I have been helping a 31 year old mom who, in the 26th week of her
second pregnancy was complaining of shortness of breath. She was told
it could be asthma, or maybe just the stress of pregnancy. At the time
she was still breastfeeding her 2 year old. ( She had been registered in
a course to become a Lactation Consultant. Really
breastfeeding-dedicated.)
Her family doc suggested a cardio- ultrasound which showed a suspected
pulmonary blockage, maybe a clot. She was hospitalized and treated
with anticoagulants. Her situation deteriorated and in the 28th week,
she delivered a 1k500g baby boy by CS, then underwent surgery to remove
the clot. I met her in the ICU on day 3 pumping milk for the preemie,
and complaining that she had had so much milk with her other baby and
now was only able to pump 20cc each pumping session.
She continued to pump and provide as much milk as she could. Her two
year old was suffering from breast withdrawal.
One week later, the docs received the results of the biopsy that was
done on the mass that was removed from her lung. They started asking me
to search for articles about women with cancer breastfeeding. She was
diagnosed with Leiomyosarcoma, which is a rare and violent cancer of the
soft muscle tissue. I was told that her prognosis was grim, one month
to live unless she underwent further surgery to remove the remainder of
the mass, in which case she had 6 months.
She continued pumping. She went home pumping. I am not sure she
understood the severity of the situation.
Today, she is one month post partum, just underwent her third surgery.
She was told to stop pumping 10 days ago in order to allow her body to
recover more quickly.
Today I was called into the cardiac post surgical unit because suddenly
she was engorged and complaining of hard painful breasts. She had been
given Dostinex to dry up the milk, and had also taken pramine for the
nausea which was caused by the Dostinex. She admitted to me that she
had breastfed her 2 year old last week. " We both needed it."
Now she is going home and will start chemotherapy in another 3 weeks,
and her question was:
"Can I pump until the chemo so that the baby will get my milk.?" He did
not react well to Similac and is now on Progestamil. The head of the
dept refused to allow the baby to receive donor milk, even tho the mom
has a friend who also delivered a preemie last month and is willing to
donate as much milk as she needs.
I am crying as I write this. She could hardly breathe, but goes every
day to sit in the NICU with her baby. She actually looks fine, and if
you saw her would never believe that she is probably not going to see
her baby's first birthday.
I told her to go to the head of the hospital and plead to be allowed to
give the baby donor milk from her friend. A few tears would help, and
it just so happens that the head of the hospital is not crazy about the
head of the NICU, so he may agree.
Do any of you see any problem for this mom to go back to pumping during
the next few weeks until she starts the chemo? If she can do it and
insists, I don't see any reason why not. All the meds she is getting at
this point are not a problem. Do the docs in this list think that this
is a problem, given the grim prognosis? Would pumping drain her body's
resources?
I told her that I would discuss her case on this list to get reactions.
I still believe in miracles. Your prayers would help.
I am leaving tonight for a midwifery conference in Budapest ( Michel
Odent, Henci Goer, Ina May Gaskin, to name a few). I will be no-mail
for a week, so if there are any replies, could you please send a copy to
my private e-mail address.
With a heavy heart,
Esther Grunis, IBCLC
Lis Maternity Hospital
Tel Aviv, Israel
---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.779 / Virus Database: 526 - Release Date: 19/10/2004
***********************************************
To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|
