This pregnancy was what some people nickname the "Oops baby". Did I plan this? Nope. I'm not a big planner to begin with. However, with an 11 and 12 year old at home and a blossoming career as a high school English teacher, this pregnancy definitely threw me for a loop. I was scared when I found out I was having a baby. But God, I was excited.
Things seemed fairly normal. I was suffering from morning sickness or all day sickness and was medicated for it to help me function, but other than that, nothing seemed unusual. And then in December (about 16 weeks into pregnancy) I got a cold and nothing was ever the same. This cold knocked me on my ass. I thought I had the flu but tested negative. My asthma which is only brought on by colds, was in full gear but nothing a quick Emergency Room visit couldn't remedy. It took me a good week to bounce back and even though my cold symptoms seemed to be going away, I just didn't feel right. Around 18 weeks I stopped by my Mom's house and on a whim, asked her to take my blood pressure. For the first time in my life, it was high. I was a "Regular Rita" in terms of pressure and got a bit nervous about the reading. So I jumped on Google and was able to calm myself down until I saw my Ob/Gyn. However, the asthma symptoms I had picked up from the cold were back and getting worse.
The next month was an array of doctor visits... pulmonologists, cardiologists, high risk pregnancy doctors, etc. It was also filled with an array of medications to combat the asthma and high blood pressure. Most docs pawned it off as "pregnancy related issues", but nothing was working and I just kept feeling worse. My obstetrician was in my corner. He thought things seemed strange and was getting ready to send me elsewhere for a second opinion. Meanwhile, I kept having what I thought were side effects to meds and this led to brief stints in the Emergency Room. On one of those visits, an ultrasound technician who was checking on the baby, happened upon a large cyst high in my abdomen. I assumed it was an ovarian cyst on my right ovary and didn't take too much stock in it. However, the next day I went to see the high risk pregnancy doc and he found a matching one on my left ovary. That's when I got nervous. He immediately contacted a gynecologic oncologist but he didn't think there was an urgency to see me. I cried because it was urgent to me and my body was sending me signals that something was majorly wrong. Plus, I was getting mentally exhausted from not having answers.
The next week I landed in the Emergency Room with severe migraines, shortness of breath, and a list of other strange symptoms. They actually admitted me but it was because my iron count was so low. 4 days of hell I spent there. They checked for clots in my lungs and checked my heart because I was having symptoms that leaned toward cardiac distress. Any time I mentioned the cysts to the doctors they immediately shut me down and told me the chances of them causing any of this was basically ridiculous. The last night of my stay my obstetrician came to see me and told me to get myself to University of Pennsylvania Hospital because I was getting nowhere fast.
I was discharged with a diagnosis of "low iron and low potassium". I laughed at this but was glad to get home. The game plan was to pack for UPenn and go to their Emergency Room the next day. I just wanted to get my kids on the bus before we left. I had spent 3 weeks away from them and missed them terribly. Well, I didn't get to do that. The same night I was discharged I became extremely ill. Hours of continuous diarrhea and nausea ensued and I didn't think I could make the hour and a half drive to Philly. I couldn't. I ended up in the local ER but luckily the doctor I had knew his limits and had an ambulance transport me to UPenn.
And this is where all hell breaks loose. After 3 days of severe nausea and no sleep, an MRI and ultrasound determined that my cysts were huge at this point and doctors concluded that they were malignant ovarian cysts. However, they were hopeful that with surgical removal, I would be fine. The other issue was the 24 week old baby and how she would fare. They called the 24 week period the gray area and informed us that chances of stillbirth or something going wrong were very high. My husband and I were ready to lose her. At this point my mind and body were exhausted and all I kept thinking was that I wasn't going to live through the surgery.
But I did make it through. Granted I woke up in an immense amount of pain (the epidural for pain was only working on one side of my body) and severe discomfort but I still was amazed that I was awake. When I got wheeled back to my room and saw my family I immediately knew something was very wrong. I could sense it and no matter how hard they tried to act normal, they couldn't. The doctors came in and asked if I was ready to talk to them. I was in so much pain and I was so scared, so I said no. I knew it wasn't the baby so I finally took a chance and asked my husband what was going on. That's when I found out that my ovarian cancer was not ovarian cancer. When they biopsied the cyst it came back as non-ovarian cancer. It was some form of gastric cancer. They needed to wait on more tests but it was only to confirm this. Apparently my ovaries, which can be hypersensitive during pregnancy, took on my gastric cancer and started to grow grapefruit-sized cysts. While removing my ovaries and cysts, they found and removed a nodule on my intestines, identified a suspicious area near my gall bladder, and felt some firmness in my stomach (the possible root of the cancer).
So where does this leave me? Well it has been 5 weeks since my surgery. I have stage 4 gastric cancer. I am menopausal and pregnant at the same time. Weird, I know. And now I am waiting to deliver my baby and then start chemotherapy, I am absolutely petrified. But I am ready and willing to fight.
