Hello Everyone, We got the results from surgery after pathology tested the tumor. First, we know they got all of the mass since the margins were all negative for cancer cells. Second, the mass was 95% dead, which means the chemo and radiation were very effective. The mass was down to only 4cm in length from the original 9cm, which made surgery easier.
They did remove about half of one of my hamstring muscles during surgery. Luckily there’s 3 hamstring muscles so I’m really only missing 15-20% of my hamstring and they expect I don’t notice it much long term or be hindered. I’ll probably have stiffness long term from the radiation but hopefully nothing too bad. I’m still working on getting full movement back and going up and down stairs or sitting down has been a bit of a challenge but starting to get strength back. I’ll meet back with the surgeon in a couple weeks to see if I need to do any PT to get range of motion back. This week I also had another MRI which showed no evidence of metastasis which is great news. My oncologist and I discussed potentially doing more chemo and staying aggressive but we decided against it since I’ve had a high dosage of chemo already, it was very effective, and recent studies have shown additional chemo may not yield additional benefits. There’s also additional risks associated with more chemo like developing leukemia.  Because I did chemo in addition to radiation and surgery we think the odds of recurrence have gone down from 30% to 10%, which is great but still high. However since sarcomas are so rare and differ greatly there isn’t a ton of data or research. I’m just lucky mine responded so well to treatment. I’m now starting my quarterly scans and check ins with the oncologist to monitor and hopefully catch anything early that may develop. Since my type of sarcoma is aggressive I’ll keep getting scanned for the next 10 years, whereas 5 years is more standard for cancers.
Other than that Leah and I are moving to Chicago now and looking forward to getting back to normal life. I’m also excited to be returning to work next week! Hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend! Eric

Eric Zimmerman

Update: Surgery Got All the Tumor and No More Chemo! – by Eric Zimmerman