没有肩膀，没问题：脂肪素幸存者在截肢后调整到生活

Liposcarcoma Survivor Tom Gattle从来没有让他截肢的肩膀阻止他做他喜欢的事情。他用特殊棒钓鱼钓鱼。他喜欢使用卧式自行车与他的朋友一起骑自行车。他用轻量级步枪狩猎。他说，他骑着一匹略低于完美平衡的马。

这些调整都没有lways been easy, but for Tom, they’ve made it easier to give up his arm for life without liposarcoma, a type of软组织肉瘤。

“I had made up my mind that I was going to fight cancer at every turn,” he says. “It wasn’t ever a question for me.”

But even with his determined attitude, his cancer treatment and recovery weren’t easy.

识别脂质糖症状

Tom wasn’t sure what was causing the numbness in his left hand around 2008. He visited a series of doctors near his Louisiana hometown, Lake Providence. Eventually, doctors found a mass wrapped around the brachial plexus in his left shoulder that resulted in numbness and the loss of use of his left hand.

For years, Tom’s care team monitored the mass. But when it began to grow in 2017, he traveled across the country to see a specialist, who diagnosed him with liposarcoma. He underwent a round ofchemotherapy，但一个月后，肿瘤没有响应。在那一点上，汤姆想接受近在咫尺的治疗，所以他来了MD安德森based on his doctor’s recommendation.

来到MD Anderson进行脂质瘤治疗

在MD安德森,Tom saw sarcoma specialistRobert Benjamin, M.D.谁重新审查了他。本杰明证实了汤姆的诊断，但建议这种激进的癌症需要更多的行动。他推荐七个月化疗和五周的化疗radiation therapy，其次是截肢（套环骨和肩部的截肢）。之后手术，他需要三个月的化疗。

“I thought, if that’s what I need to do rid myself of the evil beast, then let’s do it,” Tom says. “I was very lucky to have found Dr. Benjamin.”

从2017年8月到2018年1月，汤姆经历了每周一轮的多柔比星，化疗药物，其次是五周的辐射。虽然，他的妻子埃德娜，他们的孩子和朋友支持他，缓解了他的恢复道路。

经过短暂的治疗后，汤姆接受了2018年5月16日的手术。在10小时的过程中，矫形外科医生Bryan Moon, M.D., removed Tom’s left shoulder and the area surrounding it. Then, plastic surgeonMargaret Roubaud, M.D., reconstructed the area.

手术后汤姆住在医院六天。每天，他遇到了身体和职业治疗师，每天都有更多的力量。

“You just put one foot forward after the other and every day moves the process along a little quicker,” Tom says.

肩膀截肢后的生活

With the surgery behind him, Tom finished up another three months of chemotherapy. He continues to travel toMD安德森随访每三个月一次。在约会之间，他在工作兼职（他的半退休）之间分裂了他的时间，并在路易斯安那州和密歇根州的北部的朋友和家人享受他最喜欢的爱好，在那里他住在一年中的一年。月亮博士甚至加入汤姆在过去的春天的狩猎之旅。

“You can’t grow an arm back, but you can cope and you can find a good quality of life after cancer,” he says. “I don’t know if my cancer will come back one day, but in the meantime, I’m going to make sure I have a heck of a time.”

Request an appointment atMD安德森online或通过拨打1-877-632-6789。