Cancer Backstory

Way back in January 2017 I was about 12 weeks pregnant.  I had spent the better part of late December and early January sick... the kids had passed around colds, the stomach bug and a variety of odd viruses with fevers and sore throats.  In mid January I noticed swelling and pain in my right sinus and assumed that the cold I had earlier had morphed into a sinus infection.  I couldn't take anything other than some Tylenol when I was sick, so I figured I hadn't been able to properly clear my sinuses.  When I first noticed the swelling in my sinus (and also in the lymph node in front of my right ear) I googled it and sinus infection was one of the first things to come up.  The second was Maxillary Sinus Cancer.  But that was only usually seen in men over 60 so I didn't really consider it.  I did tell my mom one morning while dropping off H that I had cancer in my sinus.  A joke... I was looking for her to affirm my suspicion that it was really a sinus infection.  She agreed.

A week or so after the swelling started I was in a bit of pain from the swelling and headaches.  My eye was constantly tearing from the "infection" so I headed to the Walk In on a Monday night.  I had a procedur for the pregnancy scheduled for that Thursday so I really wanted to clear the infection before that.  At the Walk In they wanted to give me an X-ray to check things out but they decided against it, agreed it sounded like an infection and gave me some antibiotics and sent me on my way.

Another week went by and the swelling continue to increase, and moved to a lymph node right under my jaw.  It was super painful, my eye was beginning to swell in the corner near my tear ducts and I was living one extra strength Tylenol.  I knew something wasn't right but I thought it was just a very deep seated infection.  So a week after my first Walk in visit I went back.  By now it was about 2.5 weeks that I was dealing with the symptoms with no end in sight. At the Walk In I explained the symptoms of the swelling and spreading.  By this time my jaw was so painful and swollen I couldn't open it properly. My eye was swollen.  My teeth on the right side hurt so badly because of the pressure.  (Interestingly, according to google these are all possible sinus infection symptoms).  This time at the Walk In the doctor didn't even touch my face.  Instead he seemed annoyed that I was there-- it had only been a week since I was there last. Instead I was told that I probably had a viral sinus infection. Basically I'd have to suck it up and wait 8-12 weeks for it to clear up on its own.  The thought of waiting that long and being in that much agony was pretty devastating but I left to wait.

But I couldn't wait long.  The following weekend I noticed that my face was beginning to go numb-- my gums were numb when I brushed, the lip on my right side and all the way up to my right nostril.  It was annoying, but again, could have been the sinus infection if it was pressing on a nerve.  This compounded by the huge visible swelling on my cheek, the constant pain and Tylenol to combat the headaches were getting to be too much.  I showed my mom again on Monday and after feeling the area which was hard and huge, she told me I needed to be seen asap. With the kiddos schedule the earliest I could get to the doctors was Wednesday the 15th of February.  Thankfully this doctor didn't dismiss me in an annoyed fashion.  Instead he sent me to the ER at Beth Israel to have a CT Scan done.

We waited in the ER for awhile, but finally were taken in.  After the CT Tech looked at me (and asked "are you sur it's not just a pimple." 😳🙄) they finally gave me the scan.  A little while later, just after midnight the doctor came in to tell me I was being admitted because the scan had found a mass in my cheek.  They didn't know what it was at that point, all they knew was that it was serious.

The next morning I was transported to the other BI campus where I was admitted to the antepartum unit so they could watch me and the baby. Thursday was uneventful, but they gave me an MRI that night which only served to confirm that there was something in my sinus.  The next day I was given a bedside biopsy to remove any of the mass they could.  (Spoiler alert, having lidocaine injected into your nostril and then having huge tools shoved into your nostril to cut away as much tissue as possible is about as much fun as it sounds.)

Then I was sent home to wait.  I was told that I would hear from the ENT doctor by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest.  At that point, they would schedule a consult so we could go over the results.  So I waited... my lymph nodes continued to swell, my cheek continued to swell, my eye continued to swell, my nose was visibly deformed due to the pressure of the mass.  I began to get intense, throbbing pain throughout my cheek, nose, and eye every night at which point tylenol couldn't combat it.  The only thing I could do was wait out the throbbing for a few hours.  Luckily it always went away eventually.

By Wednesday I was getting impatient because I hadn't heard anything so I called ENT and was told that they still didn't have results and that I'd be called on Thursday.  Thursday came and I still hadn't heard so I called again.  This time I got to talk to the ENT doctor... who very casually informed me that the mass indeed appeared to be malignant.  They didn't know what it was exactly yet, but did I want to begin my cancer care at Dana Farber or Mass Eye and Ear?  And that was it... he would contact me when he knew more (he never called back).  So, that was it.  Thursday, February 23rd I learned I had cancer.

The next day the Oncologist I had met at BI called me to give me the official name of my cancer.  I was officially referred to Dana Farber to meet with the sarcoma team the following week.

The following week was a whirlwind.  Thank goodness for Grammy and Grampy who took the helm and took care of everything as I went to a million appointments.

Tuesday 2/28 I met with my head Oncologist, Dr. Nathensen.  It was the more overwhelming appointment of my entire life.  He tossed around so many facts and chemotherapies and numbers my head was spinning.  It was scary for sure, but he definitely knew what he was talking about- even if it made no sense to me.  After meeting with Dr. Nathensen we met with Dr. Economy and Dr. Holland- high risk OBs who "specializes" in material cancers.  It was at that point that we learned there was a chance we could continue the pregnancy while treating me.  In that instant I immediately saw that we could get though it all.  I knew it wasn't a sure thing-- any number of things could go wrong in the coming months, but the possibility that was could keep the baby was enough to keep me going.  That same afternoon I was sent for an Echo to ensure my heart was okay because chemo can be damaging to the muscles of the heart.

Thursday 3/2 I met with a surgical oncologist and a radiation oncologist.  They are later steps in the whole process, but they would be important down the road.  I learned that I'd be scheduled for about 6 weeks of daily (M-F) radiation after the baby was born.  I also learned that the end goal was to avoid surgery if we could.  That same afternoon I had a port placed to make chemo infusions easier.

The last "big" thing before starting chemo on Monday was my MRIs on Friday.  I was given MRIs of my head, neck, chest, abdomen, and pelvis.  The nature of the cancer, my age, and a few other factors put my cancer at Stage 3.  I have a "childhood" cancer, so the staging was inevitable simply because I'm so much "older" than typical.  The hope, however, was that we could get out without it being Stage 4 so we had to ensure it hadn't spread.  The MRI results were the ones I was most nervous about and thankfully we learned that it hadn't spread yet.

With all of the information and things in place, I was ready to start chemo on Monday, March 6th.