Mom breast-feeding despite cancer

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Eric M. Grill
  • Electronic Systems Center Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. (AFPN) --  Breast-feeding is something Grayson Riley Connel’s mom always wanted to do. But Jenn Connel almost did not get the type of bonding with her now 3-week-old son that she craved for so long.

Mrs. Connel was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002 after seeing a plastic surgeon about breast augmentation surgery. She was 31 years old at the time, and she and her then-fiancé, 1st Lt. Brandon Connel, lived near Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, where he was in pilot training school.

She had been living with a lump, the size of a pea, in her left breast for 12 years. A doctor checked the lump when she first discovered it, but said it was a fluid-filled cyst and it was nothing to worry about.

Through the years, she said she did more than monthly breast examinations and monitored the lump with yearly doctor exams plus ultrasounds to make sure it was not cancerous. She never had it biopsied with a fine-needle aspiration because of her fear of needles.

“I’d joked about getting (breast-augmentation surgery) but didn’t really think I’d ever have the nerve to go through with it,” she said.

Even so, she scheduled a consultation with Dr. Mario Diana, a plastic surgeon near San Antonio. At the consultation, Mrs. Connel asked if breast augmentation surgery would affect her ability to breast-feed. Dr. Diana said there were no guarantees.

She decided not to have the augmentation surgery.

“The fact that breast-feeding may be affected by the surgery helped me decide that I would not have the surgery,” she said. “I wanted to breast-feed.”

As an afterthought, she mentioned the lump. Dr. Diana immediately suggested having it removed, biopsied and tested for cancer. The removal was performed a week later and the results were anything but what she expected. The lump was benign, but the tissue surrounding the lump was cancerous.

“I just kept thinking, I’m 31, healthy, and I have breast cancer,” she said. “This can’t be right! Cancer is a word I never imagined to be associated with my name. That is something that other people get!”

Mrs. Connel was diagnosed with Ductal Carcinoma In Situ, or DCIS, which, according to the National Cancer Institute, is a non-invasive, precancerous condition in which abnormal cells are found in the lining of a breast duct.

The whole time she was thinking that it was OK; if she ever got pregnant she could still breast-feed using her right breast. But the news kept getting worse.

A second biopsy confirmed the presence of DCIS microscopically peppered in her left breast. Her doctors recommended a double mastectomy because the DCIS was not visible on the mammogram, and was therefore difficult to monitor.

“They also recommended immediate reconstruction of my breasts to minimize any emotional impact I might have from the surgery,” Mrs. Connel said.

“I wasn’t as worried about losing my breasts as I was about losing my ability to breast-feed,” she said. “I wasn’t married yet and I hadn’t had any children, but I really wanted to have them. This caused me the most agony when deciding what treatment options to take because I’d really wanted to breast-feed my children when I had them.

“When I finally decided to have the double mastectomy, I pretty much knew I’d have to formula feed, but that’s not what I wanted for me or my unborn children,” she said.

The double mastectomy was performed Sept. 30, 2002. And there was good news. The cancer had not spread, and was not in her right breast. This meant no chemotherapy or radiation treatment was needed.

Within a couple of weeks after the surgery, while recovering, something happened that made Mrs. Connel rethink not being able to breast feed. She found out she was pregnant.

“We were so excited about such a great present after all of the sadness,” she said.

But the happiness would not last long.

Less than a month later, during the Thanksgiving holiday, she miscarried the baby.

Lieutenant Connel, in the mean time, decided to give up pilot training to spend more time with her. They married Dec. 28, 2002, and moved to Hanscom the following February. Within two months of arriving here, she was pregnant again.

As the pregnancy progressed, Mrs. Connel did not give up her quest to breast-feed “Tadpole,” the nickname the couple gave their unborn child. She remembered a friend who mentioned there are milk banks in the United States where women donate their breast milk for premature babies or babies with food allergies, and for those mothers who cannot produce it.

Grayson was born Dec. 22 weighing 7-pounds, 12-ounces. Mrs. Connel is currently using a supplemental nursing system, which has two thin catheters snaking out from the bottom and are taped above her reconstructed nipples. When Grayson latches on it, he is “nursing” and getting nutrition through the system.

The donated milk is not cheap though, she said.

“You must have a doctor’s prescription to purchase the milk, and it’s quite expensive, $3.25 an ounce,” she said.

Her reasoning for using breast milk versus formula is her belief that human milk will increase the health and development of Grayson.

According to the National Women’s Health Information Center’s Web site, “breast milk is the most complete form of nutrition for infants. Breast milk has just the right amount of fat, sugar, water and protein that is needed for a baby’s growth and development. Most babies find it easier to digest breast milk than they do formula.”

Doctors recommend breast-feeding between three weeks and six months, said Mrs. Connel.

Using the donated milk would cost the Connel’s on average $104 a day. For the three-week minimum, it is $2,184 and $17,472 for the full six months. In the Connel’s case using the donated breast milk is elective, so most insurance companies do not cover the expense.

In lieu of any baby gifts, the Connels asked for monetary donations to help defer the cost of donated milk; however, several women from around the United States have come forward to donate their milk directly, Mrs. Connel said. On the advice of Grayson's pediatrician, she has accepted the private donations from the women who have agreed to go through the same testing and screening as a donor to the milk bank would. She then home-pasteurizes the donated milk.

Based on the response from these women, Mrs. Connel believes she will have plenty of milk to last as long as a year.

Even though the Connels made the choice to use donated milk, they are not trying to make mothers who choose formula to feed their infants feel inferior.

“I just know that I personally would feel guilty for not at least trying to feed my baby human milk for as long as I could to afford to,” she said. “I know that many infants thrive on a formula diet and that the most important thing I can provide my baby is lots of love. Cancer took away my ability to breast-feed, but not by my choice, so I want to provide this for my baby for as long as possible.”