Janet's health story

 In August 2021, I was diagnosed with breast cancer metastasis to the bone.  At the time, I had had a couple ribs break with coughing.  I hadn't had any follow-up chest x-rays since moving to Kentucky in September 2016.  I had a breast MRI and it revealed spots on the ribs, where they were broken, and sternum.  A bone scan showed some spots on my spine and iliac.  I had a bone biopsy that confirmed it was the same breast cancer as I had had in 2011.  The oncologist the Lord led us to, Dr. Robert Cody, told us that bone metastasis is incurable, outside of a miracle, but it can go into remission with treatment. He told us then, that the average life span with bone metastasis is 4-6 years.  He assured us the treatment was very expensive, but there were ways to make it affordable.  Before the next appointment, a new drug study became available for my kind of cancer!  Entering this study meant that the bulk of my blood testing, CT and bone scans, medications, and the doctor's visits would be financially covered by the Study!  This was certainly God's good provision for me.  I was in this study for 2 years, having CT and bone scans every 3 months and labs every 4 weeks.  By the following May (2022) the scans showed that the spots of cancer were smaller, stable, or not visible.  I had reached remission!  But the doctor warned, "You can never say 'complete remission'."  I continued with every 3 months' scans looking favorable.  

In May, 2023, I had a knee wrenching experience and tore my right meniscus.  I was in a lot of pain and after staying off it and icing it for days, I began walking again with a cane.  As time went on, I had lymphedema in that leg, was tested for blood clots, and saw an orthopedic for a consultation.  After x-rays, he said that both of my knees were bone on bone, and I should think about knee replacements.  We penciled in a date for that and I started PT exercises to get ready for that happening.  Probably by July, my right knee wasn't the issue as much as my left leg started feeling like it was weak, and was it going to hold me up?  I switched to using the cane to support my left leg, thinking maybe I had overused the muscles to protect my meniscus injury.  I especially used the cane any time I was going to go up or down stairs.  I thought if there was cancer involved in that leg, it would surely show up in the August bone scan.  But after the scan results, there was no information about any cancer sightings.  I continued using the cane on stairs.  

My gait for just walking changed significantly, and it was because I felt like something was going to give way with my left upper leg.  When we went for Mother's funeral, Rowen didn't go in to one of the rest stops, but videoed my walking back from the rest room.  His voice on the recording is saying, "I'm really concerned about Mother's walking.  This is not normal."  My family was very concerned at the funeral about how I was walking.  Marlene told someone else, (not me), "I think Janet has cancer in that leg."  She just told me she was very concerned.  I told her the scan hadn't showed anything.

We got home from the funeral on October 9 in the evening.  I went to work the 10th, 11th, and 12th, and worked like crazy to catch up everything from the 8 days I had missed.  I was almost done catching up by the afternoon of the 12th.  I needed to take a report downstairs, and I started off without my cane.  The first and only time I had forgotten it.  I did not remember I had forgotten it, until I suddenly realized I was on the landing and I had fallen down several of the steps.  I struggled to get to my feet, realizing that my left leg seemed not to be connected to my hip anymore.  Others from nearby offices came when I called and brought a chair to set me on.  They had to lower me to it.  I couldn't bend to sit on my own.  The ambulance was called.  The paramedics had me stand to tie a sheet around me to stabilize the area, started an IV and gave me strong pain meds, then put me on a board and took me down the rest of the stairs (a much longer flight I'm glad I didn't fall down) to the stretcher.  The bumpy 0.5 mile ambulance ride was excruciating, as was the stretcher ride over bumpy tiles into the ER.  Being moved to the ER bed from the gurney, getting x-rays, every movement was excruciating pain.  They gave me lots of IV drugs.  They worked quickly and the effect did not last very long.  This is the x-ray.  It is a spiral break of the upper femur.  One of the worst places and types of break to heal.  The surgeon and radiologist feel the spiral-type of break was caused by the bone strengthening shot I was getting every four weeks.  A spiral bone break is a side effect.  That's so contradictive, and we don't understand, but Dr. Cody did stop having me have those shots after that.

Me before surgery.  I still had my blouse on from coming in the hospital. They put me in a hospital gown right before the surgery, which was the next day.  I was added on to the surgery list to be after number 4 on Friday, October 13.  We asked people to pray that some way I would not have to wait so long for surgery.  I was in terrible pain, especially when the spasms would come and last 15 minutes at a time.  They started giving me muscle relaxer pills too, and that helped.  The last bad spasm I had was between 3 and 3:15 am on Friday morning.  I have never had such horrible pain and I hope I never do again!!  God answered our prayers.  The surgeon, Dr. Denish Thawroni, usually had one operating theater, but on that day, he was assigned two!  They slipped me in to be the second surgery of the day in the second theater.  It was definitely an answer to prayer!

After surgery picture.  The cord around my neck connected to the wound vacuum that was attached to the upper part of the surgery area.  I had much less pain after surgery.  Mainly the pain was when I had to move my leg, to get repositioned or to get up in the chair.  I had to have help to move my leg, because of the pain. This picture I was in a chair.

