Kaela Graham-Bowman was 29 years old when she began experiencing sharp pain in her hip that extended to her knee. She dismissed it as a sports injury or one of the many aches and pains of her career in the Australian Army.
Just 18 months later she was diagnosed with stage three cancer.
When the mother of two finally went to see a doctor, her diagnosis was almost immediate: She had a rare form of sarcoma that surgeons considered inoperable.
Kaela took everything she had to fight cancer the first time, but two years after receiving a clean bill of health, the disease metastasized to her lungs.
Your long journey When I regained my health, Kaela became so sick that she dropped to just 6 and 11 pounds (43 kg) and “I literally felt the life leave my body.”
Kaela, a Canberra emergency department nurse, currently has stage four metastases and is due to receive oral chemotherapy for the foreseeable future.
‘I was in the army so I thought I had bad hips when the pain started. But I also worked out five days a week, so I was very healthy,” she tells me.
Her pain turned to panic when a lump appeared on her thigh, seemingly overnight..
Kaela Graham-Bowman (pictured with her children) was 29 years old when she began experiencing acute pain in her hip that extended to her knee. turned out to be cancer
“If I didn’t have my kids, there’s no way I would have fought as hard as I did,” says Kaela
At first he thought it was a torn muscle, but made an appointment with his primary care doctor to be sure.
“He sent me to have an ultrasound and from there everything went downhill. I was an oncology nurse at the time, but I had never heard of sarcoma before – it’s very rare. It only affects one percent of adult cancers and ten percent of childhood cancers.’
Sarcoma is a type of cancer that can occur in different parts of the body and begins in connective tissues, such as bones and cartilage.
Scientists don’t know exactly what causes most soft tissue sarcomas, but they have found that some genetic factors can make a person more likely to develop them.
‘While there is no such thing as a “good” cancer, sarcoma is particularly difficult to beat because it is often a late-stage diagnosis. It does not present as cancer; It feels like a soft tissue injury, which is what I mistook it for,” says Kaela.
Kaela underwent a tumor resection, where surgeons removed the cancer from her right thigh, followed by three months of intense chemotherapy and two months of radiotherapy.
Patients diagnosed with sarcoma must undergo a scan every three months and do not officially go into remission for five years.
“Right when I turned two, I relapsed,” Kaela says. “The cancer was in both of my lungs.”
He tried another failed round of chemotherapy and then underwent three surgeries to remove the tumors from his lungs.
Kaela then received oral chemotherapy, which she still receives to this day.
On her long journey back to health, Kaela became so sick that she dropped to just 6 and 11 pounds (43 kg) and “I literally felt the life leave my body.”
“If I hadn’t had my children, there’s no way I would have fought as hard as I did,” he adds.
“It was exhausting, to say the least. My daughter was seven and my son was four at the time and I felt complete despair every time I looked at them.
‘The idea of dying didn’t scare me; It was knowing that I would be without them.
“I had to make sure I was present enough to be their mother while I was fighting for my life, but some days I was sleeping 15 hours straight because of the chemotherapy. Seeing myself so sick was very traumatic for my children.”
Kaela had her husband’s support, but the couple had no family living nearby while she was undergoing chemotherapy, which complicated things.
The cancer-stricken mother ended up using all of her work leave due to the lack of government support during her treatment.
The cancer-stricken mother ended up using all of her work leave due to the lack of government support during her treatment.
“Having a rare cancer is very isolating,” she explains.
‘You have to use your own (annual) license, find the services on your own and do all the administration yourself. There aren’t even online support groups.
Kaela started her own Instagram account, @sorareityto document his cancer treatment and has created an online community of people around the world affected by sarcoma.
She still works full time as an emergency department nurse because she can’t afford to leave her job.
‘It’s brutal, but I love my job very much. “It brings a certain normality to my life, focusing on other people’s problems except my own,” he says.
‘But it’s not easy: there are days when I literally leave vomiting and I have to take medication to go to work.
‘Other days I’m fine. “You just don’t know how you’re going to feel.”
As a healthcare professional, Kaela knew the right questions to ask to receive the best care possible.
But he also knew from experience that there was a strong possibility that he would die.
‘I would be absolutely terrified if it was someone with no medical experience. “I’m lucky I know what to defend because otherwise I’d be dead,” she tells me.
‘The doctors told me I was inoperable when I relapsed, but I pushed and fought for more surgeries that they initially said I couldn’t do.
“I’m only alive because I knew I could ask questions, push and get a second opinion.”
As a healthcare professional, Kaela knew the right questions to ask to get the best care possible, but she also knew from experience that there was a strong possibility that she would die.
Kaela describes her cancer coming back in July 2022 as “totally devastating” because she had already been through this ordeal and wasn’t sure how she would come back.
Kaela says it’s “scary” to think there are cancer patients who don’t know how to advocate for themselves.
She describes her cancer returning in July 2022 as “totally devastating” because she had already been through this ordeal and wasn’t sure how she would come back from it.
‘I’m like in limbo now because sarcoma is very rare. “Once you get to the relapse stage that I’m at, doctors don’t expect great results,” he says.
“But because of my self-advocacy and surgeries that no one thought were possible, I’m in a space where I just have to wait and see.”
Kaela highlights the importance of allocating funds to the Australian and New Zealand Sarcoma Association because of their life-saving research.
“If the government doesn’t fund sarcoma research, we are literally dying,” he says. “Rare cancers deserve to be recognized.”
Now she’s focused on making as many memories as possible with her family.
“I’ve been saying ‘yes’ to a lot more things now because I realize that the time you spend with the people you love is so important. None of us know when that will end or when it will be taken away from us.”