Home » Breast cancer: the story of Giovanna, who had a baby girl against all odds

Breast cancer: the story of Giovanna, who had a baby girl against all odds

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Breast cancer: the story of Giovanna, who had a baby girl against all odds

In 2018, for her 40th birthday, Giovanna had booked a trip to the Bahamas. She really deserved it, after all. Twenty days before departure, however, the plans changed.

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Let’s jump into the past 15 years. It was 2007, she was only 29, she was in the prime of her life and her breast cancer had come like a bolt from the blue. “I had to metabolize the news without being able to stop: I ran against the tumor from the beginning, while the road became more and more uphill”, she says from the stage of “IEO for women”. With a voice that, however, does not convey fatigue, but hope and trust.

The diagnosis was triple negative cancer and in 2007 there was not much else to be done about this cancer other than aggressive chemotherapy. He was supposed to have eight rounds of pre-operative chemo, but his immune system only allowed three.

“After the surgery I resumed the treatment – he says – and I continued for several months with other oral chemo. There was nothing else I could do to protect myself from the risk of relapse. After this first period I was fine, great, I had I recovered completely and with my husband we were thinking of having a child. “

A new tumor

But things hadn’t gone quite as hoped that time either. 9 years had passed since the disease and during an annual checkup, the breast specialist found a new lump in the other breast. A new tumor, not a relapse. At that point – it was 2016 – the genetic investigation had revealed a mutation in the BRCA1 gene that explained everything: the young age, the two tumors and the fact that they were both ‘triple negative’.

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“Even though I was under strict control – Giovanna continues – the tumor had grown quickly. I immediately had the surgery and started again with chemo. All over again: hair loss, fatigue … With the oncologist who Emilia Montagna followed me – and who follows me -, we changed the protocol and reshaped the treatment several times. But, despite the difficulty, I really found a serene environment in which to face my battle, full of humanity. Even pats on the back are useful ” .

The year ‘of 40’

And we arrive at 2018, the year “of the 40”: the treatments ended a year and a half ago, the tickets for the Bahamas taken and the suitcases almost ready. “But this time the trip was skipped for a good reason: I was pregnant”, says Giovanna with her voice still excited after four years: “Nobody expected it and neither did I. The gynecologist defined this pregnancy as ‘precious’, because it is very rare that someone who has had a history of illness like mine can have a child naturally. Destiny must have wanted it differently in my case. husband we were thinking of resorting to heterologous fertilization once back from vacation “.

Something is wrong (again)

Unfortunately, the story with the disease does not end there. The last month of her pregnancy, Giovanna felt something strange in her most recently operated breast, and after her delivery her ultrasound had shown an enlarged lymph node in the armpit. The doctors had decided on axillary dissection. The report: two positive lymph nodes, ie with micrometastases.

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“The oncologist told me that it was necessary to resume chemo – a new protocol yet – and while the pandemic broke out, in March 2019, in the total confusion of those first moments, I also had radiotherapy, to protect myself as much as possible”. The last surgery dates back to September 2020 when, on the advice of doctors, Giovanna also removed the ovaries and tubes, because the BRCA1 mutation significantly increases the risk of cancer in these organs. “Now I do checks every six months. The fear is always there, every time I lie down on that bed … But I realize that I can not help but fight.”

The sense of telling

Giovanna defines herself as a bit bionic. “When Camilla is grown up I will explain a few things to you … The important thing is to be able to tell them. I am happy to be able to give my testimony also to give hope to others, because sharing is very important for us as we face this battle. pregnancy, they had taken away any possibility for me: they are just the example that, at times, things can go differently from what seems to be predetermined. You can be a parent in many ways and I really hope that laws can be made that protect more who has had cancer, especially young people “.

There is also a postscript in this story, which Giovanna cares a lot about. “I had a great love inside me to transmit, a maternal desire, so in 2017 I adopted a dog, and it gave me incredible joy. In fact, I always say that Camilla, in reality, is my second child”.

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