BOSTON (WHDH) - Caitlin Howe is a loving and busy mother of four children under the age of 5. Her days are full but amid the chaos, she faced an unimaginable challenge. What she thought was a breastfeeding issue turned out to be breast cancer.
“At the time, I was nursing my now 2 year old, so I thought it was just a plugged duct,” she told 7NEWS. Soon after the diagnosis, Howe learned she was pregnant with twins.
“The type of cancer that I have is fueled by pregnancy hormones,” she said.
Overwhelmed and uncertain about her care in Texas, where she was living at the time, she turned to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
“I’ve got a good friend in the medical field and she said, ‘Caitlin, you’ve got to just go to Dana Farber, they know what to do both with cancer and with pregnancy.”
Her team at Dana Farber immediately helped her develop a plan to battle the cancer while still caring for her twins.
“Being diagnosed with cancer while someone is pregnant feels like an unimaginable coincidence but interestingly, chemotherapy administration, which we do in the second and third trimester, appears to not have a detrimental impact on the health or growth of the baby,” said Dr. Erica Mayer, of Dana Farber. “And this is work that we’ve done at Dana Farber in our breast cancer and pregnancy program.”
Howe said during treatment, she drew strength from her children. And the moment the twins arrived, it was proof the fight was all worth it.
“When they put the twins on my chest, the twins held hands and everyone stopped and looked and it just felt like the culmination of all that exhaustion and all that effort was so worth it,” she said.
Dana Farber recommends mammograms, especially for women 40 and over, and regular breast exams.
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