The woman shares signs of rare giant cell tumor that was eating her bone

A 37 -year -old woman says that if she had not stubbornly called the doctors’ offices and insisted on being seen as soon as possible, she would still have a strange and massive tumor that grew inside her, eating her bones.

Ashley Christine He knew that something was very bad past autumn when the pain in his leg grew so bad that he could not walk. But she was He found a lack of urgency While trying to program a magnetic resonance, and later, an appointment with an oncologist in Los Angeles, where he lives.

After months, Ashley told the post, they finally told him that he had an aggressive tumor, one in every million that should be immediately removed or continue to grow inside her.

Ashley’s pain began in early October.

“If I stood up, it would be acute pain. If I were lying, it would be boring, throbbing, ”he said, adding that he covered from his ankle to his knee.

Initially, a doctor said that only a torn ligament and recommended physiotherapy should have. However, Ashley was sure that something was “really bad” and asked for a magnetic resonance.

Unfortunately, MRI’s quote soon he could get was a month away, so Ashley had no choice but to try to continue his life in the meantime.

But in a Trip to Portugal During the Thanksgiving day, he stumbled, and suddenly, the pain was worse.

“I was convinced that my leg was broken,” he said. “I really couldn’t walk.” But he also felt sure that it was probably worse than a broken bone.

“I do skiing, snowboarding, rock climbing, and I have done quite twisted to my body from those activities, so I am quite familiar with what a broken bone feels. I am like, it is close, but it is not quite, “he recalled.

The doctors in Portugal were not helpful, they also insisted that he would have to wait for the years of a magnetic resonance, the proof that he felt more would give him answers about his ailment.

Once he returned home with Los Angeles, using a wheelchair at the airport, he finally received his magnetic resonance in mid -December.

The results were surprising: a massive tumor, of course as the day, was growing inside his leg.

But although he could see the scan, he had to battle for anyone to explain to her, and to learn about the next steps he needed to take for his health.

In fact, his oncologist’s office said he would have to wait more than a month to see him, telling him that he could not get an appointment until the end of January.

“I’m like,” Oh, great. So you want me to walk with a tumor my leg for a month and a half? She said. “I didn’t want to lose my leg, because it was, like, eat my bone. I could feel it. “

Ashley said he was “crazy” because “I basically waited a month to find out if he had cancer.”

Through tears, he got the Oncologist’s office squeezing it before Christmas.

It was then that everyone finally began to take it seriously. Looking at the scan, the doctor told him that he believed he had a “very large” giant cell tumor.

“He said: ‘Yes, it’s quite rare, but when we find one, they are huge. We have to get this,” Ashley said. “I was basically eating my bone and compromising my warm, and will continue to grow, grow and grow. I don’t know stops. “

Giant cell tumors are literally a disease of one in each billion: according to the American Academy of Orthopedic SurgeonsThey only occur in approximately one in 1 million people.

Although they are not cancerous, they are very aggressive and continue to grow without treatment. They are more common in the legs, near the knee joint, and can also destroy the surrounding bones.

Finally, on January 13, more than two months after his pain began and a month before he was initially told that he could meet with an oncologist, Ashley underwent two -hour surgery to remove the tumor.

The surgeon also used cement to fill the cracks in his bone that the tumor had caused.

Now Ashley is recovering and will continue needing checks for the rest of his life, lest a new giant cell tumor appear.

Although she is grateful that she has been treated, and a big fan of her oncologist, she is still frustrated that she has taken so long to obtain the medical appointments she needed, although she was sure that there was something very bad.