In the past year, Kayla Gaytan has recovered from cancer and given birth to quadruplets. Now, the 29-year-old must fight again, after she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma for a second time.
After being misdiagnosed for more than a year and a half, Kentucky mum Kayla was finally diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer that impacts the lymph system in your body, in January 2016.
Six months, and a series of “gruesome” chemotherapy treatments later, Kayla went into remission – and, around the same time, was surprised to discover that she was also pregnant with quadruplets, without the help of fertility drugs.
“There were four healthy heart beats. It’s truly a miracle,” Kayla, who was already a mum-of two, recalls.
However, while the pregnancy went smoothly, in November last year, Kayla began experiencing symptoms of Hodgkin’s disease once again. She was then diagnosed with the cancer for the second time.
This meant her babies – Charles, Michael, Victoria, and Lillia – were delivered via C-section at 30 weeks on December 30, so that Kayla could prepare to start chemotherapy once again on January 18.
“It would be so easy for me to go sit in a corner and cry all the time and be upset that all this is happening,” she told TODAY.
“Knowing that I have four new babies here that I’d like to see grow up and see how their personalities play out, that’s a big role in what helps me get through it.”
Kayla truly does have a battle ahead of her – one she is upbeat about beating.
Since begin diagnosed with cancer for the second time, doctors have confirmed that she now has tumours in her chest, armpit and neck, and will require a stem cell transplant and another 16 months of chemotherapy.
Doctors also told Kayla she has a 50 per cent chance of surviving the next five years.
