Diagnosed with Cancer, Am Pregnant and Will Have My Breast Removed in 16 hours

If you know someone who had cancer while being pregnant, or personally went through this please send an email to me at ceo@sup.biz or post a reply here.

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July 12th

Here are some pictures from Before and After:

Looking at Ultrasound pics with Mother-in-law the evening before surgery

Close Up of My Baby's Face in 4D ultrasound the Afternoon Before Surgery

In recovery an hour after closing me up

Getting my Appetite Back in a Big Way the next morning

Leaving MDAnderson to go home

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July 9th

After getting diagnosed yesterday at MDAnderson, I decided I was not going to hide the fact. I am really scared for my life and for the life of my baby. At the same time, I can not help but to worry how people will look at me with only one breast. They are also going to have to remove a large portion of my back. The back skin and the back muscle will be used to cover the hole where my left breast and chest muscle will have used to have been.

The good news for everyone reading this is that I should be back from the hospital by Monday and able to work from my computer out of my bed. I am a strong willed woman and I plan to heal quickly. The other partners of the company met last night and decided to donate a portion of all the profits to breast cancer research. I cried when I saw that they had placed the pink ribbon on the logo today.

My twitter account, that was initially used for updating on Sta.rtUp.biz, is also going to be used for updates on my battle, which I will win. Please take a moment to sign up to follow me on Twitter and tell your friends about it. I would like to share my story every step of the way.

http://twitter.com/TweetStartUp

MDAdnerson has informed me that I will be the 6th pregnant woman in medical history to have a mastectomy. They also told me that there has been less than 100 documented cases of pregnant women with cancer since they started tracking in 1991. I hope that by getting my story out, that I will be able to connect with some of the other 98 or so women that have gone through what I am going through now. This is the only way that I will find answers because the doctors say they can give no answers with so few statistics.

So please share this post with everyone you know. Hopefully, the power of business networking can lead to me finding answers and spreading awareness at the same time. Little did I know that a few weeks ago while watching how Twitter was changing the way we see Iran, that I would be using it to find answers and support in the fight of my life.

My surgery is at 6am Friday morning. I should be able to give a twitter update in the evening or dictate it to a family member to tweet it for me. I want to thank everyone for taking the time to read this and for forwarding this message on to all of your contacts.

If you know someone who had cancer while being pregnant, or personally went through this please send an email to me at ceo@sup.biz or post a reply here.

Please Help Me Find These Women By Sharing This With All Your Friends and Contacts By Clicking Here

Natalie Regoli
CEO, SUp.biz
Future Cancer Survivor and Mom

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Permalink Reply by Jessie AlTaitoon on July 9, 2009 at 4:20pm: Natalie, my friend back in 1988 was diagnosed with breast cancer whilst she was pregnant almost in her early 8th month. She had the surgery and then delivered a healthy baby girl (her youngest child two boys earlier) a month later. She was a strong willed woman. I am certain Natalie you will make through this and when you see your little bundle of joy all of this pain will be behind you. Ultimately it is your strength (in every way) and those around you that will help you get through this trying time.
Be in touch and if you need to talk you have all of us, the members and your friends too, here and at Ecademy.
Love and lots of hugs
Jessie; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Darwin Nunley on July 9, 2009 at 4:24pm: I will be praying for you, your baby, and all touched by this situation.
If I find anyone who can provide inspiration or a shared experience I will route them to you.
Do not ever worry about your physical appearance. It is only the spiritual being that matters.
This is what people will ultimately see.

Darwin Nunley
Canyon, Texas; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by yvette medina on July 9, 2009 at 4:25pm: Prayers are with you. I am a breast cancer survivor myself. Ever need to chat you can YIM me at Soykids03 Stay stronganf God Bless
Yvette; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by SUp.biz, CEO on July 9, 2009 at 5:26pm: Thank you very much. Once I get through this surgery I will get back in touch with you.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Melissa Farrow on July 9, 2009 at 4:28pm: Yes, I do know someone that went through this pregnant with twins. She found out early into her pregnancy that she had breast cancer. From what I understand, it was determined that she needed a double masectomy and was to make a decision to keep the babies or not. She chose to keep the babies and went through one masectomy.