This is the surgery x-ray of the rod (which they called a nail) which was inserted all the way down my femur, and bolted in place at the top and bottom.  When they were talking to me in the surgery room and telling me what they were going to do, I saw an apparatus that they would put me in to pull my bones back into alignment.  I asked if I could be put to sleep before I was moved over to the surgery table, because being moved hurt so badly.  They said yes, that they were putting me to sleep first.  I was so glad and almost immediately I was asleep!  I am so grateful for surgeons who know how to take care of these kind of breaks.  Before they inserted the rod, they had to drill out part of the bone.  That was sent away for pathology and I got the news a few days later that it was cancer in that area where the break was.  So I knew then, that I had not "fallen down the steps and broken my leg," but that "my leg broke, and I fell down the steps."  I do not know why the cancer was not seen on my scan in August, because it was definitely going on already at that point.

The lower end of the rod above my knee.

Jason came and sat with Rowen during my surgery and when Rowen needed to go home later, Jason brought flowers and chocolate and stayed with me.  I was glad to have someone to share my supper with, because they definitely try to overfeed a person in the hospital.  It was good, but just too much!

Jeffrey and Lesa called and said that they were on their way to come and install a step-in shower for us and to remodel our main bathroom!  We had talked about wanting to do that sometime, especially with all the difficulty I had been having with my legs and knees all summer, but suddenly it was TIME!  They had to drive to Iowa to drop off Preston with Lesa's family 'on the way' to Kentucky from Houston.  Their van was having some problems that were serious, but they prayed it would make it all the way to our driveway and it did.  Then they had it worked on with our mechanic.

This is when they got there Saturday evening, all travel worn.  What sweet and helpful kids we have!!
I had physical therapy in the hospital and by Monday morning had learned how to get in and out of a vehicle, go up and down one step, and get in and out of a flat bed by myself.  I was released to go home, non weight-bearing on the left leg on Monday afternoon.  (The non-weight bearing would extend all the way to January 22, 2024!  But we didn't know that then.) 

After much, much hard and dirty work and a couple weeks, tearing out the main bathroom to the studs of walls and floors, we had a wonderful new bathroom.

The nice sage color is very restful.  There was tile all over most of the walls before, so Jeffrey had a big job tearing it all out, putting up new drywall, insulating the outside walls, which hadn't been before, texturing, and painting.  The floor and flooring is all new.  The mirror he set back into the wall, giving more space above the sink.  Lesa helped with the floor tiling and the painting.  Rowen helped Jeffrey a lot, while Lesa cooked, and entertained me.  We had a lovely time together.

We love it, and the step in shower has been such a huge blessing to us both.  

Jeffrey and Lesa like to write on the walls when they do remodels.  In case anyone ever tears it out in the future, there will be the witness of Christ in the walls.

Lesa combed my dirty hair every day.

We enjoyed having them with us for an extended visit.

Before the bathroom was finished, but the shower was, I finally got to have a shower on the 19th and wash my hair.  It was maybe the longest I had ever gone without a shampoo, because I was due to wash my hair when I took the fall.  It was nice to be able to comb my hair in the normal way again after it was clean.

Elizabeth came over from Bedford to be with us a couple days and brought me her new birthday gift blanket from Emily for me to use and feel loved and cozy.  My dad's cousins, Judy and Mervin Hershberger and Walter and Dorothy Woods, were traveling through from a family reunion and came by to see us on October 21.  It was so wonderful to see them and it meant so much that they went out of their way to come and see me.

Sunday, October 22 was our 40th anniversary.  Jeffrey, Lesa, and Rowen went to church, and Elizabeth stayed home with me.  But we did have an anniversary picture for the record.  How thankful we were that we had done the big celebration in June, instead of October!!  (See the next post for more anniversary weekend pictures.)

Our church family brought us meals every other day for about 3 weeks.  Our neighbors also brought us meals.  Lesa made us something out of sour dough almost every day they were here!  Rowen has become quite a good cook too.  We have been carried by many people's prayers, cards, gifts, and meals.

As long as the weather was nice, Rowen took me on "rides" around the neighborhood block.

He got good exercise from the effort, at least.  I just rode along.  But it gave me a chance to enjoy the fall weather and the sunshine.  He's been a trooper taking over all of the household chores.  I was advised by Dr. Cody to apply for Disability.  So I have done that and am officially retired with Rowen.

I had x-rays on October 30 and December 11, with the instructions to not bear weight, the bone wasn't healed enough.  Finally on January 22, 3 months and 10 days after the break, the x-rays showed 90% healing, and I am allowed to gradually start bearing weight on the left leg, using the walker to walk.  So far, I am so much enjoying putting both feet on the floor and starting to walk again!

Time and space would fail to tell of all God's mercies and His fingerprints we have found in the past four months.  God is good all of the time.  We don't know what the future holds or how long of a future I may have.  I have started on different medicines, since the study drugs had quit working.  Apparently, the drugs will only help for 18-24 months at a time, and then the bone cancer will break through again. I found out in the bone scan in November that I also have bone cancer in my shoulders, in the tops of my humerus bones.  I hope and pray that the new medicines will slow or reverse some of the new cancer.  I got blood clots in my lungs from being mostly immobile after surgery, which started in my legs.  This showed up on the CT scan in November.  So I am on a blood thinner for the rest of my life.  I am thankful for the Foundation that pays for it since it costs over $800/month.  The chemo pill I am on has a cost of $15,000/month.  That is also unaffordable.  So after qualifying us, a Foundation is also providing that free of charge.  The other medicines are within our ability to pay.  We are so blessed! For this we have Jesus and He is proving over and over that He is Enough!