Dolina's Story

                It was December 2004, We had just celebrated our daughters 1st birthday. She was our first child and boy she kept me busy! I was walking with a limp for quite some time, and after several visits to the doctor he had suspected the pain was radiating from my lower back. I had x-rays on that area and they couldn’t find what was causing the limp or the dull aching pain. One summer afternoon I was spending the day in the back yard in the aviary with the birds, I turned to walk out and I fell over, I landed on my back. Thinking nothing of it I tried to stand back up. Then it hit me; excruciating pain just filled my right hip and leg and I screamed,  “help! Someone please help me!”  Tears streamed down my face and it felt like forever before my husband and mother came out from inside. Two other neighbors heard my screams and called an ambulance. As I laid there covered in dirt, my family comforted me until the paramedics arrived. 

                I was given pain meds to ease the pain and I was taken to the ED where I was greeted by nurses and doctors. They immediately took an x-ray of my hip and leg. About an hour later the doctor came in and revealed the news to my husband and I “It looks like you have quite a large bone tumor in your femur and you have a fracture right through it, You need to be flown to Royal perth hospital” My heart immediately sank, So many thoughts filled my head then my husband looked into my eyes with grief. He sat by my side for a while then left to pack all our belongings, He had a 4 hour drive ahead of him, while I was taken to the airport and flown to the largest hospital in the state. The next day my husband and daughter came into my hospital room, It made me smile seeing their faces. 

                The following day I was then transferred to a special rehabilitation hospital, where I met a team of specialists and doctors lead by a muscular skeletal tumor specialist and orthopedic surgeon Dr. R Beaver. I was bed ridden for about a week while they planned and assessed what they were going to do in my case. I had a biopsy taken from the tumor and it took three days for the results, I will never forget the day he visited me that morning. Mr. Beaver came in with his team, He said to me “I have good news and bad news, the biopsy has revealed you have a giant cell tumor, The reason why it’s called that is because under the microscope they look like giant cells. You are about the only person in the state with this as it is incredibly rare but an aggressive type of tumor. It happens to one person in every million people. Good news is, is that it’s benign. We can do radiotherapy but there’s a risk it might become malignant. In your case the only option is surgery using cutterage to remove the tumor and surrounding bone then a hip replacement”. I had to sign a release form to donate the tumor for research before I headed in for surgery. The surgery went well, I had extreme blood loss as it took 8 hours to complete and my family was there for me every step of the way through recovery. I attended physiotherapy every day in hospital to build strength up in that leg as I had pretty bad muscle wasting. After four months I was finally off crutches and walking independently.

                 I had routine x-rays and specialist visits every six months as GCT is notorious for reoccurring. Four years later I gave birth to our second daughter in September 2008 she was delivered via caesarean due to complications in my hip. Then two months later during one of my routine visits my specialist broke some bad news to me, there was local recurrence of GCT in my greater trochanter. I was in complete shock as it wasn’t what I was expecting during that routine visit. Tears filled my eyes as he explained the procedure, He was going to remove it and fill the cavity with bone cement. February 2009, surgery date came. It wasn’t as severe as the first surgery but recovery was still difficult, I was in hospital for 5 days. At home it was a challenge as I had a baby plus younger child to take care of because I was on crutches for three months while my husband went back to work full time, But luckily I had a lot of support from my family to get through that difficult time. Recently I had complications arising from my hip replacement and had my third surgery in October 2013, I had torn the tendons in and around my hip replacement, the stem was loosening and I had bony growths. Recovery this time was only around 6 weeks. Every routine visit and x-ray is always emotionally difficult as you never know what to expect, GCT has affected me in so many ways and is a never ending battle. Even though I am tumor free at the moment there are so many risks and worries with the hip replacement I am left with, and there is always that risk of it reoccurring. There were so many questions and advice I wanted to ask when I was going through recovery and research, Information was very limited and I didn’t know anyone that had this type of rare tumor, I had felt so alone. I hope by sharing my story I can give advice and help someone through one of the most difficult times in their life. -Stay positive and keep smiling. You are one in a million but have a million reasons to smile!