Pregnancy can be filled with physical discomforts, and more than one pregnant mother-to-be has dealt with some manner of stomach or bowel upset. An Australian woman named Laura Corfield found herself experiencing persistent stomach pain during the early stages of pregnancy that seemed to be something more than just run-of-the mill morning sickness. Sadly, although her pregnancy progressed past the usual morning sickness phase, the pain continued until Corfield got a shocking diagnosis: She has cancer.
As reported by Yahoo! News Australia, Corfield was 22 weeks pregnant when she learned what was causing the pain. She shared that she went to the doctor and bluntly got a diagnosis nobody ever wants to hear.
They "just came out with it. It was just a standard day for us and I was in total disbelief," Corfield explained. According to the doctors, her cancer was "aggressive and really advanced," and she soon had to hear "all those words you don't want to hear at that moment." The doctors told her that she had bowel cancer, a diagnosis even more alarming because her grandmother had died of the same kind of cancer.
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Making a treatment plan was challenging.
Following the diagnosis, Corfield and her family needed to understand not only the options that would help treat her cancer but also how being 22 weeks pregnant would play into that. The doctors discovered that the cancer had already started to spread past the bowel walls and was in Stage 3, and thus it was considered advanced.
According to Corfield, radiation treatment was a "hands down no" because of the risk to the baby. Delivering the baby boy early wasn't an option because he would likely not survive at only 22 weeks. They decided to give the baby the best odds they could and will wait until she is 30 weeks along before delivering him.
It's a diagnosis that changes everything.
Several of Corfield's friends have set up a GoFundMe page for the family. "At a time when other expectant mothers are planning their nursery, counting down to maternity leave and soaking up those precious last weeks with their toddler; Laura and Braden have been attending appointments with their obstetrician, surgeon and oncologist — terrified of the impact on their unborn baby, while caring for their two-year-old, Quinn," the page reads.
This diagnosis has not only affected the family financially because Corfield is "unable to work, and Braden is needed at home to care for his family," but also will likely result in a loss of fertility following the chemotherapy and radiation treatments after the baby is born.
An uncertain future awaits the family.
According to the GoFundMe page, the Corfield family is anticipating several major challenges as a result of the cancer diagnosis during pregnancy, including "months of chemotherapy, surgery and radiation treatment ahead; and the added complexity of caring for a premature baby, who will be born via caesarean at 30 weeks and require Neonatal Intensive Care."
Corfield shared an update on the page that even though it had only been a few weeks since the diagnosis, she'd already begun treatment, writing, "It’s been a really tough two weeks from diagnosis to this point," and saying that she has been in the hospital "receiving my first round of chemotherapy and this has given me even more strength to fight this thing."
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They still have hopes for the future.
In addition to being "so determined to grow old with my husband, watch my babies grow up and make a million more memories with everyone I love," Corfield hopes that sharing her story will raise awareness of the risks of this kind of cancer, even for people who are young and healthy as she was. As the 35-year-old told Yahoo! News, "After I was diagnosed I was totally relieved because I knew something was wrong. Everyone needs to get checked."
She still has a few weeks before the planned birth of her son and the start of the more aggressive phase of her treatment, but hopefully she will get the bright future she is fighting for.
