TryingSoHard

I have a friend, B, who I know from a local photography group. We don't see each other often, but when we do we get along great and have fun hanging out. We keep up on Facebook. She has a 13-year old daughter, M. In late November, they were leaving a local pizza place and M and her friends were cutting up in the parking lot (as kids do). M did a cartwheel and fell when she landed... and didn't get up. Took her to a minor med place, they sent her immediately to a children's hospital. Children's hospital said something is definitely not right and sent her to St. Jude's (children's hospital for cancer).

Long story short, they found out she has cancer. The tumor on her femur is what caused her leg to break when she fell. She's been in traction ever since - poor child has had her leg held up with pins for over 3 months. They've done chemo and today are doing surgery to try to remove the tumor. It's apparently pretty tricky stuff because the tumor was partially 'feeding' off the femoral artery.

B just posted an update on the hospital's website. They're going to amputate M's leg. They knew going into the surgery that this was a possibility, but of course the hope was that they could save the leg.

She's 13 years old and is going to wake up from this surgery without a leg.

This is really bumming me the F out. I feel so badly for M and B and their whole family.

The kicker to this whole situation? The tumor in her leg isn't the only one. She has other, smaller, different tumors in her lungs. They already told her they couldn't take those out or get rid of them with chemo. The surgery was to attempt to heal her leg and her leg alone. They have given her 5 years to live.