Dealing with Leg Surgeries and Breast Cancer

When the Dr. called, Rodger was in Recovery. It was 2:00 in the morning on May 6th. I will never forget the date. The Dr. listed his injuries for us. He had a compound fracture in his left calf. He had broken both bones in his left thigh. He had ripped three of the four tendons in his right knee. He had a concussion, a black eye and numerous smaller cuts and bruises. After the surgery, he had two titanium rods in his left leg. He had a brace on his right leg. He was going to be very sore for quite a while.The Dr. joked about him not having a leg to stand on. Not even crutches for a couple of weeks.

The Dr. said to go ahead and wait until morning to come back to Nashville, he was going to be out of it for the rest of the night and not able to have even us visit him. We went to bed and tried to sleep. We were exhausted. The next morning, we packed a couple of weekend bags, figuring that we would spend a couple of days and find out what we needed to do. At least, for once, we did not need to worry about money. We had over $40,000 in our accounts. Wow, how did that happen? Dennis had been approved for his VA Service Connected Disability, getting back pay and I had gotten a 5 thousand dollar check from the IRS. We had deposited it all in the bank the morning before.

I called my boss and told her what had happened and she already knew. Small town, Rescue Squad member worked with me and was already there. She was the one who had cut him out of the truck and identified him. I was told to call back on Monday and they would mark me down as being at the hospital. Go take care of my son.

We went to Nashville and got a motel room fairly close to the hospital. We went in to see our son. I walked in and he was lying there on the bed with his leg cranked up in the air. Dennis had let me out at the door and went to find a parking spot. He would be up with the other two in a few minutes. He took one look at who was there and started crying, "Mommy, mommy, I'm so sorry!" I went into comforting mode. He did not need to be chewed out right now, he needed love. The chewing out would come later. I wrapped my arms around my 6'4" son and held him tight. I was so thankful that he had lived through this.Thank you God!!

We spent the next month in Nashville, going back to the house to get things we needed, and seeing my bosses about Family Medical Leave. Dennis bought a 4 cylinder Jeep Cherokee on one of these trips. We needed something to replace the pick-up. Rodger had seven more surgeries before he was done, he kept getting infections where the compound fracture was. They would open it up and flush it out. Then they did a skin graft from his thigh, moving a muscle around from the calf to help cover it. It had been open to the bone and that was a problem. His bone had gone through his skin.

They would keep him for a week and then release him for a day, maybe two, then back in for another surgery. He had 6 surgeries in a month. The Dr. finally said he could go home. He wanted him back every week for a while, office visits. They also set up physical therapy for him. Someone donated it. We did not have insurance at this time. They had signed him up for TNcare but it had not been approved yet. His bills were already topping $100 thousand. It wouldn't be retroactive either. Just to the day of application. That meant that the initial surgery, the first hospital, and the helicopter to Nashville would still have to be paid.

Dennis' disability came with insurance for his family. It paid 75 percent of the bills. We got signed up for that and it was retroactive to the day that Dennis was approved for his disability. A month before the accident. It paid first and then went to TNCare. We had no bill left. The 25 percent of the first day was written off. Thank God again.

Rodger had to have one more surgery before the end. The repair job that the Dr. did on his right knee tendons did not hold well. It would give out on him. The Dr. did it again and it has lasted well. They did not know if he would ever be able to run but he pushed himself and exercised his legs the way he was supposed to. He rode a bike uphill and down to build strength. It works well, he can run and he doesn't even limp. Dr. Obremski, we love you.

The big downer, or maybe not, when I called the sweat shop to tell them that we had Rodger home and I was ready to go back to work, they told me that I had quit. I did not know that. I could have sued them, I should have. I did not because I was afraid they would give me my job back. I really hated that job. They treated us worse than animals. I took the unemployment that I did get. The company tried to keep me from getting unemployment, but the Unemployment office thought I had a good reason for not being at work. The nasty company lost out.

A month after our return from the hospital, we received the news that a young man, recently graduated from high school, crashed on that very curve where Rodger crashed. He died. His mother and father both worked as supervisor's at the same sweat shop. The sweat shop did not see fit to send a single representative to the boys funeral. They are cursed. One year later, they closed down and sent the jobs to Mexico. They killed a town when they did that. It was the only employer in town other than support. They couldn't get people to work cheap enough or for enough hours in the United States. Twelve a day was not enough.

In May of 2009, I went in to get checked, so the Dr. could renew my medication. I was taking nine pills a day for various things. Blood pressure, thyroid, water pills, allergy pills, and one for depression and panic attacks. I have panic attacks occasionally and they are not fun. I thought for sure I was having a heart attack. It hurt, I could not breathe and I was scared. It was a panic attack. The Dr. wanted me to get a mammogram. I went to get one.

A week later, the radiology lab called and wanted me to come back in for another one. They said there was something that they wanted to look closer at. They did an ultrasound this time. They saw a little spot in my left breast. All of 7 mm, it was not big. About an inch below the skin and with a jagged edge. The radiologist was there to make sure he could read this because he was concerned about it. He called me into his office and showed me the mammogram and the ultrasound. He told me that he could not guarantee it to be cancer but he had never seen one that shape that was not.

He told me that my Dr. would be contacting me with a referral to a specialist. They sent me to the Nashville Breast Center. This Dr. specializes in breast problems. We could only find this little spot if we knew where it was. Just feeling, you could not. It was that tiny. They did a biopsy and the tumor was about an inch below the skin. It came back as cancer and a week later, my son took me to the hospital to have this cut out. My husband wanted to but he could not drive me and I needed a driver. We also needed someone to stay with our nervous Katy. At 12, she was scared that she was going to lose her mother.

Things move very fast when you get a cancer diagnoses. It seems like you don't even get a chance to come out of shock before they have you in surgery. They are telling you what they have to do. They don't much give you an option. I think this is probably because if they give you a chance to think, you will panic. That is how it was for me. They did the surgery and took a couple of lymph nodes.

They test the nodes for cancer immediately and wait for the results. They want to know if the cancer has spread to the nodes. If it did, the whole breast comes off. Mine came back clean. They got a clear margin all around the tumor. Not much chance of it still being there. They sent the tumor off to California to a lab, to check to see what caused it.

Mine came back estrogen positive. Remember that little one year of Estrogen therapy that I had 10 years ago. That is what caused my cancer. If you have a friend or loved one that they want to take estrogen, tell them not to take it. My cancer Dr. told me that is what caused my cancer. I now take an estrogen blocker every day for five years. It is to block any estrogen from feeding a cancer cell that may have lived through the surgery and the radiation therapy.

Our life is a little calmer now. We don't have it quite as rough. Every time the Government doesn't pass the budget, it gets real tense in our house. Is our income going to be dragged away again? So far, no, but....

We don't deal well with calamities any more either. Not much fight left in us. We would love to find a little place out in the country, to just live out the rest of our quiet, little life. It doesn't seem to be happening. If any of you know of a place where the rent isn't too high and it is nice and quiet, let us know.

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