Last March at the age of 12 Hunter was complaining his right femur was hurting off and on. This went on for almost a month with symptoms worsening. On April 4th we took him to our family doctor in Greeley. He did an X-ray and determined it was inflammation. 2 days later after radiologist reviewed the X-ray he saw something that looked suspicious. It was very, very hard to see they told us. They had us go to North Colorado Medical center for an MRI that afternoon. It was determined later in the day it was a tumor about 8 cm long, and it had weakened the femur bone and caused a hairline pathological fracture. This is why his leg was hurting. We were then referred to Colorado Limb Consulatants in Denver, Colorado to meet with Dr. Ronald Hugate, Orthapedic Surgeon, and Hunter’s very good friend now! He then ordered numerous tests on Hunter. All were coming back good. He then did a needle biopsy and it came back inconclusive. So on April 14th he performed an open biopsy. The following Monday, April 18th we were given the devastating news it was osteosarcoma! Hunter immediately began chemo treatments on April 25, 2011.
One of the treatments they have found to be very successful is intra-arterial chemotherapy with a drug called Cisplatin. They run a line through his femoral artery down to the tumor site and shoot the chemo drug directly onto the tumor to kill it. Hunter had to lay in PICU for 24 hours flat on his back and could not move at all while this was done. It was torture for him. Hunter had this done twice. He was to have 3 of them done, but unfortunately during these 2 cycles some of the chemo leaked out into his groin area and burned him badly and he had to have some plastic surgery done in June to repair the burn area. Looks great today!
Good news with this procedure is that they discovered his tumor responded well and it was over 90% dead. Dr. Hugate then did his bone resection surgery on July 19th. He took out 6 inches of his right femur and replaced with cadaver bone that fit perfectly. Hunter miracously was moving his leg at 100 degrees within one week of surgery. He is very strong and determined to play baseball again. After surgery he has had to continue with 12 more cycles of chemo. He has only 4 left now, and is about to show the world with a positive attitude and lots of great support this disease can be beat. We were very lucky that we caught Hunters early and it had not metasized anywhere else in his body! He is a very strong and brave child for what he has been through.
