I am 18 and I have terminal cancer. This is my fourth time with the same cancer. AMA

Hello there! This is an update to an AMA I did in July 2024 and to the sequel that I did in November 2024 original linked here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AMA/comments/1dysekv/ive_been_diagnosed_with_cancer_3_times_in_just/
sequel linked here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AMA/comments/1gedl6u/i_have_survived_cancer_for_the_third_time_come/

Around March 2022 I was 15 and began developing the first physical sings of cancer: a lump just above my knee. My dad is a neurologist and had no concerns about my bump despite my growing pain. After visits to the pediatrician she sent me to physical therapy where they massaged the tumor (very very painful) and he was the one to convince us to see a different doctor after a month where the bump was only growing.

I was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a bone and tissue cancer, in May of 2022, the week before my freshman year of high school ended, and I had to do some finals online because of it. (Ironically my science unit had a test on cancer that I did while in the hospital). The main tumor was in the femur (bone right above my knee), but it had spread to the tibia (bone right below my knee) and to some surrounding tissue as well. While most child cancer patients go to clinics (basically specialized doctors offices) for a couple hours each week for their chemo then spend the rest of the day at home, I was in the hospital for each entire round of chemo, and most days in between the rounds of chemo as well due to many complications. 

I did 12 rounds of chemo and in August I had a limb salvage recovery surgery where they sawed off parts of my femur and tibia and replaced it with a metal bones and a titanium knee. This surgery paralyzed me from the waist down for 5 months. I did 4 more rounds of chemo to eliminate the rest of the cancer, including the day of my 16th birthday which I spent in the hospital getting chemo. After 16 grueling rounds of chemo, I was declared cancer free in January 2023. While doing online school to simultaneously finish my sophomore year of high school and catch up with the first half of the school year which I had missed, I began physical therapy and took my first steps.

7 months later, I was walking with aids and braces and was excited to start junior year next month. In July of 2023 I was diagnosed with osteosarcoma again, only this time in the right lung. 2 weeks later I had a couple wedge resections to remove the parts of my lung with the cancer nodules. After missing the first two weeks due to recovery, I was able to go to school in-person while on a pill-form chemo that I took every day while getting infusions of harder hitting chemo on the weekends. I was on this chemo during my 17th birthday, but this time I got to be with my friends. I was never declared cancer free, as technically the cancer ended when they removed it from my lungs, but I was still on chemo and I was supposed to celebrate being cancer free when the chemo ended. It was supposed to end in March of 2024. 

In February 2024, I was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in my left lung. Unlike the second cancer, this uprooted my life again as I was forced to immediately start chemo in the hospital and wasn’t able to complete my junior year of high school. I did 3 rounds of chemo, had a pulmonary surgery to remove my entire left lung, and the doctors inserted a machine to shock my heart to a normal rythum (so many rounds of chemo have weakened it). I did 4 more rounds of chemotherapy while simultaneously completing radiation, was diagnosed cancer free a couple days before my 18th birthday in late October, and then did another 4 more rounds of chemotherapy while doing immunotherapy to eliminate the chances of it coming back for a fourth time.

It came back a fourth time, while I was on the mix of chemotherapy and immunotherapy, in early January 2025. This time it was in my right lung and in 2 spots in my throat. I had a huge conference in Washington DC that I’d been preparing for over half a year, so I was allowed to go on it in February and then started radiation the morning after I came back. I finished radiation 2 weeks ago and am waiting for a couple more weeks for the inflammation to die down before I can take a scan to see how much the radiation killed the tumor, and then we will discuss treatment options from there.

This last diagnosis is also terminal. I am in my last months of senior year of high school. Before the radiation, I had a 9% chance to see my second semester of college. (Depending on how much the radiation worked, my chances may grow/shrink.) I like to think I am taking this pretty well, as I still want to go to school and college and I am not shutting out the world and crying every day, but it is still very depressing to hear my friends talking about college and life after that knowing I won’t have that. I have only told one of my friends so far, but I am waiting until after my friends complete their mid terms this and next week to tell the rest.

TLDR: 4 cancer diagnosis’s of osteosarcoma, 4 main surgeries (12 total), 32 rounds of chemo, 60 sessions (days) of radiation, and 4 rounds of immunotherapy done. More treatment on the way. I will likely be already dead or on my last days around new year 2026.