care when he was diagnosed in 2008, he never heard from them.
