My Daughter’s Journey With Renal Medullary Carcinoma By Dorothy Osuorji
- June 30, 2023
In early June 2021, my daughter Linda Amaka Osuorji was experiencing serious stomach pain. She noticed blood in her urine and went to ER that night. She was diagnosed with urinary tract infection (UTI) and she was prescribed antibiotics. She went back home but the pain persisted, and she had to go back to the ER where they did a scan that showed right there a tumor in her kidney. They decided to operate and take out the right kidney hoping that it would be the end of it. However, when a biopsy was done, they found out that cancer had metastasized. That was when our cancer journey began.
An Oncologist was assigned to my daughter and chemo was started immediately. She experienced non stopping pain every moment of her life through the cancer ordeal. The first chemo did work a little bit but stopped. They switched to the second type which did not help. She was losing weight rapidly due to loss of appetite and lack of sleep from the excruciating pain she was experiencing. A third type of chemo was ordered which did not help either. The pain continued with the help of the palliative team by this time she was taking a series of pain medication that did not help much. It is worthy to note that all this time, she was still working trying to stay strong and praying that she would beat this disease.
With all the medications not showing any signs of helping, she researched and with the help of her aunt was able to switch oncologists that helped to refer her to a trial at MD Anderson Houston where the RMC specialists came highly recommended. On October 12, we traveled to Houston for the trial. The first trial was given on the 25th of October but unfortunately, it did not help.
The pain continued and we were admitted to the hospital for three weeks. Throughout this period, the pain was relentless and excruciating. My daughter lost over 40% of her body weight. She could not eat nor sleep because of the pain. Radiation was recommended to shrink the tumor in her spine to reduce the pain. She undertook the radiation treatment which finished after 5 days of radiation. We were happy when we were done hoping that some positive results and feedbacks afterwards. Unfortunately, that night we had a scan that showed the cancer spread to the lungs. This happened to be the end of the journey for us. The next morning the doctors came and informed us that we had only three days to fly back to California. Unfortunately, five days after returned to California, Linda passed on the 13th of December 2022.
My daughter was a fighter. She did everything she could to beat this monster but unfortunately, it was more than she could handle. Her faith was very strong and never wavered. We prayed, she researched and she fought with everything she had but lost. However, her death would never be in vain. I would do everything in my power to ensure that people know about this disease and how to watch out for it and stop it in its tracks before it rears its ugly head.
My goal now is to help create awareness about this disease that affects only black people and people of color. It starts with a sickle cell trait which most of us have. Check for cysts in the kidneys which in most cases it’s nothing unless you have the trait which could develop into a tumor if not detected on time. Our job is to make sure we are asking our doctors questions and to get the screening. A very small percentage of us develop this disease. Please spread the news and let’s try and create awareness of Renal Medullary Carcinoma (RMC).
Thank you