(Originally drafted August 29,2017)
Pictured is my good friend Jenny Gray (Mick). Jenny and I went to Bryan Elementary School together and graduated Lake City School in 2003. She is currently in a battle of her own at the end of her fourth round of chemo (8th stint of inpatient).
Pictured is my good friend Jenny Gray (Mick). Jenny and I went to Bryan Elementary School together and graduated Lake City School in 2003. She is currently in a battle of her own at the end of her fourth round of chemo (8th stint of inpatient).
Yesterday was a tough day for Jenny. Her mother was originally diagnosed with a Stage 2 mixed Glioma Astrocytoma in 1993. After 3 brain surgeries between Kootenai-Seattle she was diagnosed with a Grade 3 Oligodendroglioma and had her 4th brain surgery where I receive my treatment in Phoenix at Barrow Neurological Center. She passed away September 7, 2011 after a 18 year battle with brain cancer.
I want to this VERY CLEAR. I would NEVER post anything about anyone without their permission and prior approval.
Jenny started college at Montana State University. After a semester at MSU, she took a semester off and moved to Arizona and just worked to save money. She came back to CdA and played soccer at NIC for a year. Later transferred to University of Idaho, where she studied Natural Resource Management. Graduating with her B.S. in 2008. She went back to U of I for her Master's degree, graduating in 2014 with a M.S. in Environmental Science.
Jenny worked for the Forest Service from 2003-2014, doing trails/recreation work and Wildland firefighting.
In spring of 2015, while training for a half marathon, her left knee began to hurt. She went to a physical therapist who diagnosed it as a strained MCL. She took a couple months off from running and that fixed the problem with her left knee. Upon her return to running during the summer of 2015, her right knee started to hurt. It felt similar to what she felt in her left a few months prior, so she just thought it was the same problem, but different knee.
After several months of her right knee not feeling better, Jenny went to her doctor. The Doctor thought it was Pes Anserine Bursitis and recommended she take the winter off from running, skiing, etc. and that she do some stretches her Doctor recommended. Jenny did this and it seemed to help a bit, but by late spring and summer of 2016, the pain was getting worse.
Having been an athlete her entire life and having various small injuries that hurt worse than what she was feeling, Jenny didn't think it was much to worry about other than the fact that it just wouldn't go away. But by late August of 2016 the pain was getting to the point where it hurt just to walk, so she called to get a referral to a physical therapist. The PT work seemed to help for a few weeks and then in late September 2016, the pain intensified tremendously. This was around the time she found out she was pregnant. Looking back now, the doctors think her pregnancy hormones could have accelerated the growth of the tumor and that is why the pain increased so much in September.
After about a month and a half of PT work, her PT referred her to an Orthopedist because he thought there was something else going on, possibly a torn meniscus. Because she was still in the first trimester of her pregnancy, she did not do any imaging to see what the issue was. Without the imaging, the orthopedist's best guess was also a torn meniscus. She spoke to a radiologist about when it would be safe to do an MRI and he recommended waiting until the 20 week mark of pregnancy. So that is what she did. On December 30, 2016 she went in for the MRI, thinking it would just confirm that she had a torn meniscus. Her Orthopedist called her later that afternoon after he got the radiology report and let her know she had a large tumor in her tibia that they thought was either a Giant Cell Tumor (which is typically benign) or an Osteosarcoma. She underwent a bone biopsy on January 11, 2017 at Sacred Heart in Spokane. The pathology report showed that the tumor was a Stage 2B osteosarcoma (the B relates to the size of the tumor; mine was large, around 11cm L x 5 cm W).
She’s currently in the midst of her fourth round of chemo (each round is 5 weeks long) out of 6 rounds.
February 1, 2017, the day before her 32nd birthday, and at the 24 week mark of her pregnancy, her right leg was amputated just above her knee joint. Typical treatment for Osteosarcoma is to do two full rounds of neo-adjuvant chemo (each round being 5 weeks long) prior to surgery (surgery options are amputation or limb salvage) to see how well the tumor shrinks, then you would have your surgery and several weeks of recovery, followed by 4 more rounds of adjuvant chemo. The chemo used for Osteosarcoma is very harsh and if she had chosen to do neo-adjuvant chemo, they would have lost the baby. They chose to delay chemo until their son was born, so she’s getting all 6 rounds of chemo in a row now.
The doctors wanted to induce her early to get her started on chemo ASAP. Jenny was induced at 34 1/2 weeks gestation and Dillon was born on April 10, 2017. He spent 8 days in the NICU at Sacred Heart and is a happy, healthy baby.
Because her Mom and maternal Grandfather both had brain cancer, she’s always wondered if there was a genetic link. Her Mom asked every Doctor she saw over her 18 year battle if brain cancer was hereditary and they all said there was no conclusive evidence that it was. Upon her diagnosis with Osteosarcoma, she began doing a ton of research and came across a rare genetic syndrome called Li-Fraumeni Syndrome. The core cancers seen with this syndrome include brain, pre-menopausal breast, Osteosarcoma, soft tissue sarcomas, and Adrenocortical Carcinoma. Without getting into too much detail, people with this syndrome have a very high risk of cancer, especially at a young age. This was alarming to learn about, especially given that her and her husband had never heard of it in all the years that her Mom dealt with her cancer and not one Doctor had ever mentioned it to her. Long story short, after hearing about her family history, Jenny’s Oncologist said she should definitely be tested for LFS. Jenny tested positive for LFS in June of 2017. LFS is an autosomal dominant mutation of the tp53 gene (a very important tumor suppressant gene). If you have LFS, there is a 50% chance of passing it to your children.
They had Dillon tested for LFS in August and unfortunately his results came back positive as well. They until Dillon is older to do the MRIs. We're meeting with a pediatric oncologist soon who will oversee Dillon's screening.
Pictured above is Jenny and her son Dillon September 25,2017 after her last round of chemotherapy.
If you would like to find out more or help you can donate at https://www.lfsassociation.org
