Support Adriane's Recovery from Kicking Cancer's Ass

Scott and I have been friends for over 33 years, and I instantly adored Adriane when I first met her 7 years ago. I was lucky to be able to attend their wedding less than 3 years ago.

These two fantastic people have hit a horrific bump in the road:

As you may know, Adriane has been struggling with severe pain in her left leg for several months now.

Initially, we thought it was a torn meniscus or labrum. X-Rays showed no arthritis. It didn’t really present like sciatica. Many weeks passed before she was able to get an MRI on her knee — it showed nothing. Meanwhile, she hobbled about with a cane. PT made it worse and was quickly discontinued. She switched to crutches. Many more weeks later, another MRI on her hip showed... “something.” And it was a “something” the orthopedist didn’t like the looks of, so he referred her to Mass General.

Now, being referred to Boston is not typically a sign that everything is hunky dory. Indeed, after blood tests, a CT scan, and a biopsy (all in one week!) we finally found out, after 4 months, what was wrong:

There was a mass — sarcoma — on the top of her femur in the hip socket. At 4cm, it’s big enough to cause a lot of pain, and as luck would have it, it’s actually a rare type of bone cancer. In fact, it is the rarest of the rare.

The doctors at Mass General quickly came together to make a plan.

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The plan of attack they devised is two-pronged:

1. Surgery to remove the sarcoma.

2. Make sure all of any remaining sarcoma is dead and gone before it gets any more comfortable.

Chemotherapy will commence sometime soon after the surgery.

On May 29, Adriane endured 5 hours in surgery. They removed a big part of her femur/hip and replaced it with titanium. It was a grueling and painful procedure. They believe they have removed all of the sarcoma. She is still in recovery and facing many long months of physical therapy and cancer treatments.

Just this first round of treatment has proven quite costly. Missed work, travel, hotels, meals, etc. adds up quickly. This is going to be a long haul- at least through the end of this year. They are going to need the support of all of us in their community to get through this.