My name is Natalie Schlegelmilch, I am 32 years old and today (Friday the 13th of May) my general surgeon called and said my biopsy came back with preliminary results of Sarcoma. Maybe I should start at the beginning.
About 2-3 months ago my 2 yr old son was bouncing on my leg and it was painful. I said to him "Dietrich you have a bony butt" (the only reason he was bouncing on my left leg was because I had just had surgery on my right knee). About 1 week later he was doing the same thing and I thought to myself that can't be, he has diapers on, how would i feel his bony but. About a week later i noticed there was a bump on my thigh, i figured i just had bruised it in some way, but I started to notice it not going away. I had to go into my family practice doctor and I happened to mention it to him and he said "it's probably just a lipoma, but i don't want to take it out because it's in your thigh. You should probably see General Surgery". Well I finally decided to make an appointment, which I delayed for a couple of weeks because my son had to have an orchiopexy and hernia repair (afterall our kids come first right?)
I finally went to see my general surgeon Dr. Tim Cole (who I would recommend to anyone, anytime) on May 5th. After talking with his Nurse Practitioner and Dr. Cole who both thought it was a lipoma Dr. Cole suggested that I have an MRI of my thigh done because he wanted to make sure where it was at. He said that if it was to deep or muscles were involved that he would have my Orthopedic Surgeon take it out. I went in on Friday May 6th and had an MRI (which was extremely painful, because they had to wrap my leg up and pressure on my leg is what is the most pain). I didn't even think about the results over the weekend. On Monday May 9th Dr Coles nurse Jessica called me and said "they're not sure what it is, they want to do a CT guided biopsy".
When I heard this sentence, I knew it was cancer. You should know that I was a medical assistant and a family practice office for 10 years. The sentence Jessica said to me is exactly what I would of said to someone when we didnt' like the results, but don't want to tell someone without definitive diagnosis. I think I said it 50+ times over the 10 years, luckily they were wrong on a lot of them.
I went in on Thursday May 12th to have my scheduled CT guided biopsy (my good friend Roxie took me). While I was waiting for the procedure to begin I asked the nurse if I could get a copy of my MRI results, it took awhile but I got them, and i didnt' like them. The impression was "concerning for neoplasm". That just confirmed what I had thought in my head, it's a tumor (when you read that, think of Arnolds voice in Kindergarten cop). Right after reading it I get a text message from Dr. Heather Fago saying "todd is trying to call you' (Dr. Todd Fago is my family practitioner). Dr. Todd called and said "I don't like this, this is not what I was expecting". If that doesn't reassure you, i don't know what will (sense the sarcasam).
Like all hospitals/clinics they were running behind, so my 10:30 procedure started at noon (oh well, what am I going to do complain?). When I got in the room the interventional radiologist Dr. Budler said that we could do it via ultrasound because he thought he could get enough sample. He got 5 different samples. After waiting for 2 hours after the procedure I was able to go home. The worst part about the whole thing was that I couldn't get out of bed for 2 hours after the procedure (not even to go to the bathroom), and they're pumping me full of fluids. The most pain i had with the procedure was my bladder!
So I went to work (I work as an office manager at a manufacturing company in Nebraska) on Friday May 13th. I spoke with Jessica (Dr. Coles nurse) first thing in the morning, just asking her that if she sees the biopsy results to call me right away and dont' BS me with what they say (like I said I worked in the medical field for 10 years. Nurses are great at being vague, and even better at non reactions (until you walk out of the room and snicker to yourself)). About 10:00 my cell phone rings and I notice that it's Dr. Coles office number. When I answer I hear "Natalie it's Dr. Cole", i thought to myself F***. No doctor ever calls unless it's bad news. He starts out the conversation asking me how the procedure went, you know small chit chat. He then says "I got a note from pathology and preliminary results say Sarcoma. We had to send the pathology on to Mayo Clinic. Our pathologists dont' see it enough to get a definitive diagnosis." He then went on to explain that theres a chance (albeit a small one) that it could come back something rare and benign, but dont' get my hopes up because he doesn't think that will happen". He told me he would call me as soon as he got all of the stuff back and we would then go from there on treatment/surgery options.
At first I started to cry, but then I thought...Why? Nothing you can do to change it except look forward and beat it. My motto has always been Prepare for the worst hope for the best. You have to understand that I am an extreme type A personality (ask my younger sister Ashley, it drives her crazy). I need to control every minute of my day (especially on trips, don't mess with my schedule). My older sister Celeste even once gave me a clipboard and whistle! Maybe this is gods way of telling me "you're not in control I am". Although I'm not afraid to admit it I am questioning my religion a little at this time.
