“Never in a million years expected it.”
What Stephanie Wysaski never expected was a breast cancer diagnosis — while expecting.
“I have three kids, one on the way …” she said.
Stephanie was still breast feeding her youngest when she learned she was pregnant with her fourth – a baby girl. While watching television one night, the 35-year-old saw an ad about breast self-exams.
“I don’t know what possessed me to do it because it’s not something I do regularly,” she said. “It’s not something my doctors do at appointments. I don’t know the last time I did a self-breast exam.”
But she did it and that’s when she felt a lump.
“I chalked it up to breast feeding and pregnancy and hormones, probably a clogged milk duct,” she said.
She brought it up at her next doctor’s appointment.
“Just at the end of the appointment I said, ‘I feel silly for even bringing this up but, got a little lump right here. I don’t know if it’s anything.’ And the OB kind of said the same thing I did! Probably just a milk duct,” she said.
An ultrasound and mammogram followed.
Faaiza Vaince is a Northwestern Medicine breast surgical oncologist.
“So we were limited with what type of imaging we could do to give us a better roadmap of how much disease we were dealing with,” Vaince said.
A more conclusive test – an MRI with contrast solution – wasn’t an option due to Stephanie’s pregnancy. Ultimately, a biopsy confirmed the diagnosis.
“And sure enough it was breast cancer,” she said. ”I think at that point it was the scariest because ok, I know I have cancer, I know we need to do something about it. But how was this going to affect the pregnancy? Am I going to be able to keep the pregnancy? Am I going to be able to take care of my other children?”
Thankfully, Stephanie’s care team had some answers. She underwent a lumpectomy to remove the tumor in the far upper quadrant of her breast.
“So when we were in there and getting around the tumor, I had a sinking feeling that the changes we were encountering in the breast tissue around it could very well be part of the cancer as well.” Vaince said.
The cancer — invasive lobular carcinoma — was growing, and quickly. The next step was a surprising one for Stephanie.
Annabelle Veerapaneni is a Northwestern Medicine medical oncologist/hematologist.
“It’s safe to give chemotherapy during pregnancy,” she said. “We have to make sure we give the appropriate regimen and we have to monitor patients.”
The infusions began in her second trimester. That’s when an unborn baby’s organs have developed enough to withstand two standard breast cancer treatments – doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide. Still, there are heart concerns for the patient, especially one who is expecting.
During pregnancy, fluid naturally builds in the body and can impact cardiac function. When you add chemotherapy to the mix, “We have to monitor patients very, very closely because we’re taking care of a very fragile situation,” Veerapaneni said.
“I’m not going to say I wasn’t a little bit nervous both for Stephanie and the baby girl inside of her, but the doctors assured us at the time she was one of three in their system pregnant with breast cancer and they seemed super confident,” Stephanie’s husband Jonathan said.
And so is Stephanie. She’s taken her treatments in stride.
“Honestly not as bad as I was expecting,” she said. “You hear all the horror stories about the nausea the vomiting and the fatigue of course there is a little nausea … It’s been manageable for the most part.”
But there are more to come, and they’ll begin just a week after she has her baby.
“I will likely have a mastectomy and then 12 more rounds of weekly chemo and then daily radiation for about a month but that’s all tentative based on further testing,” she said. “I think it’s important to spread the word especially for moms to put their health first.”
And that’s why Stephanie is sharing her story with the hope other moms won’t delay seeking care while pregnant or skip regular screenings.
“It is considered safe to do a mammogram you can shield the baby as well. You can even do a mammogram while you are breastfeeding too,” Veerapaneni said.
We’re already planning a trip next year when this is all over,” Jonathan said. “Get back to our normal life with then four kids.”
“If I hadn’t of done the exam myself, if I hadn’t followed up with my doctor and made that time for myself, even though I thought it was silly, even though I thought it was going to be nothing, for sure then I would likely be in a very, very different situation,” Stephanie said.
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