Redmond woman's 140-pound tumor removed

[Jordan]

Doctor urges: 'Don't stop looking for the answer'By Amy Easley, KTVZ.COMThroughout her life, Linda Rittenbach of Redmond has struggled with her weight."You get bigger and bigger and bigger," she said Friday. "And then you go to your doctor and they tell you, 'You need to lose weight, you're fat!'"Rittenbach had tried every diet, every workout, but the pounds wouldn't go away. Doctors suggested weight loss surgery."But something in my head just said, 'No don't do that,'" she recalled.It wasn't until Rittenbach went to a different doctor this spring for flu-like symptoms that she found out what was really wrong."He told me I was going to have to have surgery, and it scared me," Rittenbach said.Doctors told her a 140-pound cancerous tumor - a rare kind of liposarcoma - was growing near her stomach. They said it had likely been growing for 15 to 20 years."My doctor told me I had two choices," she said. "I could either live or die. And I had a 20 percent chance, if I had the surgery. And if I didn't have the surgery, I would die at home where my family would find me, and I didn't want that."It took doctors three surgeries, over two months, in Redmond and at Portland's Oregon Health and Sciences University to remove the tumor.Doctors also had to remove both kidneys to complete the surgery, and were only able to put one back. The other kidney was so damaged in the surgery that it could not be saved, doctors told Rittenbach.Dr. George Tsai at St. Charles Medical Center-Redmond says he was shocked by the tumors' size."The type of tumor that wound up being extracted was extremely rare," he said. "But I think it underscores that when things don't quite make sense and become a chronic problem, don't stop until you find the answer."Linda agreed: "You should have things checked out, and not just take a diet pill, or go on a diet, or go through some kind of surgery, because if you don't, it could be what I had."Rittenbach's friend, Judy Evanoff, said Linda, who has two grown children, is even "driving herself around" again, as the healing process continues.She said the kind of cancer Rittenbach had doesn't respond to chemotherapy or radiation - and that it's likely the slow-growing tumor will return, but doctors can watch for it now.http://www.ktvz.com/Global/story.asp?S=8663477#http://news.aol.com/health/story/ar/_a/wom...9465x1200293181-----------------------------------I find this story a bit shocking...