Stranger Things alum Andrey Ivchenko is on the mend after suffering a private health battle against an incredibly rare form of bone cancer – and he’s ready to share his harrowing story with the world.
The actor exclusively tells Life & Style that it feels like it’s “quite a miracle to be alive” after undergoing extensive surgery and battling the loneliness that came with such a rare diagnosis.
Andrey – who Strangers Things fans remember as the hitman Grigori in season 3 – was diagnosed with cancer after experiencing what began as “just a little hip pain.” Despite pursuing physical therapy, his symptoms only became worse. He was eventually referred to an orthopedic surgeon named Dr. Michael Duran. After running a battery of tests including X-rays and CT scans, they discovered “a tumor that was actually eating away the pelvis bone where that inflammation was” and they were later able to diagnose him with grade 2 chondrosarcoma.
This type of cancer only occurs in roughly 1 out of every 200,000 people and “happens most often in the pelvis, hip and shoulder. More rarely, it can happen in the bones of the spine,” according to the Mayo Clinic. “Most chondrosarcomas grow slowly and may not cause many signs and symptoms at first. Some rare types grow rapidly and have a high risk of spreading to other areas of the body.”
Andrey notes his specific diagnosis “doesn’t typically respond to chemo or radiation,” and doctors needed to completely surgically remove the area affected by cancer. For Andrey, this meant he would lose half of his pelvis, which would be replaced with a custom, 3D-printed, titanium prosthetic pelvis and also include a full hip replacement.
“Then surgery, which was a grueling, life-threatening [and] nine hours long. I had to have several blood transfusions during surgery because of so much blood loss, but overall, that went as well as could be expected, if not even better than they expected,” he says. “The doctors and their PA’s were incredible too and were every hour going out to the waiting room in person and updating my family that was anxiously waiting for me all throughout the day praying to hear the welcomed words, ‘He did great, he’s okay!’”
While Andrey suffered a few complications after his surgery and spent some time in the trauma ICU, he said he “amazed” doctors by being “their first hemipelvectomy patient to stand only 2 days post op.”
As for his next steps — they are literally just that, Andrey tells us.
“I am currently re-learning how to walk and strengthening my right side so that I won’t have a limp the rest of my life and can also protect all the new hardware installed inside me,” he shares. “Right now, I can’t bear more than 50 percent weight on that leg and am using a fancy walker that has a bench that I call my Mercedes, since that is my only set of wheels at the moment. Real sexy stuff.”
Other than Dr. Duran and many other hospital staff members, his girlfriend, his plastic surgeon, Dr. Joshua Mirrer, and his “most incredible” physical therapist, Rob, have also assisted him on his health journey.
“It feels good to finally feel like I’m on the other side of darkness now,” he admits. “Every day I feel a little a little stronger and a little better … But, overall, I have learned that patience and kindness to yourself is key in all of this. I never quite understood when people would say that before going through all of this. Now, I completely get it and understand the value and importance of having your true village of support at your side. I don’t know how I would have made it through to this point without them and consider myself so lucky!”
