Diana - Osteosarcoma Cancer Treatment

As many of you know, Diana has been challenged with many things in her life, and as a warrior, she has battled hard and overcome. She has an amazing strength, born of her faith in her Savior, Jesus Christ, who has given her the fortitude, intellect, and heart to make it through so much. She was faced with cancer back in 2016, fought with every fiber of her being, and beat it even with the odds stacked against her. In August of this year, cancer reared its ugly head once more, although this time, it was a shock to be informed that it was due to the treatment she received during her last battle. Diana was informed that the cause of this sarcoma is due to the radiation treatment she received during her breast cancer battle and only 1% of this type of cancer is caused by past radiation…another shock to her physically, mentally and emotionally.

This, as you can imagine, was reeling news, however Diana, in complete Diana fashion, took this news and got to work researching, reaching out to MD Anderson doctors and administrators, her oncologist in Stuart and others for direction and the best possible treatment plans for Osteo Sarcoma:

Causes[edit]

Several research groups are investigating cancer stem cells and their potential to cause tumors along with genes and proteins causative in different phenotypes.[4][5][6] Radiotherapy for unrelated conditions may be a rare cause.[7]

Diana began her treatments at UM Sylvester Cancer Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami under Dr. Tom Temple - https://news.med.miami.edu/renowned-sarcoma-specialist-h-thomas-temples-return-elevates-sylvester-orthopaedic-oncology/ . The first step in her treatment included what is known as the “Red Devil” of chemo, Cisplatin and Doxrubin, being administered through a port that had been placed in her jugular vein (we can’t even imagine how that must feel) which stayed there for several months. She began her treatments, driving down from Stuart every few weeks, for a four day stay, enduring the treatments and then the aftermath, which nearly killed her. However, she was not going to allow that to happen, and fought like the warrior she is, until she finally had to put a stop to the last treatment, due to her blood plasma counts being far too low. Unfortunately, this horrible chemo did not even shrink the tumor, and surgery could have been done sooner.

Diana just underwent the very long and tedious surgery to remove the tumor on Wednesday, Nov. 29th, which included removing her scapula, grafting a cadaver scapula, and having reparative surgery on her rotator cuff. She was in the hospital in Miami and was released on Monday, Dec. 4th. Additionally, she is now facing several more rounds of chemo, which must be administered in the hospital in Miami. She will be required to check in for five days each time, doing one round of Methotrexate, staying for monitoring of her vital organs, then be released and return again in 3 weeks for the next dose of IFLEX (Ifosfamide) and again stay 5 days, released for three weeks for her body to recover and then go through this cycle again, for a total of six cycles of these drugs. After the chemo has been completed, she will have at least six months of physical therapy, CT scans every three months for the first 2 years to make sure it has not spread to her lungs, then every four months until she reaches year 5 and PET scans every six months after year 4.

It is super important to Diana, that we all know that early detection is key to cancer survival, therefore she encourages everyone to do your annual mammograms and any other testing available.

As you can imagine, and although she has insurance, these treatments, doctor appointments, hospitalizations and now surgery, additional chemo and physical therapy, have exorbitant costs associated. Diana has been faced with financial hardship, that is not only difficult, but the stress attributed to it, is not healthy either. She will be faced with annual deductibles starting January 1st, so for this reason, her family and friends convinced her to allow us to set up this GoFundMe in a way to give back to her, to assist her, to show her how much we love her, and to help her rebuild her life. We hope that all who read this, will share with others and help us to give this warrior the chance to live and thrive after this very difficult challenge. Should you prefer, you may reach out to her directly at her mobile number for other options to give.