6 Weeks to Feel Normal Again After Birth
Lu Salas was 24 weeks significant with twin girls when her partner, Brenden, noticed a nickel-size lump in her breast. Her obstetrician told her chest changes were common when the body was gearing up for nursing. "I had a friend who had an infection in her milk ducts when she was pregnant," Lu, design manager at Nordstrom, recalls. "That's what I was worried about." But the lump grew. In a couple of months, it felt iv times its original size.
Nevertheless, Lu was and then focused on her pregnancy that even as she lay on the ultrasound tabular array 10 weeks later, cancer didn't enter her mind. "As soon as the doctor put the wand to my breast she said, 'Oh, yep, that's cancer.' And I was like, 'Wait, I'm not here for cancer!' " Final October, at 35 weeks pregnant, she was diagnosed with aggressive Stage Two chest cancer.
More than than annihilation else, Lu was worried that she wouldn't be able to breastfeed, which is generally believed to be best for babies. "I wanted them to be as natural and good for you every bit they could from the beginning," she says. It wasn't until after the couple met with a surgeon and an oncologist that Lu wrapped her brain around the idea that this was about her too. "I was evidently devastated, just at the same time, I had this very clear sense that this was just one more matter to get through," she says.
Because Lu is pocket-size and one twin was alienation, her doctor had scheduled a C-section for 37 one/2 weeks. Her oncology team decided there was lilliputian risk in waiting to offset chemotherapy until after she'd had some time to recover from the birth. This plan would allow her three weeks to nurse before she'd accept to stop to continue the medication from passing through the breast milk to the babies.
Rowan and Quinn made their debut on Halloween, and with exercise they got the hang of nursing. Lu was up and downward emotionally: "The clock was ticking — I knew my fourth dimension beingness able to breastfeed was going to end soon. Information technology was wonderful, and I was so grateful for those few weeks, just it was also heartbreaking, considering it couldn't last."
All besides quickly, the focus shifted back to Lu'south treatment. She had 16 rounds of chemo in 20 weeks and dealt with bone pain and retentiveness bug, both side effects. Still, information technology was a happy catamenia with loads of visitors and, of course, infant time. "Whenever I feel [rotten] well-nigh what'southward going on, if I just hug or sit or play with the girls, then everything feels OK," says Lu. "I'd wanted to have kids for so long, and now that I do, I'm just so excited about them and and so grateful for them."
Lu's chemo was and so effective that it was difficult for the surgeon to detect the tumor during her lumpectomy in May. Lu finished radiations and plans to start targeted drug therapies that will ho-hum the growth of any remaining cancer. For at present, she shows no signs of it.
The girls are nearly a year one-time — Quinn, a tiny, squirmy pixie, and Rowan, laid-back and cuddly. Lu says they've started to actually enjoy each other: Quinn reaches out for Rowan'south hair, and they smile and brand each other express joy. "Information technology's the all-time matter in the entire world," Lu says. "They are and so strong, they don't fifty-fifty know it…at the aforementioned fourth dimension they were growing inside me, my body was trying to kill me, and they were like, 'Screw that! That cancer isn't going to take annihilation from united states. Nosotros're going to abound and thrive and be huge babies and really salubrious.' " As for Lu, "I just feel like I tin do anything," she says. "At this betoken, with what I've handled all at once, nothing else seems that difficult anymore."
This commodity originally appeared in the October 2017 issue of Good Housekeeping.
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Source: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/a46359/lu-salas-breast-cancer/
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