Rachel Bretbrunner survived Bone Cancer | Knee Replacement Surgery | Sarcoma | Chemotherapy

DESCRIPTION

When playing with her children, Rachel Bretbrunner fell.  She felt acute pain in one leg.  After waiting about six weeks, she sought medical attention, and an MRI revealed a tumor in the leg.  Doctors scheduled surgery to remove the tumor.  When Rachel woke up from the surgery, her husband told her she had bone cancer.  Given an option, she chose knee replacement surgery over a chemotherapy regimen.

Rachel Bretbrunner of Halsey, Oregon loves to hike and camp.  It was during a camping trip that two of her kids, ages eleven and thirteen, were rough housing.  When she joined in, she fell, and experienced pain in her entire leg; but when she got home from camping, the pain was pretty much in her lower leg.

About a month and a half later, Rachel was seen by a doctor.  An MRI revealed a tumor in the leg.  That was followed by a biopsy, which showed the tumor was benign, and surgery was scheduled to remove the tumor.  However, when they went in, opened up Rachel’s knee to take out the tumor, they learned there was cancer in the tumor.  It was eaten away part of her tibia.  Doctors removed that part of the tibia and they put in an adhesive to hold the bone together.  When Rachel regained consciousness, her husband informed her she had a sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer.

At this point, Rachel still had the tumor.  She was told she could have it removed and then have two rounds of chemotherapy before the surgery and two rounds after they remove the tumor, or they could do major knee replacement surgery to make sure the cancer didn’t come back in two years.  She chose knee replacement surgery, but as it turned out, Rachel still had to undergo chemotherapy after the surgery.

As for the surgical procedure, doctors also reconstructed her leg because the metal that they had`to use to replace her tibia, they put cobalt blue in it and the blue showed through her skin.  As a result, they had`to remove a tendon from her ankle and a muscle out of her foot, then they had to wrap the muscle around the tendon to hold it.  Rachel says to this day, she walks with a limp because of the muscle missing from her foot. 

She was being seen by a sarcoma specialist at a hospital two hours away in Portland, which is where Rachel underwent her chemotherapy regimen.  Seven days after she was discharged from the hospital, she had neutropenic fevers and ended up going back for three more days of antibiotics. 

Rachel Brutbrunner suffered many of the common side effects associated with chemotherapy.  They included mouth sores, hair loss and cognitive issues.

Rachel says before cancer, she lived a life without pain.  Now she feels pain every day, but it is not excruciating pain.  Although she can camp, she can no longer hike because f the pain in her foot, but Rachel says she is happy to be alive and in a position to raise her kids.

Additional Resources:

Support Group:

Kickin’ Cancer: https://www.kicking-cancer.org

TRANSCRIPT

Bruce Morton: This is the @CancerInterviews podcast, and I’m your host, Bruce Morton.  At one time or another, we have all tripped and fallen.  When our guest on this episode tripped and fell during a hike, it set in motion a chain of events that led to her being diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer.  She is Rachel Bretbrunner of Halsey, Oregon, and we are so glad she is here to share her story.  Rachel, welcome to Cancer Interviews.

Rachel Bretbrunner: Thank you.

BM: It is our custom to start off by learning more about our guest and their life outside of cancer, and on this day, our guest is you.  So, tell us about where you are from, what you do for a living, and when time allows, what you like to do for fun.

RB: I have been married for 24 years.  I have three kids, they are teenagers now, two girls and a boy, and for 20 years, I was a hairdresser full-time, and, what else?

BM: Where are you originally from, and what do you do for fun?

RB: Okay, so I was born and raised in Oregon, third generation, and my husband and I, we, really enjoy going camping.

BM: When you go camping, do you go places near or far, or both?

RB: Here in Oregon, within an hour’s drive.

BM:  If you would, Rachel, describe the circumstances that led to your diagnosis.

RB: We were at our favorite camping spot, and we were hiking, and the kids started rough housing, as kids will sometimes do, the kids who were rough housing were eleven and thirteen, and I kinda into the action of messin’ around with them, and I fell.  My leg hurt for pretty much the whole camping trip.  It was my whole leg, but when we got home from camping, the pain was in my lower leg, sometimes it would be in my knee, sometimes it would be in my lower leg or mid-tibia.  I wasn’t sure why the pain wasn’t going away, I thought maybe I had torn a ligament or something.

