Sarcoma in the news

So I was reading a yahoo headline that caught my eye. A young football player is diagnosed with cancer. Curious as to what type of cancer he has, I clicked on the link. To my surprise, it was Ewing's Sarcoma, which is a type of sarcoma. More common than the one I have, which is epithiloid spindle cell sarcoma (a mouthful, I know!). Anyway, here is the article if anyone is interested.


Thu May 14, 2009 2:32 pm EDT

Breaking: All-American Herzlich diagnosed with cancer
By Matt Hinton

Even for relatively diehard fans, it might have been possible to get through the last couple seasons knowing Mark Herzlich only as "the guy with the crazy facepaint," but that would be missing the lead: The 6'4", 240-pound Boston College linebacker was the defensive player of the year in a conference that had six defenders picked in the first two rounds of this year's draft, and might have joined teammate B.J. Raji in the top-10 if he hadn't decided to come back for his senior season at B.C.

Pray today, then, that the football chapter of Herzlich's story isn't closed after the sure-fire All-American disclosed that he's been diagnosed with cancer:

Boston College senior linebacker Mark Herzlich disclosed today that he has been diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma, a malignant tumor most often found in bone or soft tissue.

The following is a statement from Herzlich:

"This past week, I got some news nobody wants to hear. After undergoing some tests to determine the cause of some pain I had been experiencing in my leg, I learned that I have Ewing's Sarcoma.

"Obviously, I was shocked. I had been extremely focused on preparing for my senior season at Boston College and for life beyond that. Now, I must channel all that energy into facing my toughest opponent yet, and that is exactly what I will do.
[...]
"At this point, I do not know what this means for my football future, but I am determined to rid my body of this disease so that I can put that uniform back on. Thank you in advance for your prayers and concern. Together, we will fight this and win."
I'm not that kind of doctor, but I assume "cancer" and "bone" in the same sentence is always, literally, deathly serious news; for Ewing's Sarcoma, the prognosis depends on a variety of factors, but five-year survival rates if the diagnosis is made fairly early are as high as 80 percent.


There are a few, well known cancer hospitals in the north, so hopefully he will be treated by someone familiar with sarcomas, as it is a different, difficult cancer to treat.

Anyway, now that I have brought you down, I will end this post. :) I did add my most recent "bump" picture to the album if anyone is interested. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Latest update

I had another appointment with my regular OB on Wednesday. Everything looks great. I actually gained about 4 pounds, so my doctor was happy with that. We heard the heartbeat and it sounded nice and strong. We didn't get any new ultrasound pictures then, but at work that night, I was working with a nurse that used to work in Labor and Delivery, so she offered to do an ultrasound on me. Of course I said yes! So I got some pictures anyway! The baby was not moving very much, so we couldn't tell the gender, but it was nice to see the baby anyway. We got a few decent shots (remember, she's not a pro at this!) and I will have Jeff scan those in sometime soon and post them.

I have 2 new baby bump pictures if anyone is interested. Just follow the same link as before.

Baby Bump

I know that some of you may be interested in seeing my progression and how big I am getting. And some of you may not. So I will post a link to my pictures so you can choose to go there or not. I'm filling out and not really fitting into my regular clothes anymore. I haven't gained much weight, just my stomach is getting bigger. Hopefully, I won't be too gigantic by the end of it all, but we'll see. So here is the link if any of you are interested.

Baby Bump

First big baby purchase

I have been looking at the GMC Acadia's for awhile now. I really like the way they look and we've been thinking that we should probably get a bigger mode of transportation sometime in the near future so we can carry our expanding family. So last Saturday Jeff and I went to "test drive" some cars, specifically the Chevy Traverse and the GMC Acadia. Jeff said to me that morning, "We're not buying a car today, I just want to compare the two and see how they drive." Famous last words! We went to the Chevy dealership first and drove the Traverse. It was pretty nice and we liked it, but that particular dealership was not going to deal with us (we figured this out since they are preordering the 2010 Camaro's at $5,000 over MSRP and not really caring about the customer). So we left and headed to the GMC dealership. We drove the Acadia and really liked it. It was pricier than the Chevy version, but there were a few things on it that were better. And they had a lot of them on the lot and were itching to get rid of them. So after a long day of driving and negotiating, we drove home with this:



It has all the bells and whistles on it, which we don't really need, but it was sitting on the lot and we got a really, really good deal on it. Jeff was excited to get rid of the truck, but will now have to wait on getting his new camaro. I think he will survive, though! He is loving the power windows since his truck didn't have them! Here are a few more pics. Not that great since I took them, but you get the idea...

Good Cause

I was watching Oprah the other day and she had a show about child predators and how we can help catch them. John Walsh was on (the guy from America's Most Wanted). His 6 year old boy was kidnapped and murdered almost 27 years ago and that's why he is so passionate about catching bad guys. He had a bill passed a couple of years ago that established a National Sex Offender Registry (instead of each state having their own laws and the criminals being able to jump states before serving any time). The bill is in danger of expiring in July, so they are encouraging everyone to write their senators and congressmen to put the law back into effect before it expires. They have made it super easy to do. Just follow the link and you can find your states representatives, their email addresses and also a letter already written for you. Just cut and past and add your name and the reps name. I did it and it took less than 5 minutes! Please help protect our children by sending a letter.

http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20090220-tows-adam-walsh-act

Results

Good news! Nothing new showed up on xray or ultrasound. Will go back in July for another check up. But just a chest xray and bloodwork, probably do my leg every 6 months.

Checkup

Today I had my checkups at MD Anderson. My doctor wanted to wait until after my first trimester to do any scans, so here we are. I had a chest xray, blood work and an ultrasound of my leg. I didn't have to stay all day (like I usually do if I have CT scans or MRI's), so that was good. I convinced the girl doing my leg ultrasound to do a quick scan of the baby and she was happy to do so! The equipment is not as high tech as the one in the high risk doctor's office, but everything looked fine as far as she could tell. The little heart was beating away and the baby was flipping all around. Still very tiny (I'm 14 weeks today), and still with Alien face. ;) But in a few weeks, that will all change. I'm still feeling good. I'm starting to outgrow some of my clothes, but you still can't really tell I'm pregnant unless you know. I'm sure in a few weeks I'll start to pop out. I may post a picture then, we'll see! But that's about all that's going on. Had a quick trip to Fredericksburg/Austin last weekend so we missed the "non-hurricane" hurricane like weather. I'm glad since I would have freaked out watching the water come closer and closer to my doorstep. (We have a drainage problem on our street). We came back to blue skies and warmth. Perfect! I see my doctor tomorrow for the results of the tests I took today. I'm not worried about the ultrasound, just a little worried about chest xray. We're praying nothing shows up. I'll post tomorrow and let you know.

TTFN!