Josh's Story 

At the bottom of this page you will find links that may be useful if you need information on cancer

My son, Joshua Scruggs, past away at the young age of 18. He had chrondoblastic Osteosarcoma. He was diagnosed in Oct. of 2003. His struggle ended on March 20th 2006 and this is his story.

 

Before Josh was diagnosed I took him to see an Orthopedic several times. We were told repeatedly his pain was just a pinched nerve or pulled muscle. After several visits I demanded an MRI. This was where our nightmare began. A large mass was seen at the base of Josh's spine on the MRI. We were sent to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville TN. Josh was scheduled for a needle biopsy. The tests were inclusive, the doctors felt certain it was a malignant tumor but the characteristics were different from any they had seen.

 

On Oct. 24th 2003, the day after Josh's 16th birthday, Josh had his first open biopsy. Little did we know but from that point on Josh never walked without a limp or was pain free again. When the biopsy results came back researchers felt sure that it was osteosarcoma but also had elements of chondrosarcoma, Chrondoblastic.

 

Josh began Chemotherapy immediately, which went on for about 9 months and then it was obvious that this tumor was not only not responding but also growing in size. After 9 months of nausea, low counts, weight loss, and spending about 75% of his time in the hospital, the darn tumor was growing. At this point Vanderbilt's Orthopedic Bone Surgeon told us that he felt Josh was inoperable. I could not accept this and neither could josh, not without a long hard fight.

 

That's when I began to research Hospitals, doctors, and their special interests areas. I found an orthopedic surgeon in Houston Texas at M.D. Anderson who was willing to at least let us fly out so he could examine Josh and form his own opinion as to the status of the tumor.

 

We went to M.D. Anderson in July of 2004 to see Dr. Alan Yasko. After examing Josh, Dr Yasko told me he thought he could do the operation without paralyzing him but was sure if he could get enough of the surrounding tissue to prevent reoccurrence. It was out only hope. On August 11th, 2004 Josh entered the hospital at 4a.m. to prep for surgery. We were expecting about an 8 to 10 hour operation. Morning turned into afternoon, afternoon turned into evening and evening turned into night, it turned out to be a 17 hour operation. I know they needed new carpet in that waiting room after I was done pacing. Late that night Josh was moved to Intensive Care Unit where he would be kept sedated for a couple days to help keep him from moving too much. He came though it all with flying colors. We flew back home 9 days later, where Josh continued to recuperate at a remarkable pace. I was so happy this thing was out of my sons body.

 

In Sept. 2004 Josh went back on what was called maintence chemotherapy. He finished that, and all the bad stuff that came with it. Then we were told about another preventive therapy called Neutron Radiation. To get this we flew to Seattle Washington to University Hospital. One month of out patient treatments, 5 days a week, 4 hours a day. Josh totally hated being away from home, but he endured the month and again came through with flying colors.

 

Remission! Finally Josh was officially in remission. It was a good year too that followed. I had begun think we beat the once thought unbeatable! Then in December of 2005 Josh's right leg began to swell and he had a knot the size of a golf ball arises in his groin area. He was admitted to Vanderbilt Children's again, this time nobody seemed to know what was wrong. This went on for a few weeks and finally they were going to biopsy an enlarged lymph node, while there they noticed what the scans had been missing, another tumor buried deep inside the pelvis. Next he had kidney and liver failure; this made him not able to receive traditional chemotherapy. Again I sought the advice of M.D. Anderson and again we flew out for a 2nd opinion.

 

We arrived on Feb. 14th, 2006. On the 15th Josh was examined and tests were run all week. End of the week we had a conference with the oncologist there. His opinion was that josh could not endure chemotherapy, not at that time anyway. He thought with Josh's recent kidney and liver failure, which he did recover from, that it would be too risky to the vital organs. He also thought Josh should try to regain some strength as well as gain a little weight; he only weighed 98 lbs then at 5 ft 10". He suggested putting Josh on a very mild chemotherapy pill at home just to try to maintain the growth of the tumor until Josh was stronger. So we went home, and still with hope.

 

Over next couple weeks Josh's pain got very intense, his pain management doctor had put him on methadone back in Dec of 2005. I could tell the drug was changing him, his attitude changed, and his weight loss only got worse. I begged him to try and other meds instead of methadone. The pain management doctor told him he had patients on 1700 milligrams a day, and Josh's dose was 40 milligram pills, up to 3 times a day.

 

On March 13th, 2006 Josh was again admitted to Vanderbilt, this time he was transported through life flight. No one seemed to know why this was happening when the tumor had only recently been discovered. I knew though, it was methadone. The doctors took Josh`s father and I into a room and discussed the possibility that Josh's organs were shutting down from all the past treatments. I begged them to consider that just maybe the methadone was causing all these problems but they did not think so.

 

Josh was stabilized and released from the hospital on March 19th. We arrived home some time around 7pm. There was lots of family there to greet him and many phone calls to catch up with friends. Sometime during the night Josh took a total of 9 methadone pills and 3 lunesta sleeping pills. The next morning he was rousable but somewhat disoriented, and was having problems breathing. 911 was called and again he was rushed to the local hospital, where we expected he would be transferred to Nashville, the nearest Children's hospital. This time was different though. The nurse came to get me in the waiting room and said he was stabilized and asking for me. I went back to see him, he was rolling from side to side complaining of severe back pain. Suddenly he stopped and reached for me, putting his arms tight around my neck and he said "I love you Mom", then asked for his Dad. I got dad from waiting room and Josh did the same thing to him as he did me. Then he said "I  can't breathe"! I called into the hall for help. A nurse appeared and slowly started putting the heart monitor on him and told his father and I that she did not have a clue what was going on and that she had just went on duty. She left the room. Josh still not breathing good. Again screamed for help, this time the doctor came in, seemingly somewhat aggravated at my calls. He kept his back to josh and began talking to Josh's father and me about what all josh had been through when I shouted at him that Josh did not look like he was breathing at all then, the doctor turned and calmly said "hes not". He gently sits down and began CPR, he called for help in the room at a low voice, and nobody came. Again he called only this time louder, the ambulance driver was still there and he came into the room to help with CPR, and then followed the nurses. Josh vital signs were regained one time and lost about 30 seconds later. He past away at 10:49 a.m. His death certificate says "Accidental Overdose" I wish somebody had listened to his father and me. All the fighting cancer, the chemo, the sickness, the weight loss, the pain and suffering, to die from an accidental overdose.

 

 

Dear Cancer

Why must you do what you do

Have you no heart

What have we done to you

To tear our world apart

 

 You are not prejudice               

And I want to know

Do you enjoy this

Attacking both young and old

 

Will you leave and take your pain

Will you leave this very hour

What do you hope to gain

You`ve shown your power

 

We know your might

It is more than I can bare

There`s no peace day or night

I am weak-this is not fair

 

Just this once won`t you leave

You can keep your reputation

It will be between you and me

No one will know your compassion

 

This is my request

I just had to ask

Either way I`ll do my best

If no-I`ll replace my mask.

By William Simmons
@2004
For His Friend & My Son, Joshua

 

Visit Josh's Online Memorial

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I realize the links below do not even come close to the information related to cancer. These are merely links that I found useful and hope they may help someone else. If you have something you would like to see on this page and think it will be helpful to others please email it to me and I'd be glad to post it here.

kaysmail@blomand.net

 

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