April Addison had just given birth to her second son, Ashton, by caesarian section.
It wasn’t going to be an easy recovery while she and her husband, Leo, took care of their young sons, newborn Ashton and 3-year-old Aiden but they were ready for it.
April is a nurse though and is used to taking care of other people so taking care of young children was something she knew she could do.
But April and her husband weren’t prepared for what they would find out shortly after giving birth.
A day after giving birth to Ashton, April was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer.
She first felt the lump on her breast during the early stages of her pregnancy.
Since she was pregnant, she assumed it might have been a clogged milk duct.
But the lump became painful and she finally told her obstetrician at her 39-week check-up.
Her doctor was concerned and ordered a breast ultrasound.
April was about to give birth and anything that could be out of the ordinary needed to be examined.
That’s why a biopsy was also ordered.
April works as an oncology nurse so she knows a thing or two about cancer.
But it’s always a different story when it comes to your own experience and it terrified her.
“I started crying,” April shared. “Being an oncology nurse, I’m like, ‘Oh goodness, I have no family history of breast cancer. So what could possibly be going on?'”
Even though she had no family history of breast cancer, it was, unfortunately, breast cancer.
And since she was already in the hospital, she underwent her first mammogram and first breast MRI. Dr. Zelnak also went through the treatment options she could choose from, which included surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.
April and Leo were looking forward to sleepless nights with their newborn sons, not chemotherapy.
“I was, you know, hurt,” April said. “I was confused. I felt like, man, I had been given a bad hand. I’m like, ‘Why is this happening to me, you know, right now?'”
April decided to start with chemotherapy, which turned out to be a good decision.
It brought her enough time to think about the next step, which is breast cancer surgery.
April will be able to consider her choices and make the right informed decision because she had months to do the research and analyze it.
If she had chosen to start with surgery, she would only have maybe a week or two to make a decision that will last for the rest of her life.
She chose a bilateral mastectomy surgery, which will remove both breasts and lower the risk of cancer coming back.
And once she’s healed from the surgery, she will start radiation therapy.
It’s a hard journey to go from cancer nurse to cancer patient almost overnight.
But her family and friends have been supporting her all the way.
One more thing she is grateful for is that her sons are happy and healthy.
They laugh constantly and take away her pain.
By sharing her story, April hopes that other young women, especially those who are pregnant can learn from it.
“Never think that you’re too young,” April said. “…that, because you don’t have a family history of it, that it can’t happen to you. If you feel something, you know, speak up. You need to say something. If you see something, if you see changes or, you know, not right in your body, you need to speak up and say something.”
Learn more about April’s story in the video below.
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