Michigan mom beats cervical cancer, gives birth to her only daughter

Illnesses & Conditions Drug Guide FDA Drug Approvals Medical Tests
Self-Help Resources Complementary Medicine Medline Search Informacion de Salud Referencia de Medicamentos

Allergies    Asthma    Back Pain    Cancer    Caregiver    Depression    Diabetes
Digestive Disorders    Heart Disease    Kidney Disease
Men's Health    Pregnancy    Senior's Health    Stress    Stroke    Women's Health

Fitness Nutrition Mind & Body Family & Home

Cervical Health Awareness Month

Michigan mom beats cervical cancer, gives birth to her only daughter

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

(HealthDay News) -- Sallie Larthridge's third pregnancy became a race against time the minute she learned of it.

Not much earlier, Larthridge, 35, of Grand Rapids , Mich. , had been diagnosed with cervical cancer. Doctors warned her that keeping the baby could cost Larthridge her life. She decided it was worth the risk.

"They give you all the ifs. She might not make it. You might not make it having her," Larthridge said. "I just believed in God, that He doesn't make mistakes. If He was going to have me pregnant while I had cancer, He was going to let us both make it."

It was in 2003 that Larthridge went for her annual Pap smear and it came back abnormal. Her doctor told her it wasn't anything to worry about yet, that a second Pap smear should hopefully come back normal. Instead, her second test revealed the cancer had spread, with more spots found on her cervix.

"When he did a second one and found out it had changed, that's when I got worried," Larthridge said. "I had no symptoms or anything. Some people get stomach pain or something."

Then things got more complicated.

Within a matter of days, before she could even decide on a course of treatment, Larthridge found out she was pregnant.

She decided to fight for both the child and herself, a fight that grew more intense when she learned she was carrying a girl. She had two sons, now aged 11 and 15, but no daughter.

"I thought, 'Wow, what if I don't make it to raise my only daughter? I finally get a daughter, and I don't get to make it to raise her.' That was a difficult thing to think about," Larthridge recalled.

Larthridge saw a doctor twice a week through her entire pregnancy. A month before she was due, her doctors decided that her baby wasn't gaining enough weight and induced labor.

Within two days of the successful delivery, Larthridge was wheeled from her recovery room into surgery to undergo a full hysterectomy.

"I came out wonderful," she said. Surgeons got all the cancer, and she never had to undergo chemotherapy or radiation therapy.

Her daughter, Micayla Larthridge, now is 3 years old, beautiful, smart and sweet. Her mother has remained cancer-free, and is back at college to get her degree in business management.

Larthridge found help getting back to her normal routine at her local Gilda's Club.

Named for Saturday Night Live comedian Gilda Radner, who died of ovarian cancer in 1989, the network of clubs provides emotional support to people diagnosed with cancer. Recent research by the U.S. Institute of Medicine has found that such support is essential in fighting cancer and preventing its recurrence.

"It was wonderful to know people had experienced what I did and got over it," Larthridge said. "It was more a relief to hear other people tell their stories. You realize your situation wasn't as bad, because you think, wow, I didn't go through that.

"More than anything, it helps you relieve all that stuff that's hidden inside that you don't express to your family members because you don't want them to worry," she said.