When Lindsey Parr Gritton visited her OB-GYN in April 2022, she told the doctor that she had been experiencing a burning lump in her breast. Lindsey, in her late 20s, was pregnant with her second child, a baby girl. Lindsey\u2019s doctor didn\u2019t believe the lump was anything serious, chalking it up to a clogged milk duct or mastitis. She didn\u2019t suspect anything. Lindsey, however, believed there was more to the feeling and asked for an ultrasound.<\/p>\n
Lindsey worried about her health and her unborn child’s.
\nLindsey believes if she hadn\u2019t asked for that ultrasound, she wouldn\u2019t be alive today.<\/p>\n
\u201cI literally saved my own life just by asking for that,\u201d she told People. A few days after the ultrasound, Lindsey got a call that doctors highly suspected the lump was cancerous.<\/p>\n
Naturally, Lindsey was terrified, not only for herself but also for the child she was carrying. \u201cIt was a really emotional time for me,\u201d Lindsey recalled. \u201cI was pregnant and expecting my second daughter and I had had a miscarriage before her, so this was a big deal. I was expecting my rainbow baby.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lindsey delivered her daughter early so she could begin treatment.
\nA biopsy confirmed that the lump was \u201ca really aggressive type of breast cancer.\u201d Lindsey had two tumors in her breasts and lots of affected lymph nodes in her armpits. Lindsey said her family couldn\u2019t believe the news.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone was devastated … We don\u2019t have any history of breast cancer in my family on either side,\u201d Lindsey explained. \u201cMy mom or my dad\u2019s side, no cancer at all, really. It was a shock,\u201d she told the magazine.<\/p>\n
After the shock, Lindsey had to make some decisions about her treatment as well as her pregnancy. At 37 weeks, a week after the biopsy results, she was induced \u201cjust to get her out so I could start treatment as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lindsey enjoyed every moment with her family because she didn’t believe she’d be around to enjoy many more.
\nLindsey\u2019s delivery was not easy. She lost a lot of blood and doctors thought they might need to perform an emergency C-section. “I told them I didn’t want to do a C-section because it would postpone my chemo for my treatment, and I didn’t want to do that. I wanted a quick recovery so I could just start chemo as soon as possible,” she shared.<\/p>\n
A week after having her daughter, Lindsey started chemotherapy. Her decision to bypass the C-section was the right one: A PET scan revealed that the cancer had spread. There were a dozen tumors in her liver.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had told me I had six months to live,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was like the day after [the birth of her daughter] and it was just all bad news.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lindsey was in treatment for six months, when every three weeks she went to the hospital for three-hour infusions of chemo and immunotherapy drugs. Although it was hard being away from her children, Lindsey had the help of her husband, who worked from home, and both his and her parents. She managed to spend time with her family and felt like she enjoyed every moment because she thought she was on borrowed time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was taking in every second, trying to soak up everything,\u201d she explained. \u201cI made a scrapbook, I wrote letters to my kids, I made videos, everything. I was trying to do everything I could.”<\/p>\n
Lindsey’s body responded remarkably well to the chemo.
\nHalfway into her treatment, a scan showed that Lindsey\u2019s tumors were shrinking. “We knew that was really good. We just didn’t know how long this treatment was going to work for,” she explained.<\/p>\n
But the good news kept coming because the chemo was doing its job. \u201cAt the end of chemo, we weren’t expecting it, but everything was gone. My scan showed nothing was there,” she said, per People. “We were so happy after we found out there was no cancer in my body. We couldn’t, honestly, no one could believe it. It was really crazy and surreal.”<\/p>\n
After the scans, Lindsey had a lumpectomy, to remove the area where doctors originally discovered the tumor. They also took lymph nodes. All of tissue from those surgeries were also cancer-free.<\/p>\n