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When Anthony Bradley, RN, first felt the pain in his right knee while playing high school rugby, he brushed it off as just another sports injury. As an avid rugby player, Anthony was used to pain.
鈥淚 got injured what felt like every six months,鈥 he says. 鈥淒islocating my shoulder, breaking my nose, fracturing my hip鈥攜ou name it.鈥 But the pain in his knee wouldn鈥檛 go away and only seemed to get worse over time.
Two months of pain later, Anthony reluctantly went to the emergency room, accompanied by his mom and sister in what he jokingly refers to as 鈥渙ur Biannual Bradley Family ER Visit,鈥 thanks to the contact sports he and his siblings played.
But what followed was anything but a routine sports injury diagnosis. After an X-ray, followed by a confirmatory bone biopsy, where a small bone tissue sample was examined under a microscope, Anthony was diagnosed with high-grade osteoblastic osteosarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of bone cancer. Osteosarcoma is most often seen in children and young adults like Anthony, who was just a senior in high school.
Turning a Sarcoma Diagnosis into a Passion for Nursing
Three days after his diagnosis, Anthony started chemotherapy. Then, a few months into chemotherapy, he underwent limb salvage surgery, where the parts of his femur and tibia containing the cancer were removed and replaced with metal implants. 鈥淵ou can imagine that this sets off every TSA wand and metal detector,鈥 he jokes.
Anthony calls the surgery a 鈥渨in-win鈥 but says he still feels pain when he bends his knee. 鈥淚 got to keep my leg and remove the cancer. However, there is always the fear that my implant can break if I put too much pressure on it, meaning I am restricted from running, snowboarding, rugby, or other physical activities I used to love.鈥
At first, he was overwhelmed by anger and sadness about his new physical limitations. 鈥淚t felt like grieving the ending of a movie I had watched a million times, but never really processed.鈥 But after the high emotions and physical burdens of nine months of treatment ended, he began to come to terms with those feelings, and his relationship with his cancer diagnosis started to shift.
Anthony was deeply moved by the expert, personalized care he received, which inspired him to pursue a path where he could offer others the same level of support and compassion. He enrolled in the at the and now works at Huntsman Cancer Institute as an operating room nurse.
鈥淚f it weren鈥檛 for my diagnosis, I wouldn鈥檛 have moved to Utah and discovered my love of nursing,鈥 he says. 鈥淚 have discovered there is no true ending to the movie鈥擨'm currently living in the highly anticipated sequel that I was meant to write the rest of.鈥
Delivering Empathetic Care
Now, over five years after he was first diagnosed with sarcoma, Anthony is cancer-free and using his experience with cancer to provide the best care possible to patients at Huntsman Cancer Institute.
鈥淢y experience with cancer impacts the care I give to patients every day,鈥 he says. 鈥淭hough everybody鈥檚 story is different, I understand the difficulty of navigating life during and after cancer, and I can empathize with what my patients are going through.鈥
鈥淚 have discovered there is no true ending to the movie鈥擨'm currently living in the highly anticipated sequel that I was meant to write the rest of.鈥
The compassionate, patient-centered care Anthony provides is an important part of Huntsman Cancer Institute鈥檚 vision鈥攑assionate individuals and teams delivering a cancer-free frontier through scientific discovery and human touch.
鈥淭hat human touch can make a huge difference for someone experiencing cancer,鈥 Anthony says. 鈥淚 hope every patient feels seen and cared for the way I did, and I am proud to be part of a place like Huntsman Cancer Institute that values empathetic care.鈥