Today was my appointment with Dr. Casas, an Orthopedic Surgeon specializing in muscular tumors. Dr. Casas, a Harvard grad, is a very popular surgeon and dang good at what he does. It is a blessing to have him helping me! He was very informative today so get ready for me to unload…The first thing Dr. C said when he walked in was “Dr. Anderson called me first thing this morning and he never calls anyone. He explained to me your situation” - (Dr. Anderson is the last surgeon that I visited). A little strange for an opening line, but I soon found out what has all the doctors talking. Apparently I have an extremely rare form of tumor.
Dr. Casas looked over all the MRIs with me. His impression is that it might be an intramuscular myxoma which is an uncommon benign tumor that slowly grows in the muscle. It is a mystery as to what causes these tumors to appear. They are typically painful as they push aside the muscle to grow. This type of tumor can get up to 10cm, but mine is still pretty small. The common age for this tumor is 65 y/o. Because I’m young, healthy, and not in pain – all symptoms do not necessary point to myxoma.
There is still a possibility that it could be soft tissue sarcoma. Sarcoma is a very aggressive form of cancer that is rare and very unpredictable in its behavioral patterns. Dr. Casas explained that most doctors run when there is a possibility of sarcoma because you have to be very careful in removing and treating it – that’s why I was talking to him today (he is super good!). Dr. C has ordered that a bone scan and CT scan be done so that he can further evaluate the behavior of the tumor and understand what it is and how to treat it.
Because “Little Gremlin” is so rare – tomorrow Dr. Casas is taking my case to the weekly tumor council to have 15 other surgeons look at my MRIs and try to figure out what it could be. This is really good because I will be getting 15 second opinions and if Dr. C missed anything, hopefully someone else will discover it!
I have 4 hours of testing tomorrow (Feb. 28th). Dr. Casas is going to look over all the images and he and I will meet again in 1 week (Wednesday, March 5th) to go over his diagnosis.
I asked Dr. C why we couldn’t just do a biopsy and look at what’s inside. He explained that if it is sarcoma and they go in with a needle and cells escape into my muscle – the cancer would become very aggressive and spread very rapidly. So we will be skipping the biopsy and going straight to surgery.
TREATMENT:
They will not know 100% if the tumor is cancerous until they completely remove it. No matter what the tests show the tumor will be removed in basically the same way, which is, it will be cut out by removing all the surrounding muscle and fat. In the slight chance that it is cancerous, the tumor will not be touched until it is completely removed. If the scans show that it is malignant, they will do radiation on the tumor before surgery (this makes the surgery easier) and then remove the tumor. If it is benign – I'll be in physical therapy after surgery. If it is malignant I’m sure that there will be more radiation and treatments.
After all this information was delivered and Dr. Casas left the room, the nurse said to me “You sure are calm and looking pretty cheerful.” I got to tell her that I have a God that is bigger than tumors and that I’m completely taken care of – Praise the Lord!
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