Going on 11 years with Chondrosarcoma Cancer. Sux!

Mducci

Hi all. I am new to this website although I'm not new to having cancer! I was told I had cancer in 2001. The past ten years have been very crazy. I have had six surgeries and three years of chemo. The Chondrosarcoma start out as a lump on my right shoulder blade. In 2001 I had my first surgery to remove the timer that was sitting on my right scapula. The doctor removed half of the scapula and half the muscle. One year to the day later I had my second surgery to remove another lump in the same spot. The doctor removed the rest of the scapula and muscle and put in a prostetic scapula. I was told at the time that there was only a one percent chance that the cancer would come back, and I guess I was that one percent. Then a year later I had my third surgery and this time it was on my lungs. The doctor opened me up from the front and worked on both lungs removing a total of 30 tumors. Now after my second surgery I was told that there was only a one percent chance that the cancer would spread and it did. Over the next four or five years I would have three more surgeries on my lungs. These three surgeries where done by going in through my back spreading my ribs apart. These were very painful surgeries. During those five years I did a year or two of chemo as well. Even though the doctors kept saying that chemo and radiation don't work on my type of cancer. Which I guess they were right because they didn't work. Even though this was the case I still tried another year of chemo, which all of them were experimental because I'm not the type of person to give up, never will! I am currently down to a quarter of my right lung left and three quarters of my left lung left, a total of one lung I guess you could say. I still have tumors in both lungs, about four in my right lung and five in my left. The are all ranging from about and inch to two and a half inches in size. Just about everthing makes me out of breath and yet I still go to work every day. Like I said I'm not a quitter. About a year and a half ago I asked my doctor how long I had left and he said that at the rate the tumors were growing it would be two or three years, if nothing came out. Just a month ago I had a CAT scan and a bunch of my tumors doubled in size in just six months, that was the time in-between CAT scans. Also on that CAT scan it showed a new lump on my left breast. It has doubled in size in the month since the CAT scan. I am getting an ultrasound and maybe a mammogram tomorrow at lunch. I also found a few other lumps two on my back and another on my stomach near my belt line. How rare is it for people to get two types of cancer? Oh I forgot to mention that I got diagnosed with cancer six months before I got married. So my wife and I are whole married life have only known how to cope, deal, and be stressed out by cancer. I really wish I could have given my wife a better marriage. She has been the best care giver, wife, friend I could have ever hoped for. I decided to post tonight because I was looking up on google how rare it is to have two types of cancer and ce acrossed this site and all the post looked really nice and it would be cool to tell my story and see what people thought. I would love to hear comments. Thanks everyone.

I did forget to mention that on Dec. 14th of 2010 I was jumped by a flash mob of 20 kids walking on my way home from work in center city Philadelphia. They split my head open from front to back and I had to have surgery to fix it where they gave me 16 stiches. They pushed my head into the frame of a business window and it basicly scalped me. When it happened I put my hand on the injury and I could feel my skull. The police said that it was a good thing I didn't pass out or fall down because it could have gotten worse. As soon as it happened and I put my hand on it, the blood poured down my face, I started screaming for someone to call 911 and that's when the mob took off running. They didn't rob me either. They just did it for fun I guess. I was in the hospital for four days do to this. Seems like there is a black cloud following me and I can't get rid of it.

To find out more on my story my wife has started a blog. Please read and feel free to post. Would love to hear what people think.

http://mylifethegoodbadandugly.blogspot.com/

Mike Narducci

KristynRuth86

Sorry
I'm usually in the head and neck forum, but I decided to take a glance around other forums. Yours is the first I've read outside of H&N. I just wanted to say I am so sorry for all your misfortune. It inspires me that you are not a quitter and I'm glad you're continuing on with your life as much as possible. It's just a new normal you have to adjust to. Keep moving forward!
Lots of Love,
Kristyn