The 15th annual steps for sarcoma took place on September 15, 2024
stay tuned for details on the 16th annuaL Steps for Sarcoma
Thank you to everyone that participated and fund raised for our research and upcoming Sarcoma Research Grant Awards.
Every donation makes a big impact on our work!
Stay Tuned for the total of FLEECE TIED BLANKETS COLLECTED AT THE 2024 Event!
Thank you to everyone that donated to our community project to benefit oncology patients at The James, Nationwide Children's Hospital, and The Ohio State University of Veterinary Medicine.
Please email us if you have any questions: [email protected]
Please email us if you have any questions: [email protected]
Sarah, Madison, and Reagan
Rinehart headed up the fleece blanket project at the event in 2022. They delivered 28 Blankets
to The James Cancer Hospital.
James Hospital Volunteers
gave them to Oncology Patients.
2022 was first year we did this community project and donated 90 blankets to the three hospitals.
|
Fritz, is an osteosarcoma patient at The Ohio State University Veterinary Medical College, and is enjoying one of our dog blankets. Thank you Drs. Selmic, Burge, Kisseberth, and Bracha for passing out our blankets to your patients! |
OUR MISSION
|
We strive to bring patient, family, and community sarcoma awareness and education by raising orthopaedic sarcoma pilot research funds, to promote improved patient outcomes and quality of life.
|
survivor stories...
Diane Rausch - Survivor Story 2023
On September 22, I will celebrate being cancer free for 30 years. It has not been an easy journey but I thank God that I am still here. God has given me so many blessings since this journey began.
When I was pregnant with my third daughter, I began to have a lot of pelvic pain and was having a very hard time walking. My doctor said it was because she was a big baby. She was a big baby weighing in at 8lbs 15 ½ oz. While the pain got better it didn’t go away. My doctor ordered a bone scan and told me at my follow up that sometimes women experience symptoms that aren’t really there...it was all in my head. A year later, I fell in a pool and could barely walk. The ER doctor ordered an X-ray and said it was probably a pulled muscle and that I should follow up with my family doctor. I followed up with him and he said the same thing. A year later I was in a terrible accident that totaled my car but left me with only a lot of pain and no injuries. I finally went to a chiropractor 10 months later for my pain and he did full X-rays. I went back that afternoon to get the plan of what he would do to help with my pain. He had no plan for me only a referral to an orthopedic surgeon because of a large tumor on my pelvis. That tumor was circled on the bone scan when it was all in my head and circled again on the X-ray when I probably pulled a muscle. My ortho in Toledo did a biopsy that had to be sent to the Mayo clinic because they couldn’t identify what it was. Several days later I was told I had Chondrosarcoma. I was sent to Columbus to see Dr. Wise. Surgery was scheduled for 2 weeks later. We had to move up my daughter’s sixth birthday party and get things figured out for all 3 of my girls who were then 8, 5 and 3. My doctor in Toledo cleared her schedule and came to Columbus to assist Dr. Wise in my 8 hour surgery to remove part of my pelvis. I learned that day what a 10 was on the pain scale! I spent 10 days at the James and then went home to my family with a metal plate, 10 screws, 85 staples on the outside and who knows how many on the inside and a very uncomfortable brace. I had to learn how to walk all over again. The first time I got out of bed the PT had to push my leg forward with each step. As hard as all of it was, I was thankful to still have my leg because there was a possibility that I could have lost it.
A week after I went home I was back in the hospital with blood clots and was on blood thinners for a while after that. Three months later I had a very large bulge in my abdomen. A scan showed that I had developed a football sized hernia so I had another surgery to repair that. It was difficult because the bone they normally attach mesh to for a hernia was gone. A few months later I was having bladder problems and pain and they found that my bladder had been sewn when they repaired the hernia. Another surgery followed. The hernia repair didn’t really fix the problem so I had another surgery to try to make it better. It didn’t work. Since then my bladder has moved over into that space in my abdomen but surgery may only make it worse. I saw a Dr. who is part of a team at OSU who does difficult abdominal wall surgeries and the first thing he said to me was, “Have you seen your CT?” Fortunately he was honest and said that there was nothing he could do.
In 2011, after many different doctors (12) for pain in my hip that was getting worse, a doctor told me I should go back to Ohio State. Dr. Wise had retired by then so I saw Dr. Scharschmidt. In June of 2012, Dr. Scharschmidt replaced my hip which brought me a lot of relief from the pain. It was a little complicated because of the missing bone and the plate and screws. Unfortunately that relief didn’t last as long as we had hoped. When I leaned over to get something on the floor, we believe I tore scar tissue from my original surgery. I had bruises that followed the scar line from beginning to end. Since then, I still have pain.
After 28 years of teaching it was time for me to retire. All I could think was now what? In August I went to visit my older daughter and when I came home I read the church bulletin that my husband had brought home. There was an ad that Catholic Charities was looking for families to be foster parents for newborns. I always said I wanted to rock babies when I retired. My husband agreed and on Easter of 2013 we brought home our first baby. In 2015 we transferred our license to Lucas County and got a call for a baby the day our license was approved. We were told she would be with us for 2 weeks. That 2 weeks turned into months and on September 19, 2016 she became our daughter forever. We fostered 17 children and the last one became our grandson when our daughter adopted him.
