A mother who has chosen to delay cancer treatment to give birth to her daughter now has only months to live.
According to CNN, Ashley Bridges chose to save her then unborn daughter Paisley instead of undergoing chemotherapy, but discovered after the birth that her bone cancer had already spread throughout her body and was starting to attack her brain.
Bridges was diagnosed after suffering from chronic knee pain in spring 2012. Her doctor had initially dismissed it as "arthritis or bursitis." However, the pain only got worse and, by late 2013, Bridges' condition was excruciating and made her numb.
She was eventually diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer, and subsequently underwent surgery. She was also advised to undergo chemotherapy to kill the cancer. However, she also found out that she was ten months pregnant. After being advised by specialists as to the risks to the baby, Bridges, who was 24 years old at the time, knew what decision she had to make. She chose to save her baby.
"It wasn't a choice to me. It was like this is what needs to be done. She's first. I'm not going to kill a healthy baby because I'm sick. There's nothing wrong with her. Her life is just as important as mine if not more important. I mean as a mother my job is to protect my kids," she told CNN.
Bridges also revealed that she uses goals to motivate her to fight as long as she can. She described to CNN her strategy for survival.
"This is what I do. I do October, OK, I just got to make it to Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving comes around - OK, let's just go to Christmas," she said.
Cancer.org reports a 5-year survival rate for people diagnosed with osteosarcoma.