BM: Rachel, there have been instances with some of our guests in which they have felt something wasn’t quite right but waited weeks or months before getting medical attention.  How long was it before you were seen by a doctor on this matter?

RB: I waited a month and a half.  I was told it was initially told what I had was a fracture or a tumor.  They ran an MRI, which revealed there was a tumor on my leg.  They had to biopsy it to determine if it was cancerous or benign, and the biopsy came back benign, so they scheduled a surgery to remove the tumor out.  The surgery was scheduled a few days after Thanksgiving, and at Thanksgiving, we went around the table and said what we were thankful for, and I said I was thankful it wasn’t cancer.  However, they went in and opened up my knee to take out the tumor and at that time, they learned there was cancer in the tumor.  It had eaten away a small amount of my tibia.  So, they removed that part of my tibia and they put in an adhesive to hold the bone together. When I woke up from the surgery, my husband had to tell me it was cancer.

BM: Rachel, there is no such thing as a good time or good way to learn one has been diagnosed, so we already know this was an awful day, but how did you deal with this horrific news?

RB: It was a difficult way to hear it.  Here I was, thinking for a week and a half that I was cancer free, they were just going to go in and remove the tumor, so it was very hard to hear.

BM: Did you have options in terms of a treatment plan?

RB: They told me what they were gonna do because it was a tumor and it was a sarcoma, they told me there weren’t many options.  They did tell me I could have the tumor removed and I would have two rounds of chemo before they remove the tumor and two rounds after they remove the tumor, or they could do major knee replacement surgery to make sure the cancer doesn’t come back in two years.  I chose the major knee replacement surgery.

BM: Looking back, are you glad you made this choice?

RB: I am glad they went that route, but they also reconstructed my leg because the metal that they had to use to replace my tibia, they put cobalt blue in it and the blue showed through my skin, so they had to remove a tendon from my ankle and a muscle out of my foot, and they had to wrap the muscle around my tendon to hold it in place, and I still walk with a limp because of the missing muscle from my foot.

BM: Rachel, this is a rare form of bone cancer we are talking about.  We have had guests who have been diagnosed with rare cancers.  As if the cancer isn’t bad enough, their situation can be compounded by a lack of doctors with the expertise necessary to treat this rare cancer.  Was this an issue for you or were you comfortable with your care team?

RB: I was comfortable.  My doctor sent me to Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, where it has a sarcoma specialist.  That’s about a two-hour drive for me.

BM: Was it difficult having to make that commute?

RB: Yes, but I did get help from my parents as well as my husband.

BM: Your treatment sounds like a very involved procedure.  What was the toughest part?

RB: My chemos were 72 hours in the hospital up at OHSU, and then seven days after I was discharged from the hospital, I had neutropenic fevers and usually ended up in the hospital another three days on antibiotics, and so the hardest part for me was being in the hospital so much and being away from my kids.

BM: Chemo isn’t easy.  What was the toughest part of chemo for you?

RB: The mouth sores.  If you have had one mouth sore, you cannot imagine what it is like to have 30 or 40 in your mouth and going down your throat.  It was really hard to eat during that time.

BM: Another part of chemo that can be tough is hair loss.  Did that present a problem for you?

RB: Yes.  I wore hats.

BM: We also hear from people who suffer chemo-related cognitive issues, known sometimes as ‘chemo brain’.  Was that an issue?

RB: Yes.  One day in the kitchen I just spaced out.  I looked at the clock and I had been sitting in the kitchen for 20 minutes, just spacing out.

BM: As you went through this, it would certainly help to have a source, or sources, of support.  Where did your support come from?

RB: My family, my friends.  They helped by bring food, definitely, taking me to doctor’s appointments because I was unable to drive at the time, and there was a coffee place in (nearby) Corvallis that I loved to stop at, so every time, a friend or family member took me to doctor’s appointments, they would stop at my coffee shop, and I would get a Chai tea.

