Lauren Gulliver is familiar with challenging pregnancies. After struggling with fertility issues, she became pregnant with her first child, who was born premature after Gulliver developed preeclampsia. So when she was 12 weeks pregnant with her second baby and felt a lump in her breast during a shower, she knew to mention it to her doctor, Dr. Shieva Ghofrany.

“She was proactive and ordered an ultrasound right away,” Gulliver, who was 39 at the time, said. After the ultrasound detected a mass, the team at Stamford Health moved quickly to schedule a biopsy. “Two days later, I learned I had triple positive breast cancer that had also spread to my lymph nodes,” she says. “I was around 24 weeks pregnant then, so obviously that complicated matters.”

Although rare, a breast cancer diagnosis during pregnancy can occur. The team from Carl & Dorothy Bennett Cancer Center worked with Dr. Ghofrany and Gulliver’s maternal-fetal specialist, Dr. Richard Viscarello, to deliver coordinated care. “They were all speaking with each other. We involved Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center because of their collaboration with Stamford Health for a second-opinion consultation, who recommended the exact same plan,” she said.

Besides the high level of communication between her doctors, Gulliver said that having the award-winning Breast Center so close to home made her decision to pursue her care with Stamford Health a simple one. “I knew there were other options for treatment, but I was not willing to take hours out of my day commuting to those facilities when I could get the exact same care — and standard of care — in my backyard at Stamford Health,” Gulliver said. “You can’t get time back, and you can’t get convenience back. With Stamford Health, you’re not compromising anything, so it’s a no-brainer.”

Gulliver’s treatment plan while pregnant consisted of chemotherapy with the goal of inducing at 36 weeks. “For the most part, my symptoms from chemo were relatively mild. It’s as if my body knew not to give me too much to deal with,” she recounted.

Gulliver was able to complete three rounds of chemotherapy before another complication, preeclampsia, emerged. “Because I had it with my first pregnancy, we knew there was a chance I would get it again,” Gulliver explained. 

She had an emergency C-section to deliver her son, who weighed around two-and-a-half pounds. “I cannot say enough about the NICU at Stamford Health. They were incredible,” Gulliver said. Once she was cleared, Gulliver began her chemotherapy again only for it to be delayed because her C-section incision didn’t heal properly. “At that time, I joked that I lived at Stamford Hospital. I’d go to the NICU, Wound Care, and Bennett constantly,” she says. “It was amazing, though, that they’re all right there.”

After Gulliver healed and finally completed her eight rounds of chemotherapy, she faced the most difficult part of her cancer journey. “It felt like my body was falling apart,” she said. “I had every side effect from chemo you could possibly have — all the while my body was recovering from a major surgery and caring for a newborn.”

With chemo behind her, Gulliver opted for a lumpectomy surgery to remove the cancerous lymph nodes, followed by 30 rounds of radiation. Yet this regimen produced the results she and her family had been hoping for: “By the time my son was 6 months old, I was ringing the bell,” she said.

Gulliver relied on the offerings in the Integrative Medicine program that supports patients during treatment and recovery. “They really treat you as a whole person and not just a patient,” she said. Gulliver tapped into services including massage, Reiki, and cranial sacral therapy, as well as the Cancer Recovery Program with the Health & Fitness Institute.

While she continues to take immunotherapy and preventative medicine to reduce her risk of recurrence, Gulliver keeps the focus on the good days, instead of the tough ones. “I remind myself that nothing is permanent,” she says. “The hard feelings and symptoms are all temporary and will change. You won’t feel like that forever.”