WTF - What. The. Fracture. (Part 1 of 3)

WTF - What. The. Fracture.  (Part 1 of 3)

In August, I hurt my femur right above the surgery site, on my right knee.  I could barely walk.  In order to walk up the stairs, I would take one step with my left leg and then It hurt so bad!  And it got worse, the more I walked on my leg the more it hurt.

So when it still really hurt into September, I knew I should call the Doctor.  But which one?  I didn’t have  lump there, so I knew my Cancer wasn’t back but I did have a routine MRI scheduled for the end of October with Dr. O’Donnell.  Instead of contacting my Primary Care doctor, and waiting for a referral to Orthopedics, I decided to contact O’Donnell’s office and see if they could move-up my MRI.

Being the fantastic Surgeon that he is, of course he approved my MRI.

I received the results back and the report suggested that my cancer had returned and this time it was in my bone??!!  I contacted O’Donnell's office right away.  The nurse who answered told me that everything was fine and that I just needed to stay off of my right leg for two months until my normally scheduled appointment in November.  I questioned her... not in a rude way but, because I just needed more information before I stay off of my right leg for TWO MONTHS!!! 

I asked, “Did you read my report?”

She responded, “Yes, clearly you don't have it in front of you.”

I told her that, “I do have it in front of me, on the report at suggested that possibly my cancer had returned and it was in my bone.”

She said “Hold on, let me read the report,” and put me on hold. (She apparently had not read my report??)

She got back on the phone and said she would need to call me back.

She called me within 20 minutes and told me O'Donnell wanted to see me the very next day.

The next day I showed up at O'Donnell's office nervous and anxious.  O'Donnell read the report looked at the MRI scans himself and said I'm actually pretty certain that this is a radiation fracture due to osteonecrosis of your Femur.. basically the bone was dead due to so much radiation.  Most importantly he did NOT think that the cancer had spread to my bone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

O'Donnell wanted to be certain, so he went ahead and placed orders for many scans to verify that the cancer was not my bone.  He told me that he would check with his Radiation department at UCSF and would get back to me with a time frame.

His Radition department suggested that the follow-up scans be conducted two months later.  That it would be enough time to see what my femur area was doing and he would be able to tell if it was a “positive or negative” progression.  So I waited…