My baby kicked my tumour
Susan O’flanagan, 41, from South London, was carrying a tumour that was bigger than her unborn baby…
Yawning heavily, my whole body ached with exhaustion. ‘I don’t remember feeling this tired the last time,’ I moaned.
It was November 2016, and I was 12 weeks pregnant with my third baby.
But with Holly, then 17, and Gracie, two, to look after, I’d no choice but to keep going.
It was soon time for my 20-week scan, and my big sister, Kaye, 48, came with me.
Only, as the sonographer scanned my tummy, she looked a bit worried.
‘I’ve seen something on your kidney,’ she explained. ‘I need to call someone in to look.’
As she went to fetch a doctor, I burst into tears.
‘What is it?’ I sobbed, as the doctor took a closer look.
‘There’s a mass there,’ she told me with a concerned tone.
But they needed to refer me for tests to find out more.
Kaye just clutched my hand tightly, shocked.
I went home in a fog of tears and broke the news to my partner, the girls, and my mum, also called Susan, 69. Two weeks later, I was at Guy’s Hospital, where I was given an MRI scan.
Afterwards, the consultant sat me down to tell me what they’d found. ‘It’s big,’ he said. ‘It’s very big.’ My partner and I listened in horror as the consultant said the mass was 14cm across. The size of a melon! It was bigger than our unborn baby boy – and covered my entire right kidney.
And there was a chance it could be cancerous.
That was bad enough, but my pregnancy made it extremely complicated and I couldn’t have a biopsy to check for cancer.
‘But there are options,’ the doctor explained to me.
The first was a termination, so that surgeons could operate and remove the tumour immediately. ‘No way,’ I cried. The next option was very scary, too, though.
I’d wait until I was far enough along to have a Caesarean.
Then surgeons would remove my kidney and the tumour at the same time. ‘OK,’ I said. I was willing to do anything I could to save our baby. ‘But if
there’s a chance I can deliver naturally…’ I begged.
So I was booked in for another scan with the doctor in four weeks.
The wait was excruciating and I was petrified.
What about the girls? I thought to myself.
They needed their mum. Back at hospital, four weeks on, some good news.
‘The mass hasn’t grown,’ the doctor smiled.
We’d have to take it step by step, have regular MRI scans.
‘But it’s a good sign,’ he reassured me.
It meant we had more time to let my baby boy grow. Still, at 28 weeks pregnant, I was really feeling the effects of the tumour.
My bump was huge, I suffered pains in my tummy, and my back was in agony.
I worried about the baby, too.
‘He must feel squashed in there,’ I cried to Mum.
And at a 30-week scan, his little foot was pressed against my huge tumour. ‘He looks like he’s kicking it,’ I gasped, so worried.
Thankfully, though, our baby seemed to be growing OK.
In May 2017, at 34 weeks into my pregnancy, I was induced at Lewisham Hospital.
Still, it was another four days before our son, Archie, was born, weighing 5lb 6oz.
He was given antibiotics as a precaution, but he was otherwise perfectly healthy. Relief surged through me. Back at home, I savoured every precious second with my newborn baby boy.
I felt so lucky to be holding him in my arms.
But I still had my own health to worry about.
When Archie was four weeks old, I was admitted to Guy’s Hospital to have my right kidney and the huge tumour removed.
‘We need to get the tumour out
It was bigger than our baby