Rhonda Brutt

Welcome to our Caring Bridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your words of hope and encouragement. Thank you so much for visiting. In July of 2015 I was diagnosed with a undifferentiated, high grade, soft tissue Sarcoma tumor that was located against my femur in my left leg. Surgery to remove the tumor was performed by an Orthopedic Oncologist at the University of Minnesota. I was lucky. My leg was saved and I didn't need chemo (since it seldom works on Sarcomas anyways). However,  after reviewing the specimen they determined that they didn't get clear margins around the excision so I had to go 5 days a week for 2 months to receive radiation across my entire upper thigh.  That was a very difficult time in my life. I was exhausted constantly, the radiation burns were awful, I was still working at the elementary school, and the 1 1/2 hours I spent in rush hour traffic every day from my home to the U of M was almost unbearable. After that ordeal, I needed and received 5 years of monitoring in the form of PET scans and MRI's to make sure I didn't relapse. Sarcoma is an extremely rare form of cancer that very few adults will ever get, but it's aggressive and tends to reoccur in about 60 to 70% of patients.  It's mostly considered a childhood cancer. Walking wasn't and still isn't exactly easy for me and climbing stairs always makes me sad. For this reason, we decided to sell our 5 bedroom, 4 level house and moved into a smaller one level townhome that is much easier for me to navigate. Time marched on and now 5 years later on July 6th, I had my final oncology visit. My ordeal was over! I had beat the odds! I was truly elated...but my happiness was extremely short-lived. Three weeks later on July 29th, I received more bad news...so that's where this journal will begin. With another rare type of cancer, Multiple Myeloma - a bone marrow cancer. If I thought the Sarcoma treatment was rough...that was just practice for this time around. Before I start these journal entries, I wish to thank each of you for visiting my sight. Writing is always therapeutic for me, and as you will read later on in this journal, I will be having a Bone Marrow Transplant in the early spring (which is late winter up here in Minnesota!) and that is when this fight is going to get very, very real.