Osteosarcoma p2

                  PART 2

After several weeks of agony and frustration, a doctor came and informed me that I would be taken to the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham (ROH from herein) for a biopsy, “for a biopsy of what” I asked, “of your Femur” he replied, the team had reviewed your X-rays and think your bone was weakened with a cist, this is why it broke so easily, it would also rule out anything else that would have caused the break.

The next day I was shuttled to the ROH, the day after I went to surgery for the biopsy and shuttled back to the manor hospital (my local). I spent the next few days asking questions and talking to other patients on the ward about their experiences, although I had a broken femur, I felt so lucky looking and hearing the stories about other patients.

7 days passed and finally the doctor came to give me the results, “Mr Birch” he's said softly, the results have come back and unfortunately they are inconclusive, as I understood what that meant I simply asked him what happens now then? “well we have been in contact with Professor Abudu at the ROH” he said, he and his team think it's a benign cist that weakened the bone, because you have been laying in pain for 5 weeks he is going to operate, this would be a plate fixation to hold the two fractured bones together, usually with around 12 screws. All I wanted at this point was for it to be dealt with, I had already lost over 2st in weight.

October 3rd 2021 came around and I was transported to the ROH, I met with the professor who was kind and compassionate to my case, the operation would take place tomorrow 4th. Believe me I was so ready for this to be over.

Nurses and a porter took me to theatre around 10.45 am that morning, I woke up in recovery at 15.20pm, not being able to feel my leg or any pain, I took a quick glance under the blanket to see my leg heavily bandaged, with wires and tubes coming out of it.

Later that day Mr Abudu as promised came to my bedside and said “we have fixed your femur with a plate and screws,” “we have also scraped out the bone and sent it for biopsy.” the team at this point think that indeed it does look like a benign cist, “focus yourself on recovery and the pathology will call you to give you the results in around 14 days.” taking on board what he had said and that he must have seen this hundreds of times, i trusted his comment and did exactly that.

The next day the dreaded Physio team entered my room, “its time to sit out in your chair David” he said, “remember you are non weight bearing,” I managed to get out and sit in the chair for about 30 minutes before the pain kicked in.

As you can see by this time I'm starting to look like grizzly Adams!

Day 21 came (post op) along and it's the dreaded removal of the staple

Trust me when I say it was pretty darn uncomfortable to say the least. Doctors had suggested I could go home in a few days and sent occupational therapy to see me, they asked me if I had arranged everything at home, a downstairs bed as I wouldn't be climbing stairs for some time, a downstairs toilet, a resting chair and somewhere to wash. My wife had arranged all this whilst I was in hospital, even though she has health problems of her own she came good AGAIN! There had been a gofundme set up for me that really helped with the cost incurred doing all the above, the kindness of others is overwhelming at times, and I can't thank each and every donor enough for making my life so much easier, as you can imagine, my savings had gone, and I had to sell my car to make ends meet, I had not planned to spend my savings on equipment, travel and other necessities, but as you all well know life doesn't always play out as we want it to.

Part 3 to follow.