She couldn't go through the second one at the time, not being able to stay under too long for fear of the babies' health, of course. She delivered the babies at full-term and they were healthy. After that, she went in for the other masectomy -- successfully and healthy.

You will be in good hands and just having the will power you do, it will make all the difference.

Go in strong and you WILL come out strong! All the best to you and I've just started following you so I'm excited to hear about your success story!

Melissa; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by SUp.biz, CEO on July 9, 2009 at 5:28pm: Please send them my email so I can get in touch with them. Thank you very much for letting me know.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ernest A.Szabo on July 9, 2009 at 4:29pm: Dear Natalie,
Keep up your faith and your strong will.Heavenly Father loves you and I know that both you and the baby will be fine! My prayers are with you and your name will be placed on the prayer-roll too!...
Ernest A. Szabo; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Abdullah on July 9, 2009 at 4:29pm: Dear Natalie,
May God bless you with inner peace and grant you the strength to see this through you and your baby; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Albert B. Daniels, Jr. on July 9, 2009 at 4:32pm: My prayers go out to you and for you. when you get an opportunity you might want to goggle raw food diets. I was just at a meeting last night and I heard some absolutely amazing stories by people who had all sorts of so called life threatening diseases that are now doing incredibly well, and are disease free. I can not begin to tell you the absolutely awesome comebacks each person I spoke to experienced. I will canvass some of these people to see if anyone knows of anyone you might contact. I am already visualizing your total and absolute recovery and the well being of your baby. Nothing is impossible!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ernie on July 9, 2009 at 4:37pm: I do not know of anyone. But I do know that you are one brave woman who chose to make public your private predicament between Life & Death. For the sake of your unborn child, of yourself, and of the many unknown others hiding in their "personal closets", you do not speak of Death - but of Life-after-Operation. With the advancement of Medical Science, you project an attitude of Life-after-Cancer. It is your positive Outlook-of-Life that brings light to our troubled world - and that lifts up the spirits of struggling Start-Ups.

On a personal note, I'm a quadruple Heart By-pass Survivor. I had my emergency Heart Operation last May 2003 after I was diagnosed with 1 Main and 3 Minor Heart Arteries 90% "blocked". By God's Grace and with the prayers of Strangers & Friends, I was walking out of the Philippine Heart Center hospital on my 6th day after operation. Never having been hospitalized myself (before my emergency Heart Operation) and ever busy running after SME Business Projects, I was financially unprepared to address my inevitable Medical Bills. Fortunately, my Cost-of-Operation (all inclusive) was less than P500K (about U$10K) which was paid for by contributions of Family & Friends - all in 5 days. As I am blessed with a "new" Heart, I'm evermore spirited to help bring about a "Better Philippines" - and a better world.

Believe it or not, young as you are, you're an inspiration to me - a Filipino Senior Citizen of 65 yrs. God bless!!!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Walter Latty on July 9, 2009 at 5:03pm: Hi Natalie,
WOW! I really admire your courage. Not many would be brave enough to talk about something like this so soon. I believe you are going to be OK. And so I would like to join with all the others in offering up a prayer for you. I'll be doing that as soon as I add this reply.
I do hope you believe in miracles and the power of prayer.
God bless you.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Robert Sloan on July 9, 2009 at 5:04pm: Good luck, ma'am. I hope you can go through this without harm to the baby. You're a brave, strong lady. Also remarkably good looking.

Don't worry about appearances. I've known some women who've had mastectomies and clothed, you can't really tell. They do great prosthetics. The only time people might know would be on the beach and you might be able to get a swimsuit made with a prosthetic.

You're a smart, strong, successful woman. You sound like a fighter. That's what makes the difference in cancer more than any other factor.

From what you've written in this post, I'm betting on you and the baby. Hard to face that shock at any time, but the fact it's happening so fast is a good thing in a way because the sooner they catch it, the more likely you won't have to risk the baby in some of the other treatments.

Take care of yourself. I'll pass it on if I hear of anyone else who had cancer while pregnant.; ▶ Reply to This