When one Georgia mom was pregnant with her first child, she discovered a hard, painful knot in the back of her head, and as the pregnancy went on, the pain only worsened.
“I actually discovered [the knot] right before I got pregnant,” said Ashley Hallford, now a mother of three. “But I wrote it off to be a lymph node because it didn’t really hurt.” At 32 weeks pregnant, she decided to get the lump checked out and doctors discovered the lump was cancer. “Pathologists from all over the country studied the lump,” Hallford said. “They all agreed that it was a rare and very aggressive, possibly hormonally fueled cancer. But nobody could diagnose it.”
A week later doctors induced labor early so that she could start treatment and the couple experienced their first miracle. “We were preparing for our son to spend time in the neonatal intensive care unit. But when he was born, he didn’t have to. He got to go home two days later. The NICU doctor came in to see us, and he said that never in his career had he seen a 33-week term baby not go to the NICU, even for evaluation. That was just a miracle.”
A couple days after giving birth, Hallford had surgery to remove the lump, but when results came back, they found out the cancer had already spread to her brain, lungs, and liver and was diagnosed with stage four cancer. “At that point, they stopped trying to figure out what it was, saying, ‘We need to start treating her, or she’s gonna die.’ ” she said. Hallford received the maximum amount of radiation in six weeks, but the tumors weren’t responding. “At my church, they started praying and fasting, for the whole month,” Hallford said. “I continued chemo through July 2008, and then had more scans to check progress. I was praying because if there was no change or things were worse, I would be out of options.”
Then Hallford and her husband David experienced their second miracle. When Hallford went back in for scans, the cancer was gone. “They said, ‘The radiologist report shows no evidence of disease present.’ I was so dumbfounded by what she said that I was like, ‘What does that mean?’ She said, ‘It means you’re in remission.’ ”
“I never thought you would have made it,” said Dr. Debra Miller. “Theoretically, with stage 4 cancer, you’re not curable. I met Ashley when she was pregnant, when she had the neck mass. After her first round of treatment, more disease was found in her lungs, and she was retreated. After that, she’s been disease free … it’s nothing short of miraculous.”
It’s been nine years since Hallford’s been in remission, but because of the chemotherapy and radiation, doctors said it would be impossible for Hallford to have any more children. Yet, in the years since, the couple experienced yet another miracle when they naturally conceived and gave birth to two more healthy children, one of which was just born this January. “I credit my recovery to God, 100 percent,” she said.
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[Featured image: Cassie Connelly Photography]
Mom Beat Cancer After Doctors Said She Had Days To Live is an article from: LifeDaily