The Beginning of the Cancer Journey

I have suffered from low back pain my whole life but approximately six months ago I started having a lot more pain than normal. I had several months of physical therapy but that did very little to help. I was in a regular checkup visit with my primary care doctor Rachel Hobbs, who is amazing, and told her of my back pain. Knowing I had been through some physical therapy she ordered an MRI. Unfortunately, my insurance said they would not pay for one until I had been through six months of physical therapy with no improvement. So, I had to forgo the MRI as I could not afford to pay for it myself.

The pain, however, was getting worse to the point that the front of my right thigh was numb almost all the time and sometimes I would have an excruciating pain that felt like someone was putting a hot iron on my leg. After some coaxing from Sherrie and inspiration of the spirit, I found a facility that could do the MRI for less so I went for it. They said I would have the results within 24 hours. This was in the afternoon of Tuesday, December 3^rd. By noon the next day, I received a phone call from my doctor's office indicating that she wanted to go over the results with me on Friday the 13^th at 2:15 pm/ This seemed a little odd that she wanted to review the results so quickly. But it became scary when the nurse said “Bring your wife with you”.

We were now seriously worried about what the results might be. In addition, they called Thursday morning and said they had a cancellation and Dr. Hobbs wanted us to come then. Needless to say, this only increased our worry.

After a few pleasantries, Doctor Hobbs pulled out the MRI report and began to read “Numerous T2 hyperintense round lesions within the osseous skeleton involving the vertebral bodies as well as the spinous processes and transverse processes. Similar in appearance to the sacrum and iliac wings. These vary in size with the largest measuring 3 cm within the L4 vertebral body.” She then interpreted the medical language. She said you have Cancer all over your spine, pelvis, and sacrum. However, we don’t know where it is coming from so, we don’t know what type of cancer it is. Several times she said you have cancer.

We spent the next few minutes in tears and disbelief CANCER? And not just cancer but a cancer that has spread from its original location to other parts of the body. So, we asked what was next. She indicated she would refer us to Huntsman Cancer Institute, and she would order CT scans of my head, chest, and abdomen. So, the waiting began.