Overcoming Cancer Challenges During Pregnancy

Harley Durham received chemotherapy while pregnant with her son, now 3 years old.

My name is Harley Durham and when I was 22 weeks pregnant, I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

After trying for a few years to get pregnant, my husband and I finally became pregnant with our first child.

Everything was going as expected, until it wasn’t. My symptoms didn’t start until closer to my second trimester. The first symptom was a weird rash on the bottom of my shins, but they didn’t itch or hurt. My OB told me that a woman’s body changes with pregnancy.

As the weeks progressed, I began to develop new symptoms. The rash-like spots on my shins turned into bruises and I was sleeping 14 plus hours a day. When I tried to eat, I couldn’t keep any food down.  Every time I would stand, I could feel my heart beating out of my chest and I felt like I was going to pass out.

My symptoms were getting worse and worse as the weeks went on. I felt like I was dying. It had finally gotten to a point where my body could no longer take it. As I was walking down the hall to the office of the school where I worked, I could feel myself starting to pass out.

I sat down, called the secretary, and asked if someone could come get me because I wasn’t able to walk any further. Our school resource officer (SRO) came with a wheelchair, while another school assistant was attending to me, and they both escorted me to the nurse.

I was fighting to stay conscious as the nurse was checking my vitals when her next words were, “Oh that can’t be right.” My heart rate was 235.

The SRO immediately radioed for EMS. The EMS arrived and offered to take me to the hospital, but I said I wanted my husband to take me. The EMTs wanted to wait until my husband was there to pick me up, but as we waited, I started to lose consciousness. All I could remember was the EMT saying, “Harley, you have to stay awake,” then, “We can’t wait. We have to take her now.” My husband met us in the ER.

While we were waiting in a room, a nurse came to draw some blood. About thirty minutes later, the ER doctor came in and told us that I would have to be admitted and given blood due to my red blood cell count being so low.

That same doctor came back in about twenty minutes later and said, “One of our blood specialists took a look at your blood work and they believe you have leukemia.” Shortly after, that blood specialist came in with two others and said, “You have leukemia. Now we need to figure out which type. You will be admitted into Sarah Cannon Cancer Institute.”

I had the biopsy done bedside the next day, received the results 24 hours later, and started chemotherapy. I received two rounds of chemo while pregnant. I gave birth to my son at 32 weeks and continued with three more rounds of chemo. I am two and a half years in remission and my son will be 3 years old in December.

Whether you are a patient, survivor, caregiver, or loved one touched by cancer, your story can have an enormous impact. You can provide hope and inspiration to someone recently diagnosed with cancer or a patient undergoing therapy.

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