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Pregnant with Cancer

December 2015 Vol 1 No 6

I am 33 years old, and I’ve had 3 cancer diagnoses: once as an adolescent, once as a newlywed, and once as an expectant mother.

To say my life has been affected by cancer is an understatement.

Ewing’s Sarcoma At Age 12

When I was 12 my family moved to a new city, and I was excited about entering junior high school. One week before the first day of school, I noticed swelling on my right shoulder blade. A visit to the doctor suggested a pulled muscle, and the plan was to get a biopsy in a couple of weeks, if necessary.

On my first day of school, I tripped a few times on my way to class. By the time school was out, walking was a chore. I boarded the bus home and fell again while getting off, which my stepmom Sheri and her friend saw. They were worried, and I was scared.

So we went back to the doctor. I was now told I had a large, “football-sized” tumor putting pressure on my spine, causing the loss of feeling and use of my legs. The diagnosis was Ewing’s sarcoma, a bone and soft-tissue cancer occurring mainly in childhood and adolescents. My care plan included aggressive chemo and radiation therapy, followed by surgery to remove the affected rib and 2 other ribs.

Being a young teenager with cancer was very difficult, mainly because I knew nobody else like me. Fortunately, I found a summer camp for kids with cancer, called Camp Okizu, which was an amazing experience. I met other teenagers with this diagnosis who were also bald at age 12. This camp is still a part of our family life. I began to feel better and my self-confidence reappeared.

Honeymoon and Melanoma

I graduated high school with flying colors. I wanted to be an architect, but then I found the love of my life, Sean. We were married in 2008, after we finished school. During our second honeymoon trip to Las Vegas, I noticed a large mole on my ankle that was irritated by my favorite strappy high heels.

You guessed it: it was melanoma. Luckily, although it was very scary, the removal of the cancer was all that was required. That’s when I became a worshipper of sunscreen.

Second Pregnancy & Lung Cancer

In 2012, we welcomed our baby girl, Liliana. Life was awesome. We then had our second child, Ethan, whose entrance into this world was a little more dramatic.

On September 21, 2014, I was in my third trimester when I received my third, and scariest, diagnosis. It was 1 week before Liliana’s second birthday party, when I started coughing up blood. As odd as it may sound, cancer was the farthest thing from my mind. Because I was pregnant with Ethan, I went to the emergency department. If I had not been pregnant, I most likely would not have gone, since the bleeding stopped, and I have a serious hatred for hospitals!

I texted Sean a picture of the band they put on my arm at the hospital, saying, “I don’t like where this is going.” He replied, “They probably give these to everyone to make it easier if they are admitted.”

Sean was calming me from afar, until I heard the worst news: there were shadows on my right lung, and maybe on the left lung. I had to be admitted for testing, and my baby had to be delivered before I could start treatment. I was transported to a hospital that was better suited for caring for a premature infant.

I was finally given some facts, but it wasn’t until 4 days later that I received the diagnosis–a high-grade neuroendocrine tumor, the size of a golf ball, on the upper lobe of my lung. The oncologists believed this cancer was secondary to the radiotherapy I had received for Ewing’s sarcoma years ago.

During the next 2 weeks I heard everything from, “You are delivering your baby today” to “We are giving you chemotherapy and waiting for you to go into labor.” The final decision was to let the baby grow to 34 weeks, then deliver and begin chemo and radiation therapy.

Ethan was born healthy at 34 weeks. You can imagine my feelings. I moved from the maternity ward to the cancer ward. I worried not only about myself, but about my children and husband. Life was so good! This was not the right time for something like cancer!

Inspired By Outpouring of Support

I have now had 2 rare cancers. My survival prognosis ranges from 5 years to forever. Some good things have come out of this. Our family has grown closer. My mother-in-law comes every day to help me with the babies. Other people we had never met have come out of the woodwork, showing up at our door with meals, or offering to babysit. These people are saints!

Through my nurse practitioner I found the Stupid Cancer organization, which means I found other young adults in this fraternity!

Obviously, I am afraid and worried, but I believe that every person has his or her own trials. This is mine. I try to deal with it one day at a time. I just want to see my babies go to high school, get married, and have a good life. I see cancer as an extra roadblock to living the life I want, but I try not to be sad.

I am hoping to get a tattoo with the quote “You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have” across my right rib cage, as a reminder of my battles with cancer. If I should get another diagnosis, I can look at that quote and be inspired to keep fighting–for me, for my husband, for my family, and for my babies. I’m not going without a fight!

Editor’s note: In 2015, Christina’s cancer metastasized to her brain. In an e-mail on October 28, 2015, she wrote, “Baby boy just celebrated his first birthday, and you would never know he was a preemie,” and, “I am going to keep on keeping on until I just can’t dance anymore!”

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