At 15 years old I was finishing up middle school eager to start my first job at a ranch in Florence, Texas. I knew this job would be strenuous, but I knew I could do it. A few weeks into working, I developed a general soreness in my left knee, and at first it wasn’t much of a thought, but in the weeks coming it quickly developed into an unmanageable pain. I was taking Tylenol and Ibuprofen multiple times a day just to take the edge off. My final straw was when it was a struggle to just get out of bed. Instead of going to work that day, my father took me to a Walmart where I could get my leg checked out. Unfortunately, because I did not have insurance at the time they didn’t want to see me, but pointed us in the direction of an urgent care that would see me. At this point, I was thinking regardless of what the outcome is, I just want to get back to work! I figured they’d give me some magic medication and I would be on my way. After doing the normal mobility tests to see if there was any muscle damage and then getting an X-ray, my father and I went to hang out at my grandparent’s house while we waited for results.
After waiting and waiting, my father came in and said the worst thing any father should have to tell their child: that they have cancer. The doctor from the urgent care drove 20 minutes to my grandparent’s house just to break the news to us in person. My mind was immediately flooded with questions like, “What do we do now?”, “Am I going to die?” “Am I going to lose my leg?” My mother, father, and my Nonnie and Papa all came to comfort me. I could see the heartbreak in their eyes. I couldn’t even comprehend what had been said. I had an MRI the following day and met my oncologist, who I am beyond grateful to still have to this day. I then had a biopsy and port placement within a week of being told the devastating news. The time between me getting the news to the date I started treatment was short: two weeks. My first week of chemo was my roughest, but not for what you may think. I did have to cut my hair which I was devastated about, I had been growing my hair for three years! I called it my “luscious locks” but it was donated to a good cause so that helped cushion the blow. As part of the protocol for the chemo drugs I was on (Cisplatin, Methotrexate, and Doxorubicin), they gave me a lot of medication that made me sleep all day. For that first week I was sleeping about 22 hours a day. The following week, when I went to see my oncologist before starting my next round of chemo, I asked if we could just keep those drugs on standby instead of giving them to me regularly. My oncologist was hesitant, but allowed it. So when I started treatment that day, I waited and waited and waited for the side effects to come in and for me to have to go back to sleeping all day. They never came. For some reason or another, I actually managed to tolerate the chemo pretty well!
I was scared to move or really do just about anything: I wouldn’t even let my mom unplug my IV pole to walk with me, and she’s a nurse! It certainly took me some time to settle into this new normal, having a lack of energy, and being away from home all the time, but my parents were there every step of the way. They spent every night with me, even if it meant a 45-minute drive to work. As the weeks and cycles went on I grew more and more comfortable, you get a lot of time to adjust when you are inpatient for three weeks at a time (Excluding weekends). I did start to get kind of sad being in the hospital. I was with my family and had a great care team, but it was really hard watching all of my friends start high school and continue on in the world without me. I lost touch with about 95% of the people I used to talk to, but the 5% who stayed were always there by my side when I needed them.
In October of 2018, just a few months after starting chemo, I had my first big surgery to remove the tumor in my femur and to also remove my knee. At the time it seemed rough, but compared to the surgeries I have had to date it was practically nothing. I wasn’t allowed to walk after the surgery, which made even getting into my house difficult. There were steps into the living room, into the kitchen, and we even had to walk down steps to get into the house: is it that hard to make a house flat?! During treatment I rarely went out and to pass the time I would usually play Minecraft with friends online, or just watch hours and hours of YouTube videos. I pretty much did whatever I could to keep the reality of my situation as far away from me as possible.
After about eight months of treatment, I finally rang the bell in March of 2019. I was so excited and eager to actually get to school and go back to having a kind of normal life! I returned to school at the start of the next school year. Because of my femur and knee replacement, I couldn’t do any other sports besides swimming which I grew to enjoy! Things were going well and I was still on track to graduate with my same class! Then COVID hit during spring break, school was canceled, and I went back to living the same life I was when I was in treatment. I was again secluded and not really hanging out with anybody.
