Reid is a very active boy and in early 2020 he broke his right leg whilst playing hockey. It was only at this stage that the tumours were found in the tibia of his right leg. It then took 11 months for Reid to be diagnosed.
During these 11 months we had lots of ups and downs. We were first told that his tumours were benign. In May 2020 Reid had surgery in London, Ontario to remove the tumours, but when the surgeon cut into his leg, the tumours "spilled out with a toothpaste-like consistency." The surgeon had never seen this before, so he took a biopsy and stitched Reid back up.
From there the biopsy was sent from London, Ontario to Toronto, Ontario and then to Calgary, Alberta. No-one could provide a proper answer on what these tumours actually were.
In September 2020, when we still didn't have a proper diagnosis, I used a Second Opinion Service through my work to get a medical team together to study all of the information (scans and biopsies) we had on Reid.
The team was located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. About a month or so later, they sent us a report stating that they all thought it was adamantinoma. I sent this off to our doctor, who then asked for another biopsy where they tested for adamantinoma, and it came back positive. The doctors were saying that his tumours were showing different characteristics of many different tumours, and this is why it was so confusing for them.
In December 2020, we finally had a correct diagnosis of adamantinoma.
Reid then had two further surgeries at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario. The first was in May 2021, where the surgeon removed the tumours and placed a donor bone in his leg. Unfortunately, scans showed that the tumour cells remained in his leg, so Reid underwent further surgery in September 2021, where his left fibula was used to replace his right tibia.
During this surgery, as the tumour was so close to his ankle, the surgeon had to cut into his ankle growth plate. They stretched out Reid's right leg as much as thy could, knowing that he will now not grow much at the ankle growth plate because of them cutting into it.
Reid is currently followed up every four months at the Hospital for Sick Children with a check-up and an X-ray. We have been getting clear scans to date. We have also been told that Reid will need further surgery in the next year or so to essentially stunt the growth on his left leg, so he does not end up with one leg longer than the other.
So far, Reid is doing really well. He has had lots of physical therapy and there is still a long way to go to get him back into sports, but he is determined to do it. He really wants to get back into playing hockey, so he keeps focusing on that.
We found so much strength in the support of family and friends, and from everyone around us.
My advice to other families would be to hang in there, be strong and fight for answers.
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