Hi Everyone!  We were blessed with a healthy baby boy on August 4, 2016 after 3 hours and 48 minutes of completely natural labor (just the way we planned it)!  Little did we know our lives would change 2-fold within the weeks to follow.

At around 30 Weeks pregnant I felt a lump while getting ready for work in my left breast- I asssumed it was a milk duct coming in to prepare my breast for the upcoming arrival of my little boy.  Later that day I was browsing social media and a friend of mine posted a story about herself and her outcome.

This post got me thinking about my lump so I mentioned it to my husband, Bar later that week.   He stated we should tell our OB/GYN at our next visit.  Our next visit was a quick one and we forgot to mention it (pregnancy brain is a real thing!) At our 37 week check-up we mentioned it to our doctor, she palpated it and wrote me a prescription for a breast ultrasound.  I told her at the appointment that since I was so close to delivering our baby I would wait to do the ultrasound until after he was born- she objected but understood my concern.  Fast forward 2 weeks post baby Kiaan.

Bar was off of work for a couple of weeks after I had Kiaan so with that time frame in mind I made my regular doctors visits to get me back to health.  I made a dentist appointment, an eye appointment for a lasix consultation and my breast ultrasound. I went for my breast ultrasound to Northwestern on Friday August 25th at 7am.  During this appointment the radiologist came into the room and stated from the imaging she couldn’t tell if it was a milk duct or something else, she recommended me to stay and get a mammogram.  The tech took me right away and did my mammogram (one of those most painful things I have ever had done considering my lactating boobs because of breastfeeding) after my mammogram the radiologist took me in a room again and showed me the results.  As soon as she pulled up the images I noticed a giant oval shaped calcification I said that to her too and she knew from that moment that I had a healthcare background and spoke to me straight.  She explained to me that I needed a biopsy to figure out if this calcification was benign or malignant.  I told her since it was Friday I didn’t have enough breast milk pumped for my newborn to get him through and I needed to go home.  She said that it was fine as long as I made an appointment for Monday.  I left the hospital concerned but not quite worried yet.

I came home told Bar about the results and we decided to make my appointment for early Monday morning since he was off and could stay home and watch Kiaan.  On Monday August 29th the great radiologists of Northwestern performed a flawless biopsy of my left breast and told me they would call me with the results within the next 24 hours.  I went home continued breastfeeding and patiently waited Tuesday to arrive.

On Tuesday August 30th Bar, Kiaan and I went to dinner at Pompeii in Little Italy. I was watching Kiaan at the table as Bar ordered our food.  My phone started ringing and it was my Radiologist with my biopsy results.  She stated that I have a 5cm invasive ductal carcinoma lesion and that I needed to make an appointment with a Breast Cancer surgeon right away.  She said if I called and they couldn’t get me in for whatever reason to give her a call and she would make it happen.  While on the phone I looked up at Bar and started crying, immediately he told our waiter to pack our food to go.  We went to the car and talked about my results and since he was still off of work this week he made me get on the phone and call right away to make the next appointment.  I called Dr. Hansen the Breast Surgeon’s office at Northwestern and they scheduled me for an appointment with her that Thursday.

On Thursday September 1st we met with Dr. Hansen.  She performed an exam on me and stated that I need to stop breastfeeding as soon as possible.  She also had the results of my biopsy markers.  She explained to us that I had Triple Negative Breast Cancer which means that the cancer is not affected by hormones such as estrogen, progesterone or HER-2.  This cancer is rare, aggressive but the great news is that it responds the best to Chemotherapy.  This was one of the most emotional doctor visits through all of this because I was told I had to stop breastfeeding and that I needed Chemotherapy.  With my natural attitude towards everything I had planned to breastfeed Kiaan for 1 year, I have never taken any medications in my life except OTCs and never had been hospitalized until the birth of Kiaan.  This was all an extreme shock for me.  After our appointment we were told our next steps were to meet with the Oncologist and fertility.

On Friday September 2nd we had an appointment with fertility and our Oncologist. They advised us to make the appointment with fertility to preserve embryos for future pregnancies in case the Chemotherapy drugs destroyed my ability to get pregnant naturally.  We met with the Oncologist and she gave us more details of what to expect with everything. She went over details of all the drugs and the duration, all pending the genetics results for BRCA1/2.  She said I would start chemotherapy once a week every 2 weeks for 8 treatments.  We would start chemotherapy after fertility was complete to preserve our embryos.

After our appointments we went to Eataly to talk about our fertility options.  We decided to move forward with the fertilty and I realized at that moment that I also needed to stop breastfeeding.  Here is a picture of my last time public breastfeeding Kiaan.

As I look back on it I am glad I got to at least breastfeed him successfully for his first month of life.  I completely stopped breastfeeding that Sunday.  Stopping my milk was again one of the most painful things a human body can go through.  I stopped cold turkey with the help of cabbage leaves, a sports bra and ibuprofen.  I was determined, I suffered for 3 days and my milk completely stopped that Tuesday.  We started fertility treatments Thursday September 8th and had my egg retrieval Saturday September 17.  The day of my egg retrieval I was so excited to finally be DONE with doctors appointments and visits.  Up until this point I had gone to Northwestern every day of the week and just wanted it to be over.  We had scheduled my first Chemo session for Friday September 23rd so I was relieved to have 1 week to my self, my baby and my husband to not think about the road ahead.