A ‘cancer survivor with an asterisk’
In November 2010, I went for my annual wellness check. The only thing out of the ordinary was that I had decided to change doctors.
It was just one of those intuitive feelings that I have learned to listen to. Fortunately, since I was a new patient, my physical was very thorough: complete with EKG, chest X-ray and other testing. Within 20 minutes of leaving the new doctor’s office, I got a call saying, “Your chest X-ray showed that your sternum is widening.” I made a goofy comment about my whole body widening that I thought was pretty funny, but the voice at the other end of the phone didn’t laugh. So I asked what that meant. She told me it meant that I had a CT scan scheduled for the next day. Naturally, the next day was a Friday, which meant that I wouldn’t get results until the following Monday. Trust me, this makes for a long weekend.
On Monday, I got a call telling me that there was a mass between my trachea and aorta, so my next scheduled event was a biopsy. My particular biopsy was done as outpatient and seemed fairly uneventful. Before I left, the nurse told me that I would receive the results within 48 hours and if I hadn’t heard from the doctor by then, to call his office. Meanwhile, I was already scheduled to see a surgeon, as whatever it was had to be removed.
Well, that 48 hours turned into six weeks, as the cellular makeup of this mass was unique and after going to six different pathology labs, all the tests were inconclusive. This meant that my original surgeon was not able to do a laparoscopic surgery; I would have to have my sternum cut open — yes, an open-heart surgery for this mass. This was not on my radar or my plans.
On Jan. 27, 2011, I had this surgery and still didn’t know the results until two weeks later when I got the results in the mail: Diagnosis: Medial-Stinal Spindle Cell Sarcoma. Fortunately, it was all contained and all the margins were clear, so I did not have to endure the treatment that so many cancer survivors do.
I have always considered myself a “survivor with an asterisk” since I didn’t have to have treatment, but I do know my story needs to be told, as I am the poster child for annual wellness checks. I had absolutely no symptoms of anything being wrong with me, which is pretty crazy considering that this tumor was the size of a golf-ball sitting right next to my heart. Had I not gone for my physical, there’s no telling how fast or how much this tumor would have grown before I started having serious problems.
So my message to everyone is: if you have not had a wellness check in the last 12 months, please contact your physician’s office today and schedule it. If you don’t do it for yourself, do it for those who love you. It could save your life. It definitely saved mine.