FACES OF SARCOMA
ON THIS PAGE WE WILL PRINT PHOTOS AND BIOGRAPHYS OF CURRENT PATIENTS, SURVIVORS AND VICTIMS OF SARCOMA. IF YOU WANT TO HAVE YOUR LOVED ONE INCLUDED PLEASE EMAIL US AT:
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HANNAH LOWE
JOSE
Jose, at age 9, brought a lump in a private area to our attention. We were visiting the pediatrician soon so we brought it up to her, she referred us to a urologist. We saw the urologist on Nov 3, 2010 thinking he’d say it was just a bloc ked duct……but no, that did not happen, after the ultrasound we knew that Jose had something more life altering than a blocked duct. He had a tumor, most likely cancerous, and it needd to be removed. Surgery was scheduled for Nov 5th and we got the devesatating news that day that our son had cancer and that most likely is was rhabdomyosarcoma, a soft tissue cancer. Our life was turned upside down, we felt cheated. See our son is adopted by us and we had worked so hard to become parents and now we might lose him to cancer. Well they did all the pathology stuff and by Monday, Nov 8th we knew we were dealing with rhabdo. Now for the treatment plan. My son was fortunate that he was so alert to his body, he was dx a Stage 1, Group 1, had no metasasis, complete clean removal of the tumor. We thought this was a good thing, no chemo right? Wrong, all rhabdo kids must go through chemo, some had to do radiation. Jose was at first given 54 weeks of chemo, no radiation but due to clinical trials done and much research, they were able to assess that due to the staging and grouping of his tumor, he would be reduced to 24 weeks of chemo and still no radiation! We were told that thanks to all the research and all this was much different than even 5 years ago. We were told that his prognosis is very good and they feel that his chances of relapse are extremely low. Fast forward to May 2, 2011, Jose received his last chemo dose. For the next year, he had check ups every 3 months but again due to research on pediatric cancer of this kind, he does not have to endure the scans, he is given xrays and tumor site ultrasounds and blood work. Just this past May, Jose was moved to every 4 month check ups. We are so thankful to his doctors and oncology staff for saving our son’s life and to the researchers and those involved in the clinical trials to improve rhado survival rates.