BM: You had mentioned food people would bring to you.  To what degree did diet play a role in your cancer journey?

RB: I had to eat very bland things because of the mouth sores, and I tried to eat as healthy as possible.  Lots of salads.

BM: And would you say that diet is something you adhere to, today?

RB: Yeah, I try to.

BM: But every once in a while, you will veer away from that vegetable-based diet?

RB: Yes. Pizzas are my favorite. 

BM: At some point, things began to take a turn for the better.  When did you feel that was the case?

RB: When I was able to start driving again. 

BM: If you go back to your pre-diagnosis days and think of what you could do, physically, and compare that to the present, what are things you cannot do?

RB: Before cancer, I had a life without pain.  Since my cancer diagnosis, there isn’t a day without it.  On a scale of one to ten, it is like a three.  It is not a real bad pain.  You know what is like to have your foot asleep?  That’s how my foot feels, 24/7.  At night, it is at its worst, and I describe it as like hot popcorn popping.

BM: Is there pain anywhere besides your foot?

RB: No, it is mostly in my foot because the surgery was seven-and-a-half hours, and that caused nerve damage.

BM: You mentioned your foot and you mentioned you like to hike and camp.  I don’t know if this would affect camping, but does this affect hiking?

RB: Yes.  I really haven’t hiked since I have had cancer.

BM: Can you envision a day when this pain is going to be gone, or have you resigned yourself to the notion that this sort of pain will always be with you?

RB: It is always going to be with me.

BM: We talked about support, how it came from you husband and friends.  But there is also a Salem, Oregon-based support group, Kickin’ Cancer, that has come to your aid.  How has it been of help to you?

RB: They did a few fundraisers for my family and I.  We had one at a place in Corvallis called the Angry Beaver and we raised some money to put some money down for our down payment on the house that we bought.

BM: That’s wonderful, and do you have ongoing expenses with your medical care, or is that something that is taken care of with insurance or Medicare?

RB: Ongoing.

BM: Well, I hope Kickin’ Cancer can be of support in that area, so you can take care of other things you need to address, like a new house.  Now I want to bring this to a conclusion and wish to do so in the way we always finish our interviews.  Very simply, if you ran into someone who had just been diagnosed with bone cancer, and had a message for them, and there was one primary point you sought to get across, what would that point be?

RB: If you have any questions about your medical team to seek a second opinion.  I didn’t feel I needed to because there was limited availability because of the type of sarcoma I had, but definitely seek that second opinion.

BM: Our guest has been Rachel Bretbrunner of Halsey, Oregon, a survivor of a rare form of bone cancer, and Rachel, we really appreciate the time you have given us to share your story.  I know it is a bit of a fight now, but you continue to make that fight and any of us who have heard your story are going to be rooting for you.  Once again, thanks so much for your time.

RB: Thank you, Bruce

BM: And that’s going to conclude this edition of Cancer Interviews.  Again, we want to say if you or a loved one is on a cancer journey, you are not alone.  There are people like Rachel with stories, with information that can be of aid.  So, until next time, we’ll see you on down the road.

Additional Resources:

Support Group:

Kickin’ Cancer: https://www.kicking-cancer.org

SHOW NOTES

TITLE:  Rachel Bretbrunner, Bone Cancer Survivor – Halsey, Oregon, USA

Rachel Bretbrunner sought medical attention after a painful trip and fall while hiking.  That led to a diagnosis of bone cancer, a rare form of sarcoma.  Rachel loves hiking and camping.  She survived the diagnosis and while she can no longer hike, she is still able to camp.  Rachel shares her story with the @CancerInterviews podcast.

Additional Resources:

Support Group:

Kickin’ Cancer: www.https/kicking-cancer.org

Time Stamps:

01:57 Rachel describes the circumstances that led to her diagnosis.

03:38 Why she waited six weeks to be seen by a doctor.

07:47 Glad she chose knee replacement surgery.

15:53 Rachel describes how her life is different after her diagnosis.

19:49 Advice for others diagnosed with bone cancer.

KEYWORDS (tags):

bone cancer

cancer

cancer interviews

sarcoma

cancerinterviews.com

bruce morton

neutropenic fever

chemotherapy