After taking a couple days to digest everything that had been thrown at me, we had some decisions to make. I didn't want to do chemo while I was pregnant. We had so many issues through this pregnancy so far, I didn't want to risk anything else to the baby. But I also didn't want the baby to be born at 34 weeks - I wanted more time for it to develop inside.
I spoke to Dr. R the day after my appointment just with some questions (like, why the urgency all of a sudden?!) basically - they're trying to prevent growth and spread to my lymph nodes (staging changes if it gets to the lymph nodes, more risks, 5 year survival rate drops from >90% to ~60%) oh. Well that's a big deal. But still, I wasn't ready to commit to this. I told her I wanted to cancel the chemo for Tuesday at this time so we could take the weekend to think about all this.
On Friday, we made a pros and cons list. Saturday, we were terrible citizens and my parents came down for the night (look, we had all been as isolated and safe as we could be, and with everything going on, I needed my parents OK?). The most important factor the lists came down to was my survival rate and, my mental health (which was noted in every column). I was going to do the chemo. But then, an angel of a person contacted me to let me know I had an opportunity for a second opinion with a gyneoncologist at Sunnybrook hospital in Toronto. Wow. Ok. New plan. Now, we were going to Sunnybrook on Wednesday to meet with their Maternal Fetal Medicine team and Dr. K to go over any alternative options we may have. I was scared. I was hopeful. I really wished that Travis could come with me (Sunnybrook's restrictions were HARDCORE - no visitors at all and for women in labour, you could have 1 support person but they had to leave TWO HOURS after the baby was born!!!). But this was potentially another option for us, so here we go.
So Wednesday April 22nd, we headed out on our hour and a half drive to Sunnybrook at 10:30am (my parents had come down again so they could pick Ty up from daycare as we likely wouldn't be back in time). We got there around 12pm and Trav dropped me off at the front doors (side note, when you're used to the St. Catharine's General, holy CRAP is Sunnybrook intimidating!!! It's on a whole 'nother level!) and off I went through the covid screening (fully prepped with my mask of course!) and up to the 4th floor for my ultrasound. First upside to this day, getting to see our little babe moving about :). After that, I met with the OB, Dr. C, who I filled in on the full scope of everything going on. He let me know that of course optimal time to deliver the baby is at 39 weeks. However, lots of babies are born before that with no issues and the only thing they really worry about is the lungs before 37 weeks. But there are steroid injections for that. So if I was going to deliver early, I'd just need those injections and we should be good to go.
Off to Odette. That's the cancer building at the hospital. I had gotten to the hospital at 12pm, things were running behind in the maternity ward so I was about a half hour late for my oncologist appointment (which was scheduled for 1:45pm). I was hungry, I was sweating and breathless (from all but running from the 4th floor of the main building over to the cancer centre) and I had to pee. UGH. I quickly texted Trav to give him an update as to where I was (he was luckily able to be at a friend's house not far from the hospital so he wasn't stuck inside our car with nowhere to go this time) and waited to be called in. I got in pretty quick (considering how late I was) put the lovely and completely unbreathable gown on and waited (and continued to sweat like crazy). I saw two nurses before Dr. K came in (one to go over generic health questions and the other to go over my full case so she could give the Dr the rundown before coming in). FINALLY. She came in. We chatted about the full situation. Went over what was suggested to me at Juravinski. She provided basically the complete opposite option for me. Her and her nurse completed a quick internal exam and confirmed the tumour was definitely not bigger than 2cm and still very localized (let's remember that it's now been 2 months since this tumour was first discovered).
There was NO NEED for chemo in her opinion!!! (this Dr knows her shit - I [of course] researched her prior to meeting her) and already knew she was straightforward, (for lack of a better term) blunt, and SMART AS SHIT. She is actually the Scientific lead for the Ontario Cervical Cancer Screening program. Sooo yeah, she knows what she's doing (I'm not putting down Dr. R at Juravinski at all, she was lovely, and also extraordinarily smart). Her best recommendation was to monitor and deliver baby at 34 weeks (I was 31 weeks at this appointment) AND that they would do the cesarean and hysterectomy at the same time. ONE SURGERY AND ONE RECOVERY. Hallelujah!!! I expressed to her that if her and the OB were comfortable, I would prefer to monitor over the next couple weeks and look to deliver at 36 weeks (that was however only 1 week earlier than I was currently booked for in St. Catharine's). She was completely OK with that. She said I'd come back in 2 weeks for a check on things and so long as they were looking good we'd proceed from there to about a 36 week delivery. I could've cried tears of pure happiness at this time. She told me exactly what I had hoped to hear. How often does that happen?!
I let Travis know I was done so he could head back to the hospital to get me - of course not telling him anything until I saw him.
I got in the car. I could barely hold back my smile. "Well?" he said. The smile was bigger than my face at this point - "NO CHEMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She said I didn't need to have chemo and that I can deliver the baby and have the RH at THE SAME TIME and it would be between 34 and 36 weeks!!!!"
Needless to say, that drive home was one of the better ones we've had from a hospital lately.
So that was that. We took the night to sleep on it and on Thursday confirmed that Sunnybrook was the right option for me, the baby and our family. It was going to mean being farther from home when baby arrives and being away from Ty for a couple more days - but that was OK. It was all manageable. Wow. What a breath of relief this was.