For a while I was really angry with that doctor that told me it was all in my head and that ignored the reports from the radiologists. But I believe God’s hand was in that! How would I have managed to go through all that with a newborn and 2 and 5 year old? It was a slow growing cancer that had probably been there since before I was born. My daughters are now 38, 35, and 33. I have gotten to see them grow up, graduate from college, get married and have children. I was there when 3 of my grandchildren were born. There are 8 of them now and a ninth is on the way!
Cancer is a horrible thing to go through but I look at the things in my life that happened because of it: the people I have met, the children who would have never been in my life and the strong faith I have developed and it makes it all seem not so bad.
On September 22, I will celebrate being cancer free for 30 years. It has not been an easy journey but I thank God that I am still here. God has given me so many blessings since this journey began.
When I was pregnant with my third daughter, I began to have a lot of pelvic pain and was having a very hard time walking. My doctor said it was because she was a big baby. She was a big baby weighing in at 8lbs 15 ½ oz. While the pain got better it didn’t go away. My doctor ordered a bone scan and told me at my follow up that sometimes women experience symptoms that aren’t really there...it was all in my head. A year later, I fell in a pool and could barely walk. The ER doctor ordered an X-ray and said it was probably a pulled muscle and that I should follow up with my family doctor. I followed up with him and he said the same thing. A year later I was in a terrible accident that totaled my car but left me with only a lot of pain and no injuries. I finally went to a chiropractor 10 months later for my pain and he did full X-rays. I went back that afternoon to get the plan of what he would do to help with my pain. He had no plan for me only a referral to an orthopedic surgeon because of a large tumor on my pelvis. That tumor was circled on the bone scan when it was all in my head and circled again on the X-ray when I probably pulled a muscle. My ortho in Toledo did a biopsy that had to be sent to the Mayo clinic because they couldn’t identify what it was. Several days later I was told I had Chondrosarcoma. I was sent to Columbus to see Dr. Wise. Surgery was scheduled for 2 weeks later. We had to move up my daughter’s sixth birthday party and get things figured out for all 3 of my girls who were then 8, 5 and 3. My doctor in Toledo cleared her schedule and came to Columbus to assist Dr. Wise in my 8 hour surgery to remove part of my pelvis. I learned that day what a 10 was on the pain scale! I spent 10 days at the James and then went home to my family with a metal plate, 10 screws, 85 staples on the outside and who knows how many on the inside and a very uncomfortable brace. I had to learn how to walk all over again. The first time I got out of bed the PT had to push my leg forward with each step. As hard as all of it was, I was thankful to still have my leg because there was a possibility that I could have lost it.
A week after I went home I was back in the hospital with blood clots and was on blood thinners for a while after that. Three months later I had a very large bulge in my abdomen. A scan showed that I had developed a football sized hernia so I had another surgery to repair that. It was difficult because the bone they normally attach mesh to for a hernia was gone. A few months later I was having bladder problems and pain and they found that my bladder had been sewn when they repaired the hernia. Another surgery followed. The hernia repair didn’t really fix the problem so I had another surgery to try to make it better. It didn’t work. Since then my bladder has moved over into that space in my abdomen but surgery may only make it worse. I saw a Dr. who is part of a team at OSU who does difficult abdominal wall surgeries and the first thing he said to me was, “Have you seen your CT?” Fortunately he was honest and said that there was nothing he could do.
In 2011, after many different doctors (12) for pain in my hip that was getting worse, a doctor told me I should go back to Ohio State. Dr. Wise had retired by then so I saw Dr. Scharschmidt. In June of 2012, Dr. Scharschmidt replaced my hip which brought me a lot of relief from the pain. It was a little complicated because of the missing bone and the plate and screws. Unfortunately that relief didn’t last as long as we had hoped. When I leaned over to get something on the floor, we believe I tore scar tissue from my original surgery. I had bruises that followed the scar line from beginning to end. Since then, I still have pain.
After 28 years of teaching it was time for me to retire. All I could think was now what? In August I went to visit my older daughter and when I came home I read the church bulletin that my husband had brought home. There was an ad that Catholic Charities was looking for families to be foster parents for newborns. I always said I wanted to rock babies when I retired. My husband agreed and on Easter of 2013 we brought home our first baby. In 2015 we transferred our license to Lucas County and got a call for a baby the day our license was approved. We were told she would be with us for 2 weeks. That 2 weeks turned into months and on September 19, 2016 she became our daughter forever. We fostered 17 children and the last one became our grandson when our daughter adopted him.
For a while I was really angry with that doctor that told me it was all in my head and that ignored the reports from the radiologists. But I believe God’s hand was in that! How would I have managed to go through all that with a newborn and 2 and 5 year old? It was a slow growing cancer that had probably been there since before I was born. My daughters are now 38, 35, and 33. I have gotten to see them grow up, graduate from college, get married and have children. I was there when 3 of my grandchildren were born. There are 8 of them now and a ninth is on the way!
Cancer is a horrible thing to go through but I look at the things in my life that happened because of it: the people I have met, the children who would have never been in my life and the strong faith I have developed and it makes it all seem not so bad.
