Tami Ward

April 2025

Not too long after I was blessed enough to pass my 10th anniversary of no ovarian cancer recurrence, I had finally stopped thinking about cancer, and then everything changed…

One night in June of 2024, severe shoulder pain woke me in the middle of the night, so I made an appointment with an orthopedic doctor, thinking it was my rotator cuff. At the appointment, the doctor looked at the side of my shoulder and ordered X-rays.  The x-ray revealed a bone tumor inside of my right shoulder. (I have a hereditary bone disorder that causes benign bone tumors to grow throughout my body). After the x-ray, the doctor ordered an MRI.

A few days later, I was walking with my boyfriend.  When he put his arm around me, he felt a very large lump on my right shoulder blade. (The Orthopedic doctor didn’t look at or examine my shoulder blade.)  I called the doctor and requested they add the shoulder blade to the MRI.  After the MRI, a few days later, I received a call that my follow-up appointment with the doctor was canceled because the original doctor was on vacation and his assistant wasn’t equipped to handle my case.  Of course, I became very concerned, so I reviewed my own MRI, which revealed a large sarcoma on my right shoulder blade. My second cancer journey had begun…

I called the orthopedic doctor at OHSU, who has treated my son for our hereditary bone disorder.   They had me forward my MRI report. Thirty minutes later, the doctor called to tell me that my tumor was serious and that he had scheduled a biopsy and an appointment for me. Things moved pretty quickly after this.  The biopsy came back that I had a grade 1, and surgery was scheduled to remove my shoulder blade, which was 80% tumor.

My surgery went well, and the doctor was able to get clean margins. I was recovering and went in for my 2-week follow-up appointment when I received the devastating news that my tumor was actually a grade 3. Six rounds of intensive chemo was the recommended treatment because my tumor was very rare and aggressive; I couldn’t believe I had to get on this ride again. The odds of having two rare genetically unrelated aggressive cancers in one lifetime were overwhelming. I completed the six rounds of chemo at the end of January. Now I’m back to every three-month checkups and praying for no evidence of disease every time.

The emotional and physical roller coaster of the past 8 months has been exhausting; I am grateful I made it through.  I’m very thankful that once again my life was once again saved by early detection. Every day, I remind myself how blessed I am to have more time with my loved ones.

*I have two children: Briggs, who just graduated from Oregon State University with a mechanical engineering degree, and Henry, who graduated from University of Oregon with a marketing and advertising degree. I’m a marketing manager for an online printing company in Tualatin, and I am returning to work on April 2nd.