Casey Sullivan watches as Ryan plays with Cadence, left, and Keller in their Ringgold, Ga., home.Six months pregnant with her second child, Casey Sullivan figured that all of her discomfort, bulging neck veins, coughing and back pain were a result of her pregnancy. So she didn’t bring it to her doctor’s attention until she couldn’t breathe.
That’s when doctors realized that the 26-year-old wife and mother had Hodgkin’s disease.
An X-ray revealed that a large tissue mass had spread from one side of her chest to the other, pressing against her aortic artery and her lungs. That caused veins from her head to her chest to bulge and restricted her breathing.
The cancer had taken over a third of her chest cavity.
An oncologist wanted to start chemotherapy immediately, while the obstetrician recommended giving Sullivan’s unborn baby more time to develop.