No Way Was I Going To Give Up Breastfeeding!

by Bobby Young

When my daughter, who is breastfeeding, was three months old I found a knot in my throat. I put off going to the doctor for about three months after I found it. I kept telling myself that it was nothing. Thanks to the support and encouragement from my LLL leader and my husband I went to the doctor to have it checked.

The nurse practitioner told me that I had to have some tests done to rule out cancer and some other problems. I had a blood test done to see if it was my thyroid gland, which the doctor was leaning towards. Two weeks later that test came back fine.

The bad news was, it might be cancer. I had to wait three weeks to have an ultrasound on my neck because I wouldn't let them do anything to me that would affect me breastfeeding my child. I found out it was a solid mass and had to see a surgeon for a biopsy. It turned out that I needed to have urgent surgery the next week. It would do no good to do the biopsy.

The surgeon told me that my baby was six months old and it was time to put her on formula. He said I wouldn't be able to nurse her.

Boy, that made me hot under the collar. I cried uncontrollably for several days and pumped what I could for my precious angel. I was under no means going to quit breastfeeding! I immediately got on the phone to find out info on breastfeeding with thyroid problems and possible cancer and any other options I might have. I knew even if it was cancer and I had to quit nursing she would still have whatever I managed to pump. I didn't give up. I researched drugs that I could use during breastfeeding and talked to a mother who had the same problems I was having. I talked to the anesthesiologist the day before my surgery and asked him what we could do even though the surgeon told me I had to quit.

He told me that he could use medications that would be fine for me to nurse with after twelve hours. He said their was no need for me to stop nursing. Finally someone agrees with me. The next day he told me he had discussed my problem with some of his friends in the field and they said it would be fine to nurse her immediate after I woke up, but I probably wouldn't feel up to it. I told him to watch and see. I was to the point that I wasn't going to have the surgery that would eventually save my life if I couldn't nurse my child. He told me not to let the doctor know that I was still going to nurse until after the surgery. I still couldn't believe he told me that there was no need for me to nurse after two weeks old.

As soon as I woke up my breasts were full. I didn't want to pass any medications to my daughter, no matter how minute, so I pumped them. An hour later I was nursing my precious angel, and she was in heaven. My surgery had gone well, but I still had to wait to find out the results. I talked the nurses into letting my baby stay in the hospital with me overnight. It wasn't too hard, they all loved her. All the nurses checked to make sure all meds I had were safe to nurse with before they gave them to me, although I refused most of them. I didn't use any pain meds at all, thanks in part to the calming effect of breastfeeding.

I breastfed my angel every chance I got for the next weeks to keep myself calm and to keep my mind off of the possibility of cancer, just a week before Christmas! My test came back cancer free. I had a tumor in my thyroid gland. Left unattended it would have suffocated me in my sleep. My child and I are living proof that there are ways to breastfeed when your doctor says its impossible. You have to research and ask questions, but it can be done.

Cheyenne is almost ten months old and nursing strong, not to mention healthy as a horse. I owe it all to the support of my husband, and the LLL without whom I may have lost my mind. I can never thank them enough.