Love Is Blind's Shaina Hurley Shares She Was Diagnosed With Cancer While Pregnant
Shaina Hurley is opening up about a challenging time.
The Love Is Blind season two alum shared that she was diagnosed with stage 2 cervical cancer three months into her pregnancy with her 7-month-old son Yiorgos David, who she shares with husband Christos Lardakis.
At the time, Shaina had gone to the doctor for a routine check-up but wound up with test results she never expected.
"I had no symptoms," the 33-year-old told People in an interview published Sept. 4. "But later, the doctor called me and said the pap smear results had come back as abnormal and they needed to get me in for a colposcopy."
Shaina's medical team initially suggested she undergo a cold-knife conization, a procedure that removes a cone-shaped piece of tissue from the cervix. However, the reality TV personality wasn't willing to accept the risks of that option.
"The problem is, I was pregnant. [The] cervix is what holds pregnancy," Shaina explained. "I was at just around three months and so I would most likely lose the baby."
Ultimately, the Netflix star agreed to a second option, which involved her doctors performing a laparoscopic surgery to ensure the cancer hadn't spread to her lymph nodes. Despite the procedure proving the disease hadn't spread to the area, Shaina was still encouraged to do chemotherapy and deliver her baby early—both of which she decided against.
"I felt it was too early," she recalled. "I took the risk and pushed it to 37-and-a-half weeks and delivered a healthy baby boy."
Opting out of the treatments caused a lot of worry for Shaina's family and friends, but she felt confident she was making the right choice for her kid. As he put it, "My faith and strong will kicked in."
"There was no other way I was going to do it," Shaina continued. "We had a miscarriage before Yiorgos and so when I finally got a healthy pregnancy, nothing was going to stop me. But it did put a gray cloud over it."
Shaina's battle with cancer didn't end following the birth of her son. In fact, two weeks after welcoming the little one in February, she suffered a mini-stroke because of her condition, and she wouldn't be fully cancer-free until she underwent two cold-knife conizations in the following month.
And while she will need to have one more surgery to "make sure my body is OK," Shaina shared that she's finally been able to turn her full attention to her new journey: parenthood.
"For now," she said, "I'm focusing on being a mom and taking it day by day."
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