For those who don’t know why Maddy and l traveled all the way to Boston, it all started in 2017 at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. In 2017 l was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer, the tumor was in the center of my scapula, also known as the shoulder blade. The entire scapula needed to come out but nobody in Iowa wanted to touch it, in fact, there is only one surgeon who was experienced enough to do the surgery, Dr. Bassam Elhassan, and fortunately for us, he was just three hours away from Cedar Rapids,Ia! The surgery would entail both the removal of my scapula and putting in an allograft which is a bone from a cadaver, ewww, gross, l know, but l didn’t want to spend the rest of my life walking around with a large concave crevice in my back, so l came to terms with the thought of someone else’s body part in my back. Unfortunately, due to the immune deficiency l was born with, and coupled with the fact that l was very sick with cancer, l became septic and my body rejected the new bone. After three months of treatment and several surgeries my doctor said l l wasn’t going to make it if he didn’t take out my new scapula. Thankfully it didn’t take long to recover after my surgery to remove the new bone. Over the last four years my doctors have increased the doses of immunoglobulin l receive and the frequency l receive them, this has changed my life in an amazing way! I no longer have to be admitted to the hospital and endure high doses of steroids 😀 I am now healthy enough we think to try the surgery again. But why Boston this time? The reason l needed to travel to Boston is because my wonderful surgeon, Dr. Elhassan, recently relocated to Boston to be closer to family. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting me with your prayers as l go through this very risky and painful surgery, l can’t thank you enough❤️