Fingers crossed...
Things seemed fairly normal. I was suffering from morning sickness or all day sickness and was medicated for it to help me function, but other than that, nothing seemed unusual. And then in December (about 16 weeks into pregnancy) I got a cold and nothing was ever the same. This cold knocked me on my ass. I thought I had the flu but tested negative. My asthma which is only brought on by colds, was in full gear but nothing a quick Emergency Room visit couldn't remedy. It took me a good week to bounce back and even though my cold symptoms seemed to be going away, I just didn't feel right. Around 18 weeks I stopped by my Mom's house and on a whim, asked her to take my blood pressure. For the first time in my life, it was high. I was a "Regular Rita" in terms of pressure and got a bit nervous about the reading. So I jumped on Google and was able to calm myself down until I saw my Ob/Gyn. However, the asthma symptoms I had picked up from the cold were back and getting worse.
The next month was an array of doctor visits... pulmonologists, cardiologists, high risk pregnancy doctors, etc. It was also filled with an array of medications to combat the asthma and high blood pressure. Most docs pawned it off as "pregnancy related issues", but nothing was working and I just kept feeling worse. My obstetrician was in my corner. He thought things seemed strange and was getting ready to send me elsewhere for a second opinion. Meanwhile, I kept having what I thought were side effects to meds and this led to brief stints in the Emergency Room. On one of those visits, an ultrasound technician who was checking on the baby, happened upon a large cyst high in my abdomen. I assumed it was an ovarian cyst on my right ovary and didn't take too much stock in it. However, the next day I went to see the high risk pregnancy doc and he found a matching one on my left ovary. That's when I got nervous. He immediately contacted a gynecologic oncologist but he didn't think there was an urgency to see me. I cried because it was urgent to me and my body was sending me signals that something was majorly wrong. Plus, I was getting mentally exhausted from not having answers.
The next week I landed in the Emergency Room with severe migraines, shortness of breath, and a list of other strange symptoms. They actually admitted me but it was because my iron count was so low. 4 days of hell I spent there. They checked for clots in my lungs and checked my heart because I was having symptoms that leaned toward cardiac distress. Any time I mentioned the cysts to the doctors they immediately shut me down and told me the chances of them causing any of this was basically ridiculous. The last night of my stay my obstetrician came to see me and told me to get myself to University of Pennsylvania Hospital because I was getting nowhere fast.
I was discharged with a diagnosis of "low iron and low potassium". I laughed at this but was glad to get home. The game plan was to pack for UPenn and go to their Emergency Room the next day. I just wanted to get my kids on the bus before we left. I had spent 3 weeks away from them and missed them terribly. Well, I didn't get to do that. The same night I was discharged I became extremely ill. Hours of continuous diarrhea and nausea ensued and I didn't think I could make the hour and a half drive to Philly. I couldn't. I ended up in the local ER but luckily the doctor I had knew his limits and had an ambulance transport me to UPenn.
And this is where all hell breaks loose. After 3 days of severe nausea and no sleep, an MRI and ultrasound determined that my cysts were huge at this point and doctors concluded that they were malignant ovarian cysts. However, they were hopeful that with surgical removal, I would be fine. The other issue was the 24 week old baby and how she would fare. They called the 24 week period the gray area and informed us that chances of stillbirth or something going wrong were very high. My husband and I were ready to lose her. At this point my mind and body were exhausted and all I kept thinking was that I wasn't going to live through the surgery.
But I did make it through. Granted I woke up in an immense amount of pain (the epidural for pain was only working on one side of my body) and severe discomfort but I still was amazed that I was awake. When I got wheeled back to my room and saw my family I immediately knew something was very wrong. I could sense it and no matter how hard they tried to act normal, they couldn't. The doctors came in and asked if I was ready to talk to them. I was in so much pain and I was so scared, so I said no. I knew it wasn't the baby so I finally took a chance and asked my husband what was going on. That's when I found out that my ovarian cancer was not ovarian cancer. When they biopsied the cyst it came back as non-ovarian cancer. It was some form of gastric cancer. They needed to wait on more tests but it was only to confirm this. Apparently my ovaries, which can be hypersensitive during pregnancy, took on my gastric cancer and started to grow grapefruit-sized cysts. While removing my ovaries and cysts, they found and removed a nodule on my intestines, identified a suspicious area near my gall bladder, and felt some firmness in my stomach (the possible root of the cancer).
So where does this leave me? Well it has been 5 weeks since my surgery. I have stage 4 gastric cancer. I am menopausal and pregnant at the same time. Weird, I know. And now I am waiting to deliver my baby and then start chemotherapy, I am absolutely petrified. But I am ready and willing to fight.
Fingers crossed...