Day 8: Being a Mother

On Mother's Day, I'll tell you about a hard reality. We have met twice with a fertility team about Tillery's risks of infertility. She is on a low dose of chemotherapy which has a low risk for causing infertility. There have been many discussions about doing radiation later in life, at which time there would be a high risk of affecting fertility. No one can find research on the long term affects of all of the x-rays and CT scans that she has done. The scans alone are low risk but she has had 34 images in radiology in a year and a half. That's a lot of exposure!

There is a procedure that can be done where they surgically remove an ovary and freeze it during treatment. At the end of treatment, it is put back in. The procedure is still relatively new and there isn't enough information on success rates. Because Tillery has too many needs for necessary surgeries, her team will not clear her to do this procedure anytime soon.

It breaks my heart to think of the children who can never have biological children because of the harsh effects of cancer treatments. Finding better drugs and treatment options can help preserve Mother's Day for some of today's little girls.