Beth's Leg is all Screwed up!

On Tuesday, we flew to Chicago for Beth's surgery to fix a fracture in her right femur that was caused by a tumor below her hip roughly the size of an egg.  She had a plate and screws placed on her femur and the doctors said everything went as well as it could go.  Her doctor did say though that it took over an hour to get the long screw in because of the "Met Blasts" which is where the cancer has created new bone and made it hard to penetrate.  The whole surgery was only supposed to take an hour and a half but one screw it self took over an hour!  The nurses were laughing when they told us what a workout it was for him.

Currently she is restricted to 50% weight baring on her right leg and will go through physical therapy to regain 100% weight baring within 2-3 weeks.

We met with the doctors this morning and then said they will monitor the left leg as it also has lesions (spots of cancer) which could potentially lead to a similar fracture in her left leg in the future.

A question we get somewhat regularly is, "Were they able to remove all of the cancer".  The truth is the cancer has metastasized throughout her bones; not just a few but in multiple places - spine, legs, ribs, skull, etc.  Luckily, it is not in any organs or in the bone marrow, however, there is no getting rid of her cancer in her bones.  The goal is to slow it's progression through treatment and to keep her pain under control.  While this might be shocking news to some, it really isn't anything different than what we have doing for the last 8 years.  We just take life as it comes and follow Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin's advice - "Come What May and Love It".

We cant' say it enough - Thank You for all of your love and support that keeps us going.

Update on Beth's Legs...

First off... Beth has some really nice legs.

Second, we talked to the Orthopedic Surgeon this morning.  Beth is scheduled for surgery on May 17th.  In the meantime they told her absolutely no bearing any weight on her legs.  In fact they didn't even want her up to to use the restroom.  They basically suggested putting a porta-potty next to our bed which Beth shot down pretty quickly.  The doctors explained that there is a tumor the size of an egg on her femur with a fracture.  They are afraid that if she puts any weight on her legs that she could break her hip and/or leg.

They will operate on the right leg first and then a few weeks later do the left.

Because Beth refuses to let me buy an adult baby Bjorn on Amazon, she won't be out and about much.  Anytime she is out of bed she will be rolling in her new wheelchair.  That is IF the kids ever let her have a turn.  They love the wheelchair.

Now Break Your Legs! Break 'em! Break 'em!

Chemo has been kind of a drag lately.  Beth had her 4th round of Chemo back on April 8th.  She never really bounced back from that Chemo Round.  Normally she is sick for about a week after each treatment and then starts to feel better and is good for 2 weeks, until she goes back.  That treatment on April 8th wiped her out.  Aside from the overall crappy feeling that Chemo brings here are a few things that have been most problematic:

Blurry Vision - this is a side effect of Chemo.  It started out blurry with things that are far away but now it has progressed to things closer as well.  What has been hardest for her is that she can no longer drive (She wasn't that good of driver anyways).

Neuropathy - another side effect of Chemo.  The bottoms of Beth's feet are red and burn.  It's a temporary neuropathy that sticks around for 3 weeks.  The problem is Beth has has Chemo every 3 weeks, so it's not temporary but more constant.

Leg Pain - Beth's potassium levels had been low her last few visits.  When her legs started hurting the past couple of weeks she thought it was because of her low levels of potassium.

Fast Forward to Friday, April 29th.

Beth mentioned some of the issues she was having to her doctors and the doctors did a brain MRI to rule out any brain tumor that could be causing the vision and facial numbness.  That test was clear. That was huge relief.

Regarding the leg pain, they did an X-Ray on her femur bones in her legs and found several fractures. So for the last few weeks Beth has been walking around with broken legs and did very little complaining. This girl has some major pain tolerance.

The bad news is she is no longer is allowed to bare any weight on either leg and is confined to a wheel chair until she has surgery.  They are afraid that putting any weight on her legs could cause her femurs to snap.  Not good!

We will talk with an Orthopedic Oncologist on Monday (tomorrow) to figure what the plan is and will update this blog as soon as we can.

As we always do, we will get through with lots of laughter, a few tears, faith, our family and friends and Silento.