Sabrina Wooding

Somehow everything began with an odd tingling sensation in my legs, causing me to stay up all night and determined to make it to an urgent care center to return to sanity. They performed an x-ray and just a couple days later, I received a call saying I had a kidney stone (man do I wish that's all it was). I saw my doctor who sent me to get an ultrasound to make sure this "kidney stone" wasn't causing any issues. The tech said it didn't look like a stone at all so I had to schedule a CT scan which I had to get blood work done before attending. The blood work results came back on a Sunday morning with the doctor telling me to immediately get to the ER because my hemoglobin count was drastically low (5.9; it's supposed to be in the 11-13 range) and I probably needed a transfusion. Upon my arrival to the ER, I got a CT scan which determined there were multiple growths in my abdomen and one was pressing up onto my stomach, causing it to leak blood; hence my insane anemia. I ended up being admitted because I needed 2 blood transfusions, which takes HOURS. The following day I had a CT guided biopsy and the day after that I got an endoscopy which also included a biopsy. A few days later, I saw my oncologist who said both biopsies came back "inconclusive". He admitted to having no clue what it was, so he was referring me to a surgeon, Dr. Fraker. Dr. Fraker decided to stop running tests and on August 25, I got surgery to remove the tumor. This surgery involved a partial gastrectomy, a Billroth II, a bowel resection, and removal of many MANY lymph nodes due to them having odd growths. I recovered remarkably well however a week later at my post-op, Dr. Fraker told me they still had no idea what the tumor was so they were sending it out for further study. About a month later, I got admitted back to the hospital due to a small bowel obstruction. After about 6 days of few liquids, throwing up any solids I ate, and relying on the IV fluids, they decided to go in and remove the adhesion. Once again, I healed fairly well. However, just this past Thursday (10/20) I received the news that the tumor is a rare cancer called Sarcoma. I was actually told I had a rare form of a rare form of this cancer, so that's nice. Chemotherapy is the next step in this journey and that begins 10/31.  (Side note, my hemoglobin went up and was at 13.3 last time it was tested! Bye anemia.)

Thankfully, Dr. Fraker is a miracle-worker and he and my oncologist are VERY confident most, if not all, the cancer was removed in my first surgery. So the good news is the chemotherapy is to make sure there aren't any straggling cancer cells, since there is a high chance of the sarcoma returning otherwise. Even while Dr. Fraker was in my abdomen for the second surgery, he looked for any additional growths and reported back that everything was completely benign, which was fantastic news. So as said before, the chemo is just precautionary:)

This page basically is to keep those who are interested updated and to send their thoughts and prayers, which are ALWAYS appreciated. I'm so greatly thankful for the support I've been receiving during this time in my life and I know because of you all, I'll come out of this stronger than ever. Let's rock this Sarcoma.