Teen has surprising response to cancer
Patient's Name: Tajah H.
Parent's Name: Tisha D.
Home Town: Houston, TX
Current Age: 13
Date of Diagnosis: Jan. 29, 2019
Diagnosis: Osteosarcoma (femur & knee)
What were the early symptoms of Tajah’s cancer?
There was a two week period where her knee hurt, but it was mainly at night. At first I didn’t think much of it, I would give her ibuprofren. She would go to school in the morning and everything was fine but around 2 or 3 a.m., she’d come to me and be like, ‘Mom it hurts really bad.’
So I got her a doctor’s appointment. My mom had to take her because I had work. The doctor calls me and says, ‘I need you to get Tajah to Texas Children’s.’ I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ She said, ‘I can’t say for sure but it looks like there’s a mass in Tajah’s leg.’ I got off work, packed up and we came to Texas Children’s, and basically we’ve been coming here ever since.
What was it like once you got to Texas Children’s?We went to the ER, and they did their own X-rays, and the doctor called me into a room. He still said he couldn’t say cancer yet, but it looked like it. So I kept thinking, ‘There’s still a chance it’s not cancer,’ but he was like, ‘I’m 99 percent sure it’s going to be.’ We just had to wait for the biopsy to know for sure. When she went in for the biopsy, one of the staff members said, ‘If the pathologist can confirm it’s cancer right then and there, we should go ahead and put the port in while Tajah is already under general anesthesia. I’ll call you to get consent.’ Sure enough my phone rang and I heard the word port and I was like, ‘OK. So it really is cancer. She has cancer.’ It took til then to finally sink in.
How did you guys handle the early days?I didn’t even know of this type cancer, I’d never heard of it. Since I didn’t know anything about it, I didn’t feel like I could reassure her, and my main concern became basically trying to hide the severity of it from her. I told the doctors not to use the word cancer. To say tumor or mass. I was afraid of how she would react. But looking back, I realize that was more about my fear. You know, you think cancer, you think death. That’s the first thing that came to my mind. ‘Is she going to live or die?’
Finally, I had a talk with her, and I asked her how she was doing. She said, ‘Mama, I know what a tumor is. A tumor is cancer.’ She had a little cousin who had leukemia and beat it, and she said ‘If Dallas can handle it, I can.’ She was telling me she can handle the word cancer. All throughout she’s been, ‘Mama I’ve got this. Mama, I’m fine. You worry too much.’ She knows all her medicines, she knows her hemoglobin, her platelets. It made me proud and less worried about her. But I still smother her and don’t let her go anywhere because she could get sick.
Tajah had to have part of her leg removed, how did she handle that?She got a metal knee and extendable metal femur. She will not need another one until 25 years from now, won’t have to have multiple surgeries as she grows. When we told her that she would never be able to play sports, she was like ‘YESSS!!!!!’ The doctor laughed and said, ‘I’ve never seen a kid get excited when I told them that.’ She hates sports. Right before this happened, I told her I was going to make her play a sport because all she wanted to do was talk on the phone. This was like a free pass to get out of that for the rest of her life.
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