Osteosarcoma – Angela Sullivan Running With Bone Cancer – runnersworld.com

Sgt. Angela Sullivan, 39, of Ashland, Kentucky, started running in 2007, two years before she joined the Army National Guard. At the beginning, she had a love-hate relationship with it. During her first marathon, she hoped to complete it in less than five and a half hours: She finished in 6:27.

“I crossed the finish line and said I would never do it again—I hated every minute of it,” she told Runner’s World. “But after two to three weeks, I started looking for my next one. I’m not in it to win it, I’m just in it to do it. I’ve been hooked ever since.”

Sullivan kept running a marathon each year, even after her deployment in 2011. In 2016, she completed her first ultra, a 50K trail run that she pushed through even while battling pneumonia. She followed it up with another ultra the next year, which she finished in six and a half hours.

In 2017, she set her sights on the Badwater 135 Ultra in Death Valley, one of the most difficult road races on Earth.

“I had read an article about it—it has the hottest temperatures, people’s shoes melt and they have to trade them out every few hours—it’s crazy, but I just knew I wanted to do it,” she says.

A Pain That Just Wouldn’t Quit

But in August of that year, she noticed some pain in her left knee after a 6-mile weighted military run, when she was carrying a 35-pound pack.

“Immediately afterwards, it felt like fullness in my knee when I tried to straighten it,” she says. “I did a lot of yoga to try and loosen it, but it always pinching and felt full.”

In her classic fashion, she tried to push through. She did an obstacle course run a few months later in November, but was still experiencing pain.

Sullivan decided to make an appointment with her primary care doctor right away: The run before her visit would be her last for a long time.

After her doctor examined her, she thought Sullivan might have a minuscule muscle tear. She was instructed to take six weeks off from running.

“I was devastated to take any time off,” she says.

But when her knee still felt the same after her break, her doctor recommended an MRI. She called her a couple days later, asking how soon she could be there. At that point, she knew it was something serious.

“All they told was that we need to see you right away…I thought, okay, it must be a tear,” she says. “I’m going to need surgery.”

But when she got to the office, it was apparent she wasn’t dealing with a tear.

“My doctor basically read me the radiology report—she didn’t have the words to tell me I had a gigantic tumor behind on my knee behind my patella,” she says.

Her doctor told her to see a specialist, who would order a biopsy. From here, they would determine if she’d need to have surgery to remove the tumor or would have to have possible chemotherapy. The word “cancer” was now out on the table.

“As soon as she told me and I had a second to catch my breath, I asked ‘So we’re talking possible amputation?’ My doctor was surprised I even asked. She said it was definitely on outer realm of possibility, but that yes, it was possible,” Sullivan says. “From minute she told me, I just knew I was going to lose my leg. I had a gut feeling.”

In January 2018, her needle biopsy was inconclusive. Some doctors believed it was osteosarcoma, or bone cancer, while others thought it was just a giant cell tumor, which is a benign growth. While her doctors were still going through the process of diagnosing the tumor, she wasn’t supposed to be putting any pressure on her leg in the case she did have bone cancer. If she did, her bones would be vulnerable to breaking, and if they broke, they could send free-flowing cancer cells throughout her body. So she was using crutches—which also meant she couldn’t run.

“At this point I was pretty frustrated,” she says.

And things got worse. On her way into a gas station, her crutch slipped on a wet floor. It snapped her leg straight back, breaking her femur.

“It was some of worst pain you can ever possibly imagine,” she says.

Getting Answers

Her fracture made it even more critical to figure out what was going on with her knee. She already had her surgery—where the doctor would be able to tell visually if she had cancer—planned for a few days later, on February 22, 2018.

Once they opened her up, the doctors knew that the tumor was definitely cancer. By the time of the operation, it had grown to the size of a softball, causing her leg to swell up so much she couldn’t even bend her leg.

Doctors told her that they needed to amputate her leg—and they needed to do it as soon as possible.

“Everybody had told me to not even consider amputation earlier in the diagnosis process, but I’m glad I didn’t listen,” she says. “It would have been a lot harder—I was partially prepared.”

