Before This Blog
Prior to starting this blog, about 2 weeks went by before discovering that Chondrosarcoma had taken a “grip” on me. Here’s a time line as best as I can remember and kept track of at the time.
June 1, 2009:
I had an appointment with my regular family Dr. My complaint was that the long time bursitis in my right hip was starting to act up. It was becoming slightly more painful. I had been doing a lot of driving, back and forth to New York City and Boston and I thought this was maybe causing it. Driving long distances often did this. I also complained about some “odd” occasional numbness ,in patches of skin on my right leg. They weren’t there all the time … but sometimes they were.
Dr. Clay, whom by the way is a fantasic Dr., suggested for the sake of throughness, that I see a specialist. He set up an appointment with Dr. Orecchio a New Hampshire Pediatric Neurologist.
I don’t remember the exact date I went to see Dr. Orecchio but it wasn’t long after … maybe 2 weeks to get the appointment. Dr. Orecchio did some testing for muscle and nerve activity. At this point, we’re thinking, pinched nerve, Sciatica something along those lines. After some pretty extensive testing, Dr. Orecchio decides a MRI is in order, and orders the test.
July 29, 2009:
I had an appointment at Springfield Hospital (Springfield, Vt.) for an MRI. Two and half hours inside what I’ll describe as “tuna can”! I didn’t like this test… but I did it. During the test they decided to do the dye tests too … so we started over and did the scans with dye. It was without a doubt, a long miserable test. I was glad it was over and went home waiting for the results.
August 3, 2009:
Dr. Clay called me into his office to talk about the results of the MRI. He told something odd was discovered. Maybe a tumor and ordered a CT Scan/Biopsy. Well that made a lot of sense to me … so we did it. I wasn’t feeling any better, no worse either … but definetly not better.
August 6, 2009:
I go for the CT Scan and they take a biopsy from what we think is some kind of tumor.
August 10, 2009:
We get the results …. its confirmed. I have a rare cancer called Chondrosarcoma. Next, I was put in touch with Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and appointments were set. There was no fooling around.
I’d never heard of Chondrosarcoma, nor did anyone I know. I had to Google it to find out anything else …. well I had no idea what I was in for and where the journey would lead, not only myself, but my family and friends too.
I may have more to add to this page in the future, but at the moment thats the best I can recall the series of events that lead up to the discovery of my cancer. Which was really only clearly diagnosed a week or 10 days ago.
I also recorded the initial conversation with the head surgeon that may be doing this operation. For those of you that would like to listen … here’s a link with all the gory details. Not for the weak at heart. right now I have it in MP3 format … which means people with any mp3 player can listen …. This is a recording with Dr. Sohail Mirza, Professor of Orthopaedis. The quality is not the best (I just haven’t had time to clean it up). In it you will hear me (Bob) Sher, and the Doc.
It’s a large download (55meg) and is about an hour long.
http://www.ahshitbobssick.com/audio/Chondrosarcoma-Discussion-2.mp3
