What started as headaches and nausea on a family vacation turned into a cancer diagnosis, emergency treatment and a baby named for the surgeon who helped save his mother’s life.
Jenney Bitner, of Washington, was 38 and pregnant with her fourth child when she began experiencing severe nausea, headaches and balance problems in 2020, according to CBS News. A trip to the emergency room and an MRI found a massive brain tumor.
Further tests showed the cancer had started as an undiagnosed melanoma and spread to her brain.
“I was thinking, ‘I’m too young for this to be happening,’ ” Bitner recalled. “I was thinking, ‘There’s no way I’m going to make it through this. I’m never going to see this baby survive to a year old.’ I was terrified,” she added.
Surgeons removed as much of the tumor as they safely could. Bitner was then told she would need immunotherapy so her body could recognize and attack the remaining cancer cells. But first, she had to deliver her baby early by cesarean section because the treatment would be harmful to the child.
Bitner gave birth to a son on May 4, 2020. She named him Marcus after her neurosurgeon.
Marcus weighed 1.7 kilograms at birth and spent time in the NICU. He was cleared to go home within several weeks.
Soon after giving birth, Bitner underwent a second brain surgery. Her doctor was able to remove the entire tumor, and she began immunotherapy shortly after.
Even then, Bitner feared she would not live to raise her children.
“I had these … children, and my thought was, ‘I’m not going to see them grow up,’ ” Bitner recalled. “I started writing them letters, like, all these things that I was going to want to say to them, because I didn’t think I’d be there to say it to them.”
Scans later showed the treatment appeared to be working, and Bitner made what doctors called “remarkable” progress.
In October 2020, tests found no signs of disease. Nearly six years later, she remains cancer-free.
“I feel like every day I’ve had since all this has happened has been a gift,” Bitner said while speaking to CBS News. “I shouldn’t have had all this time, and so I take every day as something precious,” she added.
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