Courtesy of Mike Brohard, Colorado State Athletics –
At that age, at that moment, it’s significant. In some ways, a young athlete feels they’ve arrived.
At any age, at that moment, you’re frightened. In every way, you know you have to fight.
“The first diagnosis was 2008 and it was non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, stage 4. It was quite an adventure,” Mary Carlson said. “I had lost 70 percent of my bone mass, so I was not in a very good state.
“For about two years I had fought these pains I would have. I was a runner, and I still did that in my adult life, one of those things I loved, and it came very easy to me. I would start to have pains in different parts of my body. I remember going to my internist, and at one point she thought I was chronic. I’m a pretty tough cookie, and pain sits in the back for me. I remember I couldn’t walk across the street without extreme pain. But all the biopsies came back fine.”
Another day, another appointment for an injection in her knee, but doctors decided to do a bone scan, just in case. They didn’t expect anything, but it was best to rule it out.
When the results came back, they rushed Mary to the emergency room, expecting her femur to snap in two at any moment. That was in January of 2008.
“They admitted me and thought I had bone cancer. About four surgeries later – a lot of titanium in my body keeping my femur and hips together and my humerus and my neck,” Mary said. “The journey started at that point.”
