I’m honored to be able to share my daughters story and the not one but two miracles we’ve received! Kadi was just 10 years old when diagnosed with osteoblastic osteosarcoma in April of 2019. Thankfully it had not spread and could be surgically removed, she completed 28 weeks of harsh chemotherapy and had 2/3 of her fibula bone removed leaving her with permanent drop foot. She remained NED (no evidence of disease) for only three short months after treatment ended. In June of 2020 her medical team located a very large tumor in her pelvis and the cancer had infiltrated her lymph nodes in her abdomen. These are the two rarest places for this type of cancer to go. It also changed subtypes from osteoblastic to chondroblastic making it more aggressive and “chemo resistant”. Our only option was to move forward with a harsher chemo regimen in hopes it would shrink the pelvic tumor for removal and eradicate the disease in her lymph nodes. At each scan through treatment the tumor wasn’t shrinking and at one point her orthopedic surgeon said he could remove it but it would render her unable to walk or he’d have to fully amputate from the hip down. Well by Gods amazing grace her surgeon worked tirelessly along side a colleague to find a way to resect the tumor in a way that would give her her mobility back. They had a model of her pelvis and tumor built to practice the surgery several times and then had a group of engineers build a device that would assist with this which was FDA approved for Kadis surgery only. After 13 hours in the operating room, Dr. Cheng came out and told us the surgery was a success!! He was able to fully resect the tumor and Kadi was up walking with a walker 3 days after this major surgery! The best and most miraculous part of this story came one week later when pathology results came in and had determined the tumor was 100% dead! Her entire medical team has said this is unheard of, a tumor that isn’t chemo resistant doesn’t usually respond this well and yet a chemo resistant tumor was entirely dead, no cancer cells to be found!! We’ve been told that due to the nature of her relapse and the rare ways it presented itself that she wouldn’t remain NED for long and absolutely will relapse again but we celebrated 9 months cancer free just three weeks ago and she’s turning 13 on Nov 8th! At one point we didn’t know if she’d be here to turn 13 or if she’d be wheelchair bound and all of our prayers were answered above and beyond what I could have ever imagined. I’ve shared her story with countless families and foundations with the hope that it can give others facing this journey hope and positivity in a very dark and scary time with many unknowns ahead. Thank you for allowing me to share our journey with Osteosarcoma.
With love,
Sarah, Mother to an Amazing Warrior 💛💛
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