"I Was Told I'd Never Have Kids"

Melanie Turner Dawson made sure that she ate well, a proper healthy diet. She never smoked or touched alcohol. In spite of all this, she was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer at the age of 35. She was devastated. ‘This isn’t happening to me. It is just not right,” she thought, as there was no history of cancer in her family. She decided that this terrible disease was not going to kill her. So she kept a positive attitude with the help and support of her mom, her siblings, her boyfriend and friends.

Life was not easy for her. She had to go through a single mastectomy followed by 36 rounds of radiation and 6 months of chemotherapy. She faced all this bravely because she knew that these treatments might eventually keep her alive. But deep down something was worrying her. She was worried that the treatments would leave her infertile by damaging her ovaries. For her, the idea that she wouldn’t be able to conceive was much more devastating than the fact that she might not survive this ordeal.

And finally, when she stopped having her periods for about seven months, she really thought that what she feared the most had happened. She consulted a fertility specialist who said that she might be in early menopause due to the stress and strain she was going through. But surprisingly it restarted after two months. Though she was slightly relieved she was still skeptical.

She kept worrying. “What if I have a baby? I might not even live long enough to see my kid grow up.” She knew that 22 percent of the women with breast cancer spread to the lymph nodes did not survive for more than five years. “I am going to miss out on so many things,” she thought. She even decided not to get married and have kids. But one fine day on September 11, she realized that self pity was not getting her any where. “I have only lost one of my breasts, not my life or my spirit,” she thought. That gave her a different perspective of life and how she had to face it. She decided she was going to fight her odds and live life.

So on November 2002, at the age of 37, she married her boyfriend Richard. They went to Hawaii for their honeymoon and were taking each day as it came. But when Dawson started getting nauseated and exhausted during the trip she feared that her cancer had returned with a vengeance. Moreover, her periods were also late. So the couple decided to take an at home pregnancy test once they reached home. And when the result turned out to be positive they were elated. That day being Thanksgiving Day they realized they had a lot to be thankful for.

She was worried whether her pregnancy would cause a relapse but then decided that nothing was going to spoil her happiness. “Whatever the risk, it’s worth it. I am not going to spend my life in fear. I am going to enjoy every moment and hope for the best,” she said

On July 2003, Dawson gave birth to a baby boy whom they named Robert, after a smooth and normal delivery. They live in Rochester, Minnesota and though the cancer has returned, she is determined to fight it off again with the support of the two men in her life. “My life is more worth living and fuller than before,” she says.

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