About a year ago, the lovely Mrs. Striker started having some pain in her foot, below the inside of her ankle. she had not remembered twisting it or anything, but she thought maybe since she was doing so much walking in flats for her new job, it was just getting sore from the lack of support. Some ibuprofen for a couple weeks and resting it seemed to do the trick, however, it still bothered her when she jogged, walked distance, etc over the summer, so she thought maybe she just had some plantar fasciitis.
Late fall, she started having the same pains again, same place, and OTC meds were not doing the trick. She saw her regular GP, and she thought it was just a strain. After it went a few weeks without getting better, I started haranguing her to go to an orthopedist. She’s an awful patient (part of her being a nurse), so it took her a few more weeks of doing this, so we are in late January/ earl February by now. Ortho does X-rays, general exam, and finds some swelling, and an impingement caused by a bone spur, prescribes PT and some stretches, as well as a cortisone shot. Mrs. S. gets the shot, which really does nothing for her, and does PT for a couple weeks, which only makes the pain and swelling worse. Ortho also mentions that when she gave her the shot, she noticed some cystic fluid in the return of the shot, and mentioned that the wife may have a ganglion cyst in her foot as well.
Mrs. S. finally has had enough of no progress with PT and stretches, goes back to ortho for MRI. Upon getting MRI back, ortho tells wife that what they found is not something a normal ortho would deal with, and refers her to an orthopedic oncologist. Of course we start freaking out a bit, because well, it’s an oncologist, but come to find out that this guy also does some regular orthopedic work, as well as cyst removal. Referral happens on Tuesday, and Thursday we are in his office with his PA. PA pulls up the MRI and X-Ray, then calls for oncologist and his resident. No one quite knows what they are looking at. Recommendation for biopsy Saturday morning… the same Saturday that we were going to be an hour away at a B&B for our anniversary weekend.
we decide we’ll just make the best of it, since biopsy will only take a few hours, and go through with it, rather than waiting and not knowing. Incision biopsy happens Saturday morning, should get results by the following Tuesday according to the O/O. Tuesday comes and goes, and nothing… Wednesday, Mrs. S. calls O/O’s office, and they say nothing yet, probably tomorrow evening. Thursday night around 9 p.m., O/O calls from his family vacation in Utah with preliminary results: Myxoid Chondrosarcoma, malignant tumor in the foot.
What’s a myxiod chondrosarcoma you ask? Well, since you asked, chondrosarcomas are malignant tumors that generally form on connective tissues in the bone, and though they are the second most diagnosed form of bone cancers, their are only about 600 people diagnosed with them in the US p/year. About 2% of these are the myxoid type, so 12 people p/year. Yay for her being special. unfortunately, this means that there isn’t much out on the interwebs about this type, what to expect, etc. First action was a chest CT and bone scan, since (from what we can gather) common areas for this to metastasize to are ribs and lungs, though (from what we can gather) this is not common for tumors that are not in proximal location to the chest. This was done last Friday.
It appears that primary treatment for these things is wide margin resection of the affected area, or basically cutting the thing out, and a good chunk of the tissues around it. The O/O said it did appear to have eroded her heel bone, so we’re not sure what this means for possible resection options, though he did mention amputation was a possible outcome. For a sandal, shoe, and pedicure fiend like Mrs. S., this is adding insult to injury. So now are we not only looking at cancer treatment, but this includes doctors who specialize in limb salvage as well, which is a particularly gruesome term to me.
At this point, our best hope is that it has not spread, and that the surgery will be curative (high survivorship rate if it has not spread). Unfortunately, we are kind of stuck in limbo waiting, because of delays in getting scan results, which sucks. So, or course, every possible worst case scenario is going through our heads. I’m worried about her health, she’s worried about my mental state (just recently diagnosed with major depression), and we’re both worried about the kiddos. Basically, this all sucks pretty hard.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, neither of us has had to deal with this before, so we are kind of flying blind. We’ve told the kids, we’ve told family and friends, and we’ve started the carepages page for her. The waiting sucks. The not knowing sucks. the fear, confusion, and pain all suck. The not knowing what to expect next sucks. We never thought we would have to go through this, especially with her, because she isn’t a smoker, drinker, etc. Our heads are still swimming and we are at a loss right now, so any advice you may be able to lend on how to handle this would be tremendously appreciated. Thanks for reading this.