I was lucky to be able to do maternity and newborn photos for this family who have been through so much. Their story is nothing short of inspirational ...so without further ado here it is....
My husband, Brad, and I had been married for two years when
we decided we wanted to expand our family. We were living in Halifax at the
time, and once I got pregnant, we decided to leave our jobs, Brad getting hired
on with a firm on PEI, and we moved back home to raise our family. Claire was
born on January 6th of 2011 and we were settling in to the new chapter in our
lives as parents. When Claire was only a couple of months old, I started
experiencing severe back pain and bumps on my head. I sought medical attention
from two different doctors who chalked my symptoms up to being a “new mom who
is nursing”. I had never been one to have any health problems at all growing
up, not even so much as a broken bone, but still I didn't question anything.
The symptoms progressed to experiencing night sweats, feeling tired all the time, loss of appetite/weight loss, and severe pain in my abdomen, all within two months time. Upon “googling” my symptoms I was convinced I was having gall bladder issues and went into emergency at the hospital once I could no longer take the pain. After receiving blood work, the doctor informed me my liver enzymes were irregular and that they would be admitting me overnight to receive an ultrasound in the morning. I phoned Brad, who was home with Claire and informed him what was happening, that I would pump that night and to bring Claire in first thing so i could nurse her, before getting what I assumed would be an ultrasound informing me I needed my gall bladder out. That my hospital stay would be a day or two. In and out. Easy.
The next morning came and the ultrasound tech asked me a lot of questions about my symptoms. Questions that I thought were more detailed than what they needed to be for gall bladder issues, but still I answered them. Then I was wheeled back to my unit, where they informed me I was being moved to a private room, for “more space since I had an infant”. Some time had passed, and two doctors came in to my room to inform Brad and I that they found spots that appeared to be cancerous.
I almost thought I had heard them wrong or that they were in the wrong room. That cannot be me, my issues are gall bladder. I am a 25 year old, healthy, new mom, this cannot be accurate. Over the next week, my symptoms were quickly progressing, and everything was mostly a blur as I had a direct line of constant morphine as my only source of “pain relief”. I had a CT, endoscope, bone scan, spinal, and bone marrow all done within a few days and my results were sent off to Toronto for assessment, as I did not “present normally” for the type of cancer. After my endoscope was preformed, the surgeon came in to tell us he believed it was stage 4 stomach cancer and that I had about 3 weeks to live. Not ideal with a husband and 5 month old. The day of my 26th birthday, June 21, 2011 I was wheeled down to the cancer treatment center to receive my official diagnosis from my oncologist. Stage 4b Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, in my stomach, my liver, and in between my back and uterus. Highly aggressive, but tends to respond well with R-CHOP chemotherapy. Better than 3 weeks to live, but still not ideal. For the next three weeks I fought for my life, to not leave my daughter without a mother, my husband without his wife.
I began chemo right away and tried different anti-nausea and
pain medications so I could start the transition home. I had chemo for 4 hours,
one day a week, every three weeks. I had to immediately stop breast feeding,
and I lost all of my hair. I completed all 8 rounds of chemo without any delay,
which is a feat all in itself as most become too sick from side effects of
chemo to complete that many, or their white cell count gets too low where it
isn't safe to have treatment until the numbers come back up. I had my final
round of chemo in November of 2011. a CT scan after revealed the tumors to be
completely gone in my stomach and back, and only a few spots in my liver where
they would monitor as they could be scar tissue from before cancer. A side
effect of my chemo was possible infertility. My period stopped, and I started
experiencing hot flashes, as I was going through treatment. I was trying to
solely focus on getting through cancer, but it was hard not to think about the
idea of Claire not having a sibling. That at the age of 26, I would be infertile.
Two months after chemo treatments had ended, my period came back, and despite
my oncologist saying we needed to wait a minimum of two years before trying to
have more children, we found ourselves pregnant just two weeks later. I was
overjoyed that I was not infertile, but beyond scared at what this would mean
for my health in the months to come. After consulting with my oncologist on the
island, and my lymphoma specialist in Halifax, we decided to go ahead with
keeping the baby and took things one day at a time when it came to how I was
feeling, how the baby was doing, and what the many ultrasounds/blood work was
saying. I made it to 37 weeks without any complications/symptoms and delivered
our second daughter Penny, naturally on November 30, 2012. Fast forward to this
September 19th, we welcomed our third daughter, Alice into our
family. I still receive blood work and see my oncologist every few months, and
they don't ever say “cured” for my case, but in November 2016 it will mark 5
years since my last chemo treatment, where they say the odds of my cancer
returning greatly diminish. There is not a day goes by where I don't reflect on
where I have been and where I am now. I am a mother of 3 beautiful girls, and a
wife to my amazing husband.
