My sister’s story – and the loss of her foot

Just found this bulletin board and want to share with all that my sister – who is in her 40’d – for the past two years, was having a sensation of a “pebble” inside her foot – on the arch of her left foot. Painful walking. She consulted with a podiatrist – from Kaiser Hospital – and he dismissed it as a “benign growth” a “fibroma”. My sister went back to him within the two years time 3x’s – he never did a biopsy – despite her insistence for him to do so. He told her to “get fitted for ortho shoes” – she did and it made the pain worse. After frustrating attempts for him to do a biopsy she consulted with another podiatrist – a woman podiatrist – as her foot growth had doubled in size in 8 months time and it was almost impossible for her to walk and people were noticing her limping at work. The female podiatrist told her “This is not a benign growth – I’m referring you to a oncologist and have a biopsy done immediately.” Biopsy done: Results?An extremely rare cancer – Synovial Sarcoma of the foot. Treatment? Amputation. She recently had her foot and 7″ above the foot – amputated. Her oncologist told her he recommended aggressive chemotherapy as Synovial Sarcoma is an aggressive cancer – and her “margins” were very wide – the tumor was 8 centimeters – she took one and a half chemo treatments but decided to stop as she couldn’t tolerate it and refuses to have anymore chemo. Oncologist told her that with this cancer – with or without chemo – it’s a 50/50 chance it will return. (He wanted her to go for at least 4 chemo treatments). She is about to get a prosthesis. I wanted to share this story with all of you because – no matter what you are told – if you feel there’s “something wrong” – INSIST on a biopsy – even if you wind up paying for it yourself. My precious sister’s life has forever changed and it has taught me this lesson I share with all of you – listen to your inner voice – everytime.