Pregnant Pflugerville woman thought a pain in her breast was mastitis — it was cancer
PFLUGERVILLE, Texas (KXAN) — Pregnancy is supposed to be a time filled with happiness, but for a Central Texas mother to be, soon after receiving the best news of her life she received some of the worst.
"Honestly I don't think anyone is ever really prepared for something like this," said Tiffany Madison-Fogg.
Madison-Fogg says during her last pregnancy she developed mastitis which is a swelling of the breast tissue caused by an infection or milk remaining in the milk tissue.
So when she started feeling pain again she didn't think much about it.
"After about 5 months I started noticing a lump right here in this area and it seemed like early stage mastitis," said Madison-Fogg.
After a check, Doctors diagnosed her with cancer.
"Mastitis can have very similar hallmarks to cancer," said Madison-Fogg.
Her husband was deployed overseas when the news came in.
"It was very difficult for me when I first found out being overseas and we were under a lot of pressure with the current situation," said Matt Fogg. "Luckily my chain of command was very understanding and tried to get me home as quickly as possible."
"The breast goes through some physiologic changes that make it really difficult to interpret some of those findings," said Dr. Christal Murray an Oncologist with Baylor, Scott and White. "So it is not uncommon to see a delayed diagnosis of breast cancer during pregnancy. Mastitis is one of the benign things women get diagnosed with when ultimately what they are diagnosed with is breast cancer."
Once her baby is delivered she will begin aggressive chemotherapy as well as other treatment, but she wants to educate other mothers so they are aware.
"Don't presume it is Mastitis," said Madison-Fogg. "Immediately get checked if you have addressed it for a couple of weeks and what you are doing isn't working. Don't wait."
Tiffany and her family have set up a donation site to help with the cost of her treatments.