My Diagnosis

When I was 16-years-old I noticed a bump on the thigh of my right thigh. I went to the doctor to have it checked out. My doctor informed me that it was just a hemangioma which is an abnormal buildup of blood vessels in the skin. My mother decided that I should have surgery to have it removed. I skipped school on Wednesday to have the surgery and never went back. It turned out the bump was a malignant cancerous tumor.

After a series of MRIs, CT Scans, bone scans, bone marrow aspirations, and blood work it was determined that I had Ewings Sarcoma. In a nutshell Ewings Sarcoma is a rare bone cancer found in the bone or soft tissue. It is most commonly found in adolescent males and is a result of the 11th and 22nd chromosome switching places. You can click here to read more about it on wikipedia.

August 23rd 2003: (two days before the start of my senior year of high school) I was let out of the hospital for my last chemo treatment. (NO cancer in my body!)

October 2008: I went in for my routine yearly check (This was year 5 since my last chemo) Cancer was once again found. This time in both lungs and a large growth on my left diaphragm. Started chemo a few days later.

January 6th 2010: Had major surgery on my left lung and left diaphragm. Removed approx. half of my left lung. Also, removed about half of my left diaphragm replacing it with a  synthetic material. (This unfortunately paralyzed my left diaphragm.)

February 10th 2010: Had major surgery on my right lung. Only a third was removed from the right side.

August 23rd 2010: Had my final chemo treatment of round two. (NO cancer in my body!)

March 18th 2011: During routine cancer check....cancer was found again in my lungs.

April 22nd 2011: GRADUATED FROM BYU WITH A B.A. in Communications
(Despite starting chemo the day before Final week began...I still passed all my classes.)

July 7th 2011: Surgery on my heart due to paricardiocentesis....pictures here

August 28th 2011: Started Graduate School at BYU in Mass Communications

September 15th 2011: Blood showed my platelet count to be 0!  Then during the next 5 days I had 7 platelet transfusions and 3 blood transfusions. Including 4 trips to the E.R. and one night of hospitalization.

December 2012: Tests show a 1.1 cm nodule on the left lobe of my thyroid.

April 16, 2013: Had my 13th surgery: my entire thyroid was removed due to the nodule being 77% cancerously suspicious.

April 22, 2013: Received biopsy results of thyroid nodule: It was papillary thyroid cancer.