She was in the hospital for two weeks after the surgery, and went into physical therapy. Her official diagnosis came soon after: spindle cell osteosarcoma, a type of soft-tissue tumor which starts in the bone.

Sullivan started chemotherapy in March 2018, completing eight rounds with four different drugs. By September of that year, she was done with her treatments, except for a chest scan every three months, since osteosarcoma is known to spread to the lungs.

“I had a hard time accepting that my new reality was as an amputee at first. I was fighting depression,” she says.

But she worked hard in physical therapy and received a prosthetic. She was back to being mobile, but with limitations—because of how high up the amputation on her leg was, it made for an uncomfortable fitting prosthetic, and weakened leg muscles prevented her from being able to run.

Still, she worked hard to keep moving and walking, hitting the gym rowing machine and few weights to get stronger. She had her sights set on participating in one of her favorite races, the Lincoln National Guard Marathon, the annual marathon that take place every May in Lincoln, Nebraska.

David Sullivan

Dealing With a Relapse

Then, in March of 2019, her chest scan revealed three small tumors the size of a ballpoint in her lungs. Her cancer had metastasized. She was diagnosed as stage 4 and put back on chemotherapy treatments.

“Chemo put a damper on my energy levels and motivation,” she says. “I was pretty blindsided because the tumor in my knee had been fast-growing, but the ones in my lungs took six months to show up.”

She was alternating different drugs this time, and felt “like a lump on the couch” for the first few days.

But by the sixth day of her first treatment, she was back in the gym.

When the Lincoln race came around in May, she decided to still participate as a volunteer, and was supported as part of a 10-member team of Kentucky National Guard members, who ran the race in her honor.

“They started the hashtag #milesforA when I wasn’t able to run in 2018. I had always logged my miles—in 2017, I ran 1,050 miles. So when I couldn’t, they ran miles for me,” she says. “They ran 6,127 miles for A for 2018. How am I ever going to beat that?!”

For a woman who’s used to logging the miles herself, serving as a volunteer at Lincoln was a bitterest experience.

“I was a bit sad for myself. But I started to look at it as, the volunteers are essential at any run, whether clapping giving out water,” she says. “Plus, people seeing a one-legged chick telling them to keep going might offer them more motivation! A couple people said they saw me on the course, and they said ‘I saw you, and I knew I could do it!’ I knew I did my job.”

Today, she’s trying to walk more, as issues with her prosthetic and the location of her amputation still make running difficult.

She got a fitness tracker and tries to get at least 5,000 steps a day, or at the minimum walk a mile. She’s weight training, riding a bike, and getting on the rower. Later in July, she is attending her first Amputee Coalition National Conference and is looking forward to meeting more amputees like her.

“I don’t know any amputees, and I don’t know anyone who’s been through what I’ve been through. I’m excited about seeing new technology—I’m in the market for a new socket,” she says. “I’m cautiously optimistic I’ll be able to find a socket that will allow me to move with more freedom.” She hopes that this will help with her mobility—she’s been having difficulty going up stairs—and possibly even help her get back to running again.

Looking Forward

Sullivan’s story is far from over, but she considers it important to share so other runners can learn from it.

“Most of us runners self-medicate with running, and ignore those aches and pains. But if you have something persistent and don’t know what it is, it’s better to go get it checked out. Don’t ignore your body if your body’s talking to you,” she says. “Mine is obviously a worst-case scenario, and 99 percent of people who will go get checked out will not have a tumor.”

And she’s taking things with cautious optimism for her future.

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“I have learned that I have a lot of choice in my attitude. I can choose to be upset or unhappy or depressed or unhappy. I can have a pity party, be grumpy or pissed off, ruminate about how I was a runner and had to remove my leg—but it doesn’t do me any good,” she says. “I get nothing out of that. I’ve adopted an attitude of being realistic while being optimistic. I can enjoy my life a little bit better.”

And that includes one day competing in Badwater.

“I don’t know when or how, but I still plan on doing it. I still have to have goals. I don’t know how to quit,” she says. “I won’t stop until I run again, even if it’s on my deathbed.”

Emily Shiffer is a former digital web producer for Men’s Health and Prevention, and is currently a freelancer writer specializing in health, weight loss, and fitness.