Stevenbattlescancer.blogspot.com Website Review

Steven was nine years old when he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in February 2011. His knee was amputated in a procedure known as Van Ness You may already know that the American Cancer Society is the Official Sponsor of Birthdays.  This week, as we celebrated Steven's 16th birthday, I couldn't help but remember a time six years ago during his treatments when I wondered if he'd ever make it to this age.  Along with the birthday celebrations this week, Steven also had his annual check up.  Scans are over, and now the docs just do a chest x-ray and some blood work.  Everything looked great--he is the picture of health.  A perfect birthday present, but more than that, it feels like another year and most likely a whole life.  Is there a better gift?  As we get a little farther out from the experience, I find myself with answers that I couldn't have when we were in the trenches.  The puzzle is only sort of coming together, but this week it felt more clear than ever.  Here are some of the pieces: Steven's pediatrician is retiring.  As we received the invitation to his retirement party this month, it struck me how lucky we were to have him as our doctor.  He found the cancer on our first appointment with him.  I have read many osteosarcoma blogs and talked to other moms--a first time diagnosis is not the norm.  I thank the Lord for Dr. Schmidt and his knowledge and wisdom and for landing us in his Because Dr. Schmidt referred us to the Oncology clinic at Primary Children's, and because Dr. Jones was on call, we were then as*igned Dr. Jones for Steven's orthopedic surgeon.  We have long hailed Dr. Jones as our hero, but when we met with him this week, I started to ask him about how many of these surgeries he has done.  After some discussion, we learned that had Steven been referred to the other doctor in the practice, he would not have had the option to do rotationplasty because of the location of the cancer.  But Dr. Jones I don't know what would have happened had we picked something other than rotationplasty.  But earlier this year, we were having a family