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>> I'm 27.
I work out a lot,
I had some knee pain for a while and some swelling.
I thought just something was wrong,
I might have pulled something,
so I did some stuff on my own, tried to take care of it.
I had really never been sick before,
I'd never broken a bone,
you're young and healthy.
I got an MRI done then
the next day I found out that I had osteosarcoma.
It was just so unexpected.
You hear the word cancer and your mind goes blank,
and everything just move so quickly that
your reaction is just survivor mode.
You just work on getting done what needs to be done.
The processing of that actual diagnosis comes
later when you have more time to think about it,
and when you're really going through it, you start to realize
what the diagnosis actually means
and how it's going to impact your life.
I had 10 weeks of
in-patient chemo treatment,
then I got some bad news.
My tumor hadn't responded very well
to the chemo treatments I'd been getting in the hospital.
That meant that an amputation would be
the safest course of action after that.
It was devastating to get that news.
I thought the cancer diagnosis was life-changing but then having
this decision thrown at me was even more life-changing.
I think truly probably the biggest
moment and the hardest decision I've ever had to make.
It took a lot of crying and talking to a lot of people and
overcoming some denial about what was
happening before I could really make that choice.
The will to walk again was so strong and I just knew that
anything that was going to help me
get to that goal of being able to walk again,
dance again, was going to be the best option for me
and whatever is going to be the safest to keep my cancer away.
I was someone who didn't like going to
the doctor before all of this happened.
I learned very quickly that your doctors are there to help,
so communicating with them
about everything that is going on and what
your thinking is the most important thing you can
do because they don't know
what you're thinking until you told them.
Their goal is to get me healthier,
so seeing them as more of
a resource was the biggest mindset change I had to make.
There's also a confusing world figuring out insurance.
Luckily, the staff and doctors at Sibley were
so helpful and truly went above and
beyond in helping me navigate all of that.
Some staff helped me figure out appointments or I had
staff who would walk me all the way to
the car and make sure I got in the car at the end of my treatment.
It was that connection that I had with a lot of staff members and
really forming bonds with my nurses while I was in the hospital,
and communicating with my doctors helped me figure out
a lot of what needed to happen,
or just made me feel comfortable too.
I went through a pretty rough period,
I decided to seek out therapy treatment and that really
helped me process everything that was going
on and how to move forward helpfully.
I think that helped turn the page and turn
a corner than just feeling much more interested in seeing friends.
I ended up using my support system for everything I would,
bounce ideas off of people,
I had FaceTimes with friends lined up
all the time when I was in the hospital or at home,
so it was great to have their support through everything.
After only seven months of dating Cliff, my partner,
we found out that I had cancer, and due to COVID,
my family wasn't able to come visit,
so Cliff became really my major support here.
With all of the trips I needed to
the hospital, he became my caretaker.
It feels like we've almost put like
five years of our relationship into the last year,
we worked through so many things
together and that's really brought us closer together.
Sarcoma is cancer that you really have to fight through and it
will take a lot of your effort and
mind space and everything to get through.
It's been hard as a young person to feel
almost like you have to
take a break from how the world is progressing,
but it's so important for you to focus on yourself.
Always looking forward really helped me think
about just taking one more step that would get me
closer to going back to the office
or walking up the mountain with my friends.
Whatever it was that I wanted to
do at the end of this I just thought about,
and the next day got me another day closer to that.
Looking forward, keeping optimistic,
and really just taking things one day at a time,
those were my key strategies for getting through this.
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