On top of having to deal with the lockdown, on May 14th, 2020 one of my routine scans revealed I had relapsed in my left lung. Now that’s some scary stuff right there, with my leg my thought was always, “Well if it goes wrong we can just cut it off.” But my lung?? I can’t cut that off! It just felt so much more dangerous knowing it was in a spot like my lungs. It didn’t matter that it was microscopic compared to my original tumor! Unlike my original treatment plan for this, we removed it immediately, then did chemo and kept an eye on it. They also did surgery on my other lung despite there being no evidence of disease, because my cancer can be so microscopic, a human hand is more likely to feel it than the CT is to see it, how odd is that? Recovery from both of those surgeries went as expected. I was winded anytime I did anything. I started two new chemos and this time I would be in the hospital two weeks and out one week. Even though I was already comfortable in the hospital, I was still bummed out. When I rang the bell the first time, I thought that would be it, I would move on with my life and have a hell of a story to tell. I grew more and more comfortable in the hospital, made some friends, and would go hang out behind the nurses’ station at night. Despite the cruddy circumstances, I still managed to enjoy my time there on the days I could.
I rang the bell yet again on December 5th, 2020! Woohoo, all done and time to get back on track with life again! In May of 2021, I got my Make-A-Wish, a dream computer setup that I still use to this day. I also got my first tattoo and we went on a pretty cool vacation to Florida! I also went on a cross-country road trip with one of my best friends, who is in the military. Things were really looking up! I was getting to do all of these grown-up things like get a tattoo and go to Vegas!
On December 2nd, 2021 we were once again right back at it with another relapse. A nodule had popped up in my right lung. When we went to the doctor to find out what to do next, he said it was up to my family and I. That caught us all off guard, what about my treatment protocols? Turns out that after my second time being diagnosed with osteosarcoma, there was no clear treatment protocol. That certainly complicated things and made it difficult to make a decision. After getting some second opinions and asking around, we ended up choosing a clinical trial in Dallas. It was an immunotherapy drug so we were hoping that maybe trying something new would give us new results. I re-enrolled in an alternative high school while I was on the trial, because it only required me to be there in person twice a month. It was fun going to treatment up there, and one of my best friends would make a day out of it each time. We would go there and go swimming in the hotel, and eat at some new restaurants. It was going well! And while doing all of it I was able to work on finishing up high school. Just two days before my birthday, on February 2nd, I rang the bell a third time and finished the trial! Woohoo!
Then about 15 minutes after ringing the bell, my doctors brought me back into the office and told me there was once again a new nodule. The best way I can describe how I was feeling is, have you ever watched one of those jump scare videos? Imagine watching the same exact one over and over again. Eventually, it’s not scary anymore and it is just annoying.
So, we went through the same process again, surgery then calling around and asking what trial I should do next. We ended up choosing one in Cleveland, Ohio and it was fun for the first week. Then for the next month and a half, it was just terrible. By the time I withdrew from that trial, I had stopped eating and I even confessed that I was ready to give up on everything. This turned out to be a side effect of the trial medication: it caused really bad depression. I am still recovering from it almost two years later.
Thankfully, my amazing girlfriend, family, and friends pulled me out of it and convinced me to at least have the surgery and then talk about starting treatment another time. Oddly enough, just removing the nodule and not doing treatment gave me the longest remission I have had to date. During my remission I graduated high school, which was great after trying to get that done for 5 years. I became a volunteer firefighter so I could start getting experience to join the Texas A&M Forest Service. I also started EMT school, which was a blast!
Part way through EMT school, I relapsed. This wasn’t my typical relapse though, we didn’t catch it because of a regular scan: I was having chest pain and went into the ER to get it checked out. I had a 5.5cm nodule, and things were scary again! Every time I had relapsed, my nodules were measured in millimeters, but centimeters?! Come on! While I was in the process of trying to get into a new trial I relapsed again.Thankfully, this was tiny because I did not want to have a crazy long surgery again.
As of now, I am recovering from my last surgery and am once again pursuing a trial at MD Anderson in Houston, Texas. I’m also still kicking cancer’s behind!
Addendum: Recently, James has experienced yet another relapse, resulting in another surgery on 12/27/24. He continues to search for clinical trials and aggressive treatment approaches, highlighting the need for more and better treatment options for sarcoma patients.
