A week after giving birth, the disease passed into the third stage. Even the doctors were not sure that the young mother would be able to cope with the oncology.
Ellie Marriott was 21 years old when she found out she was pregnant. Her joy knew no bounds: six months earlier, the girl had a miscarriage.
“I didn’t think about children then. But when it happened, I realized that I was ready to start a family. Therefore, when I found out that I was pregnant again, I was really happy, ”she says.
However, the happiness was short-lived. Ellie felt so bad that she could not attribute all the symptoms only to pregnancy: every now and then she caught a cold, she was bothered by drowsiness, she was tired, just getting out of bed. And then a strange bump appeared on her neck.
“The doctor said it was tonsillitis. But I knew for sure that it was something else, ”the girl says.
Ellie’s month kicked off from doctor to doctor. And only in August was sent for a scan, and then for a biopsy of the tumor. The diagnosis sounded scary: Hodgkin’s lymphoma, stage two. Even worse, Ellie was 16 weeks pregnant at the time. The choice was difficult: either start treatment and terminate the pregnancy, or abandon therapy and try to bear the baby.
“I couldn’t believe what the doctor was saying. Is fatigue and a lump on the neck cancer? – recalls Ellie. – The doctor strongly recommended to have an abortion, because therapy will certainly harm the child. But I was not going to do this, my baby was supposed to be born. “
From that moment on, Ellie’s life turned into a series of scans: every two weeks, doctors assessed how the disease was progressing. Everything turned out to be not as bad as it could have been: they still planned to start treatment at the 27th week, but after assessing the condition of the expectant mother, therapy was postponed for another 10 weeks. At the 37th week, Ellie had a cesarean – her daughter, baby Connie, was born.
“Until now, my gynecologist has not had such experience – leading a pregnancy with a cancer patient,” says the young mother. “But I tried not to think about it. I would like to at least pretend that everything is fine with me. “
Soon, Ellie was transferred to the oncology department and began therapy. She had very little time to be with her daughter. But it was impossible to postpone treatment: the cancer was already in the third stage, metastases spread to the stomach and spleen.
“After my first round of chemotherapy, I lay in bed and cried. I remember how I wrote to my mother: I said that I could not cope, I cannot, I am not strong enough, ”- now these memories seem to Ellie to be a terrible dream.
Seven months of treatment, 12 grueling rounds of chemotherapy, and the cancer subsided. Moreover, doctors are confident that there will be no relapse, and Ellie will live a long, happy life.
“Now I am absolutely happy. I can finally focus on my daughter, be just a mom, like everyone else, ”she smiles.