SIKESTON — Last July Tonya Pobst was prepped and about to undergo a mastectomy at a St. Louis hospital when her doctor walked into her room and said: “I’ve got news for you. You’re pregnant.”
“My world fell apart,” Pobst, 34, recalled about the moment. “... I thought, ‘OK, God. You’ve just got me over one mountain — having cancer — and now you’re throwing a baby in on this, too.’”
Pobst’s doctor went on to explain her options. He told her they could continue with the surgery, but her pregnancy would be terminated — or they could wait until her second trimester, but the cancer could spread during that time.
“Immediately this voice came out: ‘No,’” said Pobst, who was five weeks pregnant when she heard the news.
So Pobst and her husband, Glenn, spent the rest of the day meeting with an oncologist and obstetrician/gynecologist in St. Louis
Pobst kisses the feet of her 3-month-old daughter, Khielynn Claire, at their home in Sikeston |
.
“They told us the best case scenario (for waiting) would be the cancer would stay where it’s at, and the baby would be fine. The worst case scenario would be the cancer would spread, I could lose my life — and possibly the baby, too — or the baby could be retarded,” Pobst said.
The Sikeston couple — and parents of two young boys — went back home and spent the next week figuring out their next step.
“Every thought that you could imagine as a mother goes through my head: Will I get to see my kids grow up? Do I sacrifice this life for my own life? What do I do?” Pobst recalled.
Less than two months earlier — on May 29 — Pobst had been diagnosed with stage one ductal carcinoma in situ, which is the most common kind of non- invasive breast cancer. Because the cancer covered multiple areas, the doctor recommended her right breast be removed.
Pobst said she turned to her faith for guidance.
“I basically prayed and prayed, read the Bible, prayed some more and cried some more. It was literally hell,” Pobst said. “It was an emotional roller coaster. No one could possibly understand unless they were there.”
Pobst’s mother, Norma Tatum of Sikeston, remembered what she was feeling during this time.
“With her being my daughter, I could only think that I wanted her to live, and she felt the same about her baby,” Tatum said about Pobst.
The couple were finished having kids and weren’t trying to have another child, Pobst said about the timing of her pregnancy. Pobst had even taken fertility drugs before getting pregnant with the couple’s two sons, Drayton, 7, and Tylan, 5. It took her two years to get pregnant with Drayton, and she had the same complications with Tylan, she said.
But during her time of prayer, Pobst said God spoke to her.
“He said he’d take care of me, and the baby will be healthy,” Pobst said. “... I thought that’s what the Lord wanted me to do. This is his plan. Who am I to mess it up? Who am I to play God?”
So it was decided to continue with her pregnancy, and when Pobst was 13 weeks pregnant she underwent a two-hour surgery to have her right breast removed.
“The doctor told me (before surgery) if something would happen, he wouldn’t be able to save the baby. Before surgery, they checked the baby’s heartbeat, and after the surgery, they checked the heart rate,” Pobst said.
Both Pobst and her baby made it through the surgery without any major difficulties, and all of the cancer was removed.
On Feb. 17, Pobst gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Khielynn Claire weighed 6 pounds, 6 ounces and was 20 inches long.
Pobst said she now has a sense of peace about her situation and couldn’t have gotten through everything without her faith, husband, family and church family.
“Not to say that it’s been easy because it hasn’t,” Pobst said. “There were dark days and times when I just would sit down and cling to my Bible and cry.”
Tatum said she is proud of her daughter and admires her for her faith in God. “God’s in the miracle business,” Tatum said. “... In any situation, we should trust the Lord — no matter what — to make it happen the way he wants it to happen. And that’s not always easy to do.”
Pobst said she kind of looks at her story like a chapter in the Bible.
“You have the chapter of Ruth, the chapter of Matthew and Genesis ... this is kind of Tonya’s chapter,” Pobst said with a smile. “I’m just his instrument, and he used me.”
And the moral of her story? “Trust the Lord and follow the Lord, and you’ll be blessed,” Pobst said.
Pobst said she knows her journey is far from over. On May 20, she will have her left breast removed as a precautionary measure. She also said she will have her daughter and sons checked very closely for breast cancer as they grow older.
And Pobst said she’s just now getting to where she can hold her children, adding once she has her surgery at the end of the month, it will be awhile before she can hold them again.
“This Mother’s Day will be like any other but with a miracle,” Pobst said. “I’m going to pick up my baby and hold her and hold my boys. ... I’ll be doing a lot of hugging.”
