Hello fellow survivors!
My name is Susan Hampton and I’m a Leiomyosarcoma survivor and thriver for 18 years. One Saturday in early August 2001, I woke and ran my hands down the tops of my thighs. I had a lot on my mind as I was due to leave for China within the week to adopt my daughter. I felt something weird in my right thigh, high up along the crease next to my trunk. I called my doctor who (very reluctantly—his son had a soccer game) met me at the emergency room. An ultrasound was performed. The doctor left before speaking to me, but the nurse relayed his message: “Call me when you get back from China.”
I was preoccupied with new motherhood at the age of 45. And I was very tired.
It was 2003 before I saw a surgeon. He sent me to a cosmetic surgeon, who then sent me to Barnes Hospital. It was cancer, first thought to bone cancer, but then diagnosed as leiomyosarcoma. “What’s that?” I wondered. I remember asking the surgeon if he thought I would see my kid go to kindergarten. He sighed and said, “Probably.”
I had surgery followed by 7 weeks of radiation. Four months later, my husband decided that life was not “fun” anymore. He left. I was home alone in a two-story house with a three-year-old, recently retired on a teacher’s pension, with open burns on my radiation site. Yikes!
I survived. I eventually remarried a saint who has helped raise my child. I have a lovely scar, lots of edema, a slight limp, and a handicap license plate.
My daughter will be 21 this July. On February 10, 2021, I will have been cancer free for 18 years. I have been very lucky, I will admit. My daughter has been more affected by being abandoned twice, once as a baby and then again by her dad, than she has by my “boo-boo leg.” Life is good. We own four horses and ride on the weekends. That leg comes in handy!
Caption for photo: The family with boyfriend Nathan
Congratulations on your cancerversary of 18 years!
Congrats on your long survivorship and incredible amount of time being NED!
I hope you never recur (but if you do, you’ll get thru it!).
Way to go Susan! You are such a ray of hope! May you continue to dance with NED with your lovely family by your side for a long, long time to come! Thank you for sharing your story. 💪 💜
Thank you so much for sharing your hopeful story with us! I’m so glad that you are cancer free for this long and wish you NED forever!
What a wonderful story. Thank you for sharing.
Such an inspirational story! May it end like a fairy tale – “and they all lived happily (and NED) ever after”!
What a great story. I’m so glad you’ve done so well.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful, inspiring story with us all. I’m so sorry that you’ve been though so much, but so happy to read all the good news!
Congratulations! So happy for you and your family. Here’s wishing you many more years together!