In 2017 on 10/10 I was having a big surgery to remove an extremely rare & very aggressive muscle cancer — Leiomyosarcoma. It is a cancer of the smooth muscle which is everywhere in your body, inside and out.
This type of cancer is usually found in the abdomen. In women, it usually presents around the uterus. It is so slow-growing it’s not normally discovered through symptoms... until it’s progressed.
This type of cancer is known to be unresponsive to traditional treatments such as radiation and chemo. So, it comes with a very poor long-term prognosis when it’s in the abdomen because it’s hard to operate on. Mine presented as a small bump on my shoulder.
Over the years, three different dermatologists in Texas poked the cyst on my shoulder, cut it open, and all three determined it was “just a fatty pocket or cyst”... NEVER sending it for a biopsy. And I didn’t know to ask them to.
Several years went by, and it got more and more painful. It grew to about the size of a dime and began to cause so much pain I’d wake up in the middle of the night crying because it hurt so much.
When we moved away from the big city of Dallas into our lake home in Georgia, I had to find a new dermatologist. Saw him for my normal checkup. He took one look at it and immediately scraped off a sample and said he’s sending it in.
A few days later, I got the call: “I’m so sorry it is cancer - and it is malignant.”
My dermatologist has been practicing for 40+ years and I was only the 3rd Leiomyosarcoma he’s ever seen. One of those people died.
The oncologist said it is rare to have this cancer anyway, but the fact that it presented on my SHOULDER as a VISIBLE TUMOR is uber-rare. He and my husband agreed that I was definitely a unicorn and surgery needed to be very aggressive.
So on 10/10, I had a wide & deep excision to remove the cancer and surrounding tissue down to the muscle + plastic surgery to reconstruct it.
They got it all & it had NOT spread.
10/10.
A year later, I had a hysterectomy, too.
After moving to a tiny lake town in the middle of nowhere, I wound up with...
One of the best dermatologists in the world. One of the best oncologists in the world. One of the best plastic surgeons in the world. One of the best hospitals for oncology in the world. A thriving online business that provided the time freedom for my husband and I to both be home and not worry about missing work.
Tell me God didn’t have a plan.
10/10... He always does.
A couple of big surgeries and some cool looking scars later... and I’m one happy, healthy, thrivin’, cancer survivin’ unicorn! 🦄
PSA: get dermatology checks yearly and NEVER IGNORE ANYTHING ON YOUR BODY THAT IS CHANGING IN SIZE/COLOR... OR PAINFUL!
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