Julie's Story
Donation protected
For 34 years my husband, Tony, and I have lived a fairly comfortable life. Last year we bought a beautiful new home and have settled into our community. This year his company demoted him and docked him 10k. Then they basically squeezed him out of his job...gave him crummy shifts and little to no support. It wasn't lightly that he chose to quit his job of 15 years. We are extremely grateful for the job he has now but he is working at about 50% of what he was making in his old job.
Then I hurt my shoulder. At first it was a workers comp claim. I stopped working as of September 24th, the day of injury. I then caught a bad head cold and stayed home a week. My doctor was facing family problems of his own so it took me awhile to get in to see anyone. I finally got in to see an orthopedic doctor and he took x-rays.
On the x-rays it looked like the shoulder-end of my collar bone was fractured. We thought that weird since I only massage for a living and had not fallen on it. He ordered an MRI. He told me that it would be straight diagnostic, no contrast. That was done on October 14. The radiologist that ran the MRI said they needed to add contrast to highlight something in my shoulder. It made me wonder. (I note the timeline as I think that the speed of the timing is important.)
On the 16th I got a call from my primary care doctors office to say that the orthopedic doctor was going to be out of the office all of the next week and my doctor had an opening that day. The MRI results had scary words like mass and metastatic lymph node and metasteses and lesions. My doctor referred me to an Oncologist.
Tony and I went to see him on Monday October 19th and he went over the MRI with us in a little more detail and then ordered a PET scan. (In a PET scan they inject you with a sucrose solution and you wait for it to spread throughout your body. Then in the scan, it lights up everything that is cancerous.) I had the PET scan on October 21st. We talked to the doctor on the 22 and got the results then.
The results were that I have cancer in my right shoulder, on the head of my right humerous (arm bone), on my vertebrae, on my pelvis, and on both sides of my SI (SacroIliac) Joint. I will have a biopsy which will tell us whether it is benign or malignant and the stage it's in and what type of cancer it is. Right now they're not sure. But even as it is, I will be racking up bills and more bills. I am only able to do massage at home sporadically as there are days when I can barely move due to the amount of pain I'm in. I would really just like to be able to pay my mortgage and my bills. And maybe take an occasional trip to the beach to unwind. Thank you for thinking of me.
Julie
Then I hurt my shoulder. At first it was a workers comp claim. I stopped working as of September 24th, the day of injury. I then caught a bad head cold and stayed home a week. My doctor was facing family problems of his own so it took me awhile to get in to see anyone. I finally got in to see an orthopedic doctor and he took x-rays.
On the x-rays it looked like the shoulder-end of my collar bone was fractured. We thought that weird since I only massage for a living and had not fallen on it. He ordered an MRI. He told me that it would be straight diagnostic, no contrast. That was done on October 14. The radiologist that ran the MRI said they needed to add contrast to highlight something in my shoulder. It made me wonder. (I note the timeline as I think that the speed of the timing is important.)
On the 16th I got a call from my primary care doctors office to say that the orthopedic doctor was going to be out of the office all of the next week and my doctor had an opening that day. The MRI results had scary words like mass and metastatic lymph node and metasteses and lesions. My doctor referred me to an Oncologist.
Tony and I went to see him on Monday October 19th and he went over the MRI with us in a little more detail and then ordered a PET scan. (In a PET scan they inject you with a sucrose solution and you wait for it to spread throughout your body. Then in the scan, it lights up everything that is cancerous.) I had the PET scan on October 21st. We talked to the doctor on the 22 and got the results then.
The results were that I have cancer in my right shoulder, on the head of my right humerous (arm bone), on my vertebrae, on my pelvis, and on both sides of my SI (SacroIliac) Joint. I will have a biopsy which will tell us whether it is benign or malignant and the stage it's in and what type of cancer it is. Right now they're not sure. But even as it is, I will be racking up bills and more bills. I am only able to do massage at home sporadically as there are days when I can barely move due to the amount of pain I'm in. I would really just like to be able to pay my mortgage and my bills. And maybe take an occasional trip to the beach to unwind. Thank you for thinking of me.
Julie
Organizer and beneficiary
Massage Envy Tanasbourne
Organizer
Beaverton, OR
Julie Krevanko
Beneficiary