LEAWOOD, Kan.- It’s hard to even imagine finding out you are expecting a baby and all the joy that comes with it – and then finding out you have cancer.
It happened to a Kansas woman. She got two opinions and each would bring a very different outcome.
Stacey Johnson went from experiencing one of the highest highs that life can offer to one of the most terrifying moments a human can endure all in a matter of weeks.
You’d never know it by looking at him, but Johnson’s perfect baby boy went through an awful lot with his mom before he was even born.
“I’ve been through the ringer, but yes,” she said.
No sooner than she’d just taken a positive pregnancy test, Johnson found a lump in her breast. Just a couple of days after Thanksgiving, she found out she had cancer.
As a NICU nurse, she didn’t waste time getting into a doctor to decide a course of treatment, and at 11 weeks, she was told she should consider terminating her pregnancy. That’s when she got a second opinion.
“So then I met her and we talked about her options which none of them included terminating her pregnancy,” said breast oncologist Dr. Lauren Nye with the University of Kansas Health System.
As long as a woman is into her second trimester, emerging research is showing it’s OK to treat several cancers, especially breast cancer.
Johnson underwent both a mastectomy and chemotherapy while pregnant. The drugs not deemed safe were saved for after William’s birth. Today, the family is enjoying life and loving every minute of it.
William turns one next week.
