MEDICAL MIRACLE
SURGERY KEEPS WOMAN'S BABY HOPES ALIVE
A TOOWOOMBA woman trying to get pregnant was instead faced with a shock cancer diagnosis at just 36. Katanya Watherston hopes a Toowoomba-first surgery today will keep her dream of becoming a mum alive.
‘‘ MY HUSBAND AND I GOT MARRIED LAST APRIL AND SO WE THOUGHT WE WERE AT THE STAGE READY TO TRY FOR A BABY.
KATANYA WATHERSTON
EAGER to start a family, newlywed Katanya Watherston visited her doctor to make sure everything was okay. She was not expecting a bowel cancer diagnosis.
Mrs Watherston, 36, will today have a Toowoomba-first surgery at St Vincent’s Private Hospital, having one ovary removed to preserve fertility.
Very low iron levels for the past few years and the odd stomach ache were her only symptoms. Iron tablets failed to increase her levels, but ever the optimist, she thought she just needed a holiday.
“My husband and I got married last April and so we thought we were at the stage ready to try for a baby. So I went and got all of my hormone levels tested and all of that and obviously my main concern was my iron levels,” she said.
“So that was something that we needed to look into further. We booked in for a colonoscopy and it all went from there.”
Mrs Watherston was told she had a 5cm bowel cancer, stage three, on February 12. The next day Dr Mike Egerton removed it surgically. Dr Egerton referred Mrs Watherston to fertility specialist Dr John Esler to make sure she still had the chance to have a baby with husband Michael.
Despite her diagnosis, Mrs Watherston beams positivity and is determined her next visit to hospital will be in the maternity ward.
“(She’s a) young woman, who hasn’t had a baby yet, who is going to have chemotherapy which could kill both of her ovaries,” Dr Esler said.
Instead of harvesting and freezing eggs, not possible due to the nature and location of the cancer and the need to start chemotherapy, her best chance was an ovarian cortex transplantation.
“We can do that either by removing little strips of ovary or in this case removing the whole ovary because she has a high ovarian reserve,” Dr Esler said.
“So we will harvest the ovary and it will be taken by our scientists and chopped up into little bits and individually frozen.”
If Mrs Watherston’s remaining ovary is killed during chemo, low doses for six months at the end of the month, the frozen strips can be implanted in five years and will make natural conception possible.