“You have cancer.” These three dreaded words are spoken to nearly 40% of Americans at some point in their lives, but they are never the words a parent wants to hear about their child.
Torie Dingler was an otherwise healthy and active teenager when she began noticing discomfort in her upper arm. Looking back, she admits, “The pain was probably there for close to a year,” but because she was active and still growing, it was easy to write off the discomfort as growing pains and not a serious threat. When the pain got worse, doctors discovered she had osteosarcoma of the humerus, or upper arm bone, at just 16 years old.
Understanding Osteosarcoma in Teens
Each year, close to 15,000 parents will hear those same life-changing words. Childhood cancer commonly includes cancers of the blood, brain, lymph nodes and bone or connective tissue. Approximately 1,000 individuals are diagnosed with osteosarcoma—a cancer of the bone—in the United States each year, with about half of these cases occurring in children or teens.
Torie described her journey of living with osteosarcoma. Since her diagnosis, she has faced numerous treatments, surgeries and obstacles. She recalled multiple surgeries, including removing the tumor plus about six inches of her upper arm bone and losing her deltoid muscle. Unlike most cancers, osteosarcoma does not always advance from Stage I to IV. Instead, it is often described as either localized or metastatic.
Torie’s diagnosis began as localized. After her tumor was resected, she pursued chemotherapy treatments, but her cancer progressed while on treatment, metastasizing—or spreading—to her lung. Torie and her family knew at that point that her prognosis was less than ideal, with five-year survival rates quoted at around 25%.
Defying the Odds
Torie’s story is one of continually defying those odds. She is not only surviving but thriving many years later, now living with undetectable disease. Based on the statistics and prognosis she was given, Torie is keenly aware that she is living a life not every survivor gets the chance to live. She attributes her recovery to an excellent team of health care providers and her deeply supportive family and friends.
In early adulthood, she has continued thriving within her community of young adult survivors she met through The Boon Project. Teens and young adults face unique challenges following a cancer diagnosis, including financial strain, social isolation and depression. Undergoing cancer treatments as a teenager meant missing school and missing out on teenage experiences many take for granted.
“My diagnosis shaped my teenage years, pulling me from school and isolating me from people my age. I felt like their lives were continuing on while mine felt like it was suspended in time,” Torie explained.
Katherine Brown, founder and executive director of The Boon Project, said, “Being diagnosed with cancer as a teenager and recurring again as a young adult made for some very unique and overwhelming obstacles for Torie. In spite of it all, she graduated high school and college, became a nurse, purchased a home and became a mother. She’s an encouragement to others. It’s tempting to look at what she has accomplished and think it must have been easy, but I know firsthand from working with survivors just how much harder each of these accomplishments is as a survivor.”
Torie even received The Fight and Take Flight award from The Boon Project, recognizing her post-diagnosis accomplishments and ability to encourage others walking a similar path.
A Survivor’s Outlook
Torie acknowledges that her diagnosis has shaped her outlook on the future. “I make a lot of decisions now that I probably wouldn’t have made before because I’m not afraid to take chances anymore.” Her seize-the-day attitude has empowered her to pursue career and personal goals that may not have seemed possible 11 years ago.
Looking at everything she has accomplished since receiving her life-changing diagnosis, Torie is extremely proud of finishing nursing school and has just entered her fourth year working as a registered nurse with Roper St. Francis Healthcare. But she’s most proud of fulfilling her dream of becoming a mother to her daughter Ruthie and living in the here and now.
Torie’s story is one of perseverance and resilience. Reflecting on her journey, she said, “I would tell someone going through something similar that the road is going to be bumpy. There will be speed bumps and roadblocks along the way, but just take every day as it comes.”
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By Blair Webb Grass, RN, MSN, CNM (ret.)
