During Amy Parkinson’s pregnancy with her second child, she felt very poorly and went back and forth to her doctor’s office. She felt a terrible itching that was just attributed to her pregnancy. And when she was sent to have an X-ray, she found out that she had cancer.
She was 6 months in her pregnancy when she received the shocking and distressing news of having cancer. She has Hodgkin’s lymphoma and itching was one of the usual symptoms of her blood cancer. A tumor with a size of 16 cm has developed in between her lungs, which made her uncomfortable and cough badly.
After her doctor told her about the tumor, she had a biopsy and a scan. By the following day, she was told that the results have confirmed that she has cancer. She was also told that she was the chief priority as a patient and not her unborn baby,…show more content… They were both told that the pregnancy could not continue to full term because her treatment should start soon. She had one course of chemotherapy during her pregnancy before her second baby arrived at 31 weeks. They named the baby boy Finley.
Amy was so glad that baby Finley was safe. She couldn’t get a grasp on how she has put her own baby at risk by letting her body be pumped full of poison from her treatment. Even if the doctors told her that the baby will be protected by her body, she still couldn’t help but worry.
Baby Finley was born through a pre-scheduled C-section weighing only 4lb 4oz. Both parents got to spend less than 10 minutes with the baby before he was placed in an incubator and ventilated because the baby had trouble breathing. They only got to hold their new baby four days after.
After spending a week in the hospital, Amy got to spend a few days at home and then started her treatment as an outpatient. The first session of chemotherapy had a limited effect on her tumor and she’s now on a much aggressive course. This comprises more consistent infusions and taking up to 40 tablets per
