I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma just 2 weeks after learning I was pregnant with my fourth child. I was able to have chemotherapy while I was pregnant, deliver a healthy baby and eventually graduate from Nursing School. Class of December 2011! I am now 13 years in remission and my little girl Gabbi is 13 old. This blog tells our story.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
It Makes Me So Sad, Please Help Spread the Word!
I would like for people to share my story. Tell others. Spread it around. Tell people chemo may be possible in pregnancy. Watch the shock on pretty much everyone's face. You'll get that a lot. I just read a story about a mother who decided to not have chemo so she could save her unborn baby's life. I don't know the details, like what chemotherapy she had, but I am practically jumping out of my skin here. So many mothers think their only choice is to delay treatment. This is what ultimately resulted in this woman not surviving her cancer. The baby did survive but the mother did not. I wish I could have told her that she could have both the chemo and the baby. At least present the option to her. I could show her my Gabbi and say "see how healthy she is?" It can be done! I realize not every person is the same and maybe she had a chemo that was not possible to have while pregnant but honestly there are so many more options than once thought. I am so frustrated when I hear people assume my baby died because I had chemo while pregnant. I think it's been long enough. Gabbi is 4 now. It's time to do more research and spread the word! How many mothers will abort because they think they have to? How many mothers will delay treatment and die? These are not the only options. I myself was told I should abort by a specialist. But that is based on old facts, not the new ones. So it's time to change the way of thinking!
If it is okay with you I would like to link your blog to mine so that my followers can read your story and be inspired too (http://patricia-defosse.blogspot.com/). The fact that cancer patients can be treated with chemotherapy even if they are pregnant is new information to me, and probably to many others. Miracles do happen with a little hope, strength, courage and love. Being diagnosed with cancer is not the end; there is hope for everyone. I recently came across a Health Blog in the New York Times which has some interesting and inspiring information about cancer. For example, lung cancer death rates for women fell for the first time in four decades as the overall cancer death rates kept declining. It also looks like Obama is pushing hospital to work more closely together in efforts to improve health care and cancer research. Check it out at: http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2011/04/01/a-m-vitals-cancer-death-rates-falling/
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