Cancer survior gets pregnant after docs called it…
Tiana Bender-Santiago is doing what cancer said she couldn’t.
The 28-year-old, identified with Ewing sarcoma, an aggressive kind of bone cancer, at age 13, was told she’d seemingly never have kids. An oafish fertility doctor even deemed her ovaries “dusty.”
But now, the brunette and her bellyful of child are laughing all the way in which to labor and supply.
Bender-Santiago started to shake after studying she was pregnant, which the California-based cancer survivor grew up believing was unattainable. @itstianajo / TikTok
“Take that cancer,” Bender-Santiago, from Ventura, California, captioned a clip of her discovering she and husband Nigel had conceived.
Footage of the shaking, speechless sweethearts staring at their optimistic being pregnant take a look at has amassed over 809,000 video views online.
“Now entering my mom era,” she deservingly bragged of her “literal miracle.”
The tumor in Bender-Santiago’s pelvis was urgent against her backbone. @tianajo / Instagram
Bender-Santiago revealed that she beat cancer in high college. @tianajo / Instagram
Bender-Santiago was one in the small quantity of teenagers to be identified with cancer. In fact, just 5,660 adolescents are identified yearly in the U.S., making up a tiny fraction (roughly 0.3%) of the entire national cancer diagnoses, per the American Cancer Society.
For cancer sufferers under age 19, consultants warn that “treatment can affect their reproductive systems and their ability to have children in the future.” Adults, including both males and girls, could face related infertility unwanted side effects, forcing them to explore adoption or surrogacy, or to forgo parenthood all together.
Bender-Santiago, however, was more preoccupied with battling the disease than pursuing future fertility choices upon studying that a tumor had developed in her pelvis and was urgent against her backbone.
The married couple, believing they had been unable to conceive naturally due to Bender-Santiago’s earlier diagnosis, deliberate to sooner or later undertake a child. @tianajo / Instagram
“Egg freezing was discussed, but I chose to start fighting the cancer right away,” she told Newsweek. “I found peace knowing that adoption was something I’d dreamed of doing anyway.”
She in the end beat cancer in high college.
After assembly Nigel, 27, and tying the knot in 2023, the couple settled in to comfortable married life, never anticipating the shock they acquired in early March, discovering out that Bender-Santiago was, in deed, anticipating.
Bender-Santiago nervously woke her husband up in shock upon studying that they had been anticipating. @tianajo / Instagram
The over-the-moon mommy-to-be usually share pictures and being pregnant progress updates with her adoring digital public on TikTok. @itstianajo / TikTok
“I didn’t think it was real,” she admitted of the doubt that surged through her trembling body while studying the Clear Blue outcomes — a being pregnant take a look at she took on a whim before throwing it in the rubbish.
“I’d heard of chemical pregnancies and hormonal changes causing false positives, so that was my first thought,” said Bender-Santiago. “Since our fertility doctor had told me perimenopause was approaching, I figured this must be some new hormonal shift.”
“Even after multiple positive tests, I didn’t fully believe it until our first ultrasound, when we heard our baby’s heartbeat, which was so surreal.”
The merry mommy-to-be — thought-about “high risk owing to a hole bone in her pelvis from cancer — routinely shares ultrasound snaps of her incoming infant online, a boy due in December, confessing she and Nigel cry tears of pleasure each time docs verify that their child is A-OK.
“We got to see little gummy bear at 8 weeks and my OBGYN was so reassuring about all my concerns with my cancer history,” she wrote in a post. “We did lots of extra tests just to be safe and everything came back clear!”
“My doctor called the baby ‘perfectly healthy.’”
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