It's a question no one wants to answer but thousands of women must -- what do you do when you're pregnant and have cancer at the same time? Jo Powell recently was forced to do so when after years of trying for a baby, she and her husband, Richard, became pregnant, only to be told days later that she had breast cancer.
According to The Sun, doctors advised her to terminate the pregnancy as pregnancy hormones could make the cancer more aggressive, but she was determined to keep the baby and to protect him as best she could, even though it meant risking her own life. Instead of starting treatment right away, she insisted they wait until he was nearly full-term. She told the paper, "Richard and I had been trying for a baby for years so I knew we couldn't give up on our baby. There was no way I was going to sacrifice him.”
Doctors agreed to postpone her treatments for almost six months, but then operated to remove tumors. Eventually they gave her small doses of chemotherapy.
While her son was born healthy in 2010, Jo immediately had to undergo a mastectomy that was followed by life-threatening complications and a lengthy hospitalization. Eventually, slowly though she recovered and grew stronger.
It was a risky move, and one that easily could have ended tragically, but it didn't. Instead it ended in what she says is a miracle.
Today she has the family she always dreamed of, and both she and Jake are healthy and happy. Recently she learned that she is cancer free, needs no further treatment, and doctors believe the cancer won't return. She told the paper:
I feel like we’ve won the lottery. Jake is such a happy little boy. He is so bright and cheery. I look at him now and I know the hell we went through for him was worth it.
Interestingly, new research has come to light recently that shows chemotherapy during pregnancy won't harm an unborn baby. Still, it would be difficult even with that to make the choice to undergo it. I had a hard enough time deciding if I would risk eating feta cheese. But hopefully, as more research is done, more women will be armed with more facts to help make one of the most difficult choices ever a little easier.
Would you treat your cancer while pregnant?
Image via one tiny spark/Flickr
This Hot Dad Wants to Do Your Ironing
This Hot Dad Wants to Cook You Dinner
This Hot Dad Cooks AND Does the Dishes
Kanye West is Gay?! 
Comments 15
i pray i will never have to make that decision.
I've never experienced the kind of pain you all I have by growing through something so horrific (knock on wood), but I salute each and every one of you all for being able to fight the battel.. I really do. I have however, saw how awful chemotherapy is on a person (even though it can help) and wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.. so I personally, would NEVER put my child through something like that. But this was a great article.. I'm so happy for the mother and child. She deserves to still be here, growing old with her little 'miracle'.
*you all have by going
Around the 5th month they discovered she had lung cancer. We were all devastated. A few days later I over heard her tell husband she would postpone treatment. My heart dropped tl the floor. I hated her, her husband, the unborn child, and God. I was 15 and the oldest I knew exactly what was going to happen, and it did. She had the baby May 14 and died June 23. I 'm sorry but growing up without a mother was too big a price. She was selfish for not thinking of her other children who have needed her these last 40 years. Yes, it's been 40 years and I am still so angry and bitter. Guess I always will be, as are my siblings.