Eli's Diagnosis

Where do I even begin? No parent expects something like this to happen to your own kid. You selfishly think that something like this can't and won't happen to you. I've spent most of this summer as a parent worrying about my youngest getting his driver's license and being out on the road without me. I never thought in my wildest fears that we would be staring down the ugly face of a cancer diagnosis. I've been shocked, angry and now determined to do whatever we can do get him the best care and support possible.

This is Eli. He's 16. He loves baseball, his friends, his car and his girlfriend. He grew up playing every sport he could: baseball, golf, football, soccer, basketball. 

Eli finished his sophomore year of baseball in July and enjoyed the rest of the summer golfing with his friends and making memories with his girlfriend, Riley, who he has been dating for almost two years. He got his driver's license and a new car this summer and his junior year started off great. 

By the end of August he started complaining that his right knee was sore. We asked him if he remembered doing anything to it and then recommended that he rest and ice it. He said that it hurt off and on, but only doing some activities and not others. He was still able to play dodgeball in one of his favorite classes, Lifetime Sports.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago where he started wearing a knee brace for extra support and compression and taking ibuprofen before school. He texted me Monday 9/30 and asked if he could come home because it hurt to walk and it was throbbing. The pain had started keeping him up at night, so I made an appointment for Thursday 10/3 at the sports med institute that had treated him for a back injury the year before (spondylolisthesis) and while we waited for that appointment, I took him to a walk-in sports clinic the following day, 10/1. They took x-rays and assessed his knee, noting that it was slightly swollen with fluid on the knee. They decided to aspirate to get a head start on testing and recommended that we see our pediatrician immediately to do bloodwork to rule out infection and check for lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, lyme disease. 

The blood results started trickling in the next day and loaded in to his online chart. Every test came back within normal limits and every result was textbook. His pediatrician called me on her way home to let me know that there was no infection and that they didn't see any reason for the culture to come back with any bacterial growth.

The next day 10/3, we met with the sports med physician, who wanted to take another xray further up Eli's thigh and hip bone. He returned after reading the results and informed us that the hip scan looked good, but that it was his opinion that this was a bone tumor and that we needed to get in for an MRI as soon as possible. His staff was nothing short of amazing at jumping on this super quick and getting us an emergency MRI about 45 min away for the following morning. 

Friday we headed to the MRI and struggled getting Eli's chain off :) It was stuck around his neck so they did the MRI anyway and would stop if it started to heat up. Fortunately, it wasn't magnetic. We cut it off over the weekend. Maybe I'll turn it into a bracelet. He had to get an IV so they could do the scan with and without contrast. After 1.5 hours they sent us on our way and Eli was starving so we headed to In N Out. I got a call from his physician's office about 20 minutes later that the MRI showed that Eli has osteosarcoma. I knew from my internet searches the night before that this was bone cancer. He advised that we needed to move quickly and that this kind of cancer is aggressive and his office would be scheduling a CT scan and bone scan for Monday morning. I got off the phone with tears streaming down my face and I looked at Eli and told him that I was so sorry. He said, "mama, I'll be okay. I'm going to be fine. Don't worry about me, it's okay." And then he ate two double cheeseburgers and begged me to eat something too.

The weekend passed with spending a lot of time with Eli on the couch. It's October and baseball playoffs were a nice distraction. My daughter's boyfriend's family sent over dinner for us on Sunday, which was super kind and most amazing enchiladas ever. The waiting over the weekend was the hardest part, but we got through it together and braced ourselves for Monday.