When a Georgia mom was told she likely had six months to live, her first thought was how to explain it to her toddler. It was one of the hardest things she’d ever done. Her husband, meanwhile, wasn’t ready to give up.
She was well into her pregnancy when she noticed something unusual. Her OB-GYN brushed it aside with a casual explanation and a prescription. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.
Just weeks later, she was postpartum, drained, disoriented, and grappling with a diagnosis that came with a countdown. In that fragile window of time, her world quietly began to come undone.
It Started with a Burning Lump
In early 2022, Lindsay Gritton from Cumming, Georgia, was around 33 weeks pregnant when she first sensed something was wrong. Her pregnancy had been going perfectly with no complications or concerns.
But this small, marble-sized mass in her breast came with a burning sensation that wouldn’t go away. She figured it was a clogged duct and tried to ease it herself. “I tried to squeeze it, get the clogged duct out. I could not get it out,” she recalled. “The burning sensation was driving me crazy.”
At 34 weeks, still unable to find relief, Lindsey visited her OB-GYN. After examining her, the doctor assured her it was just mastitis and prescribed antibiotics. But she felt sure there was something more.
“I’ve had a clogged duct before. I know what they feel like. It’s definitely not that,” she said at the time. Trusting her instincts, she pushed for an ultrasound, a decision that would soon prove critical. A few days later, she went in for the scan.
A Scan, a Quick Delivery, and a Shocking Diagnosis
Lindsey didn’t need a formal report to know something was wrong. The technician repeatedly passed the wand over the same area. “The look on her face I will never forget,” Lindsey would later recall. “She had the blankest look on her face.”
The ultrasound confirmed what Lindsey had suspected: the lump wasn’t a clogged duct or mastitis. Although doctors hadn’t made a formal diagnosis yet, they recommended inducing labor immediately so they could proceed with further testing and treatment without delay.
At 37 weeks, Lindsey was induced. What should have been a routine delivery quickly turned into another crisis. During labor, she began hemorrhaging, losing so much blood that the towels beneath her were soaked through. “They didn’t think I would make it,” she shared.
Meanwhile, her baby’s heart rate was dropping, and doctors prepared for an emergency C-section. Lindsey refused. She feared the recovery would postpone the treatment she now knew she would need. Her decision proved right. In May 2022, she gave birth to her daughter, Savannah, without surgery.
The baby was healthy, and Lindsey was still standing. But the hardest part hadn’t started yet. Roughly a week after giving birth, Lindsey went in for a PET scan. She had barely begun recovering from delivery when she received the results in the car, sitting beside her husband, Spencer.
The cancer wasn’t just in her breast — it had already spread. More than a dozen tumors were found in her liver. She was 29 years old, a new mother to a one-week-old and a toddler, when doctors told her she likely had six months to live. The news was crushing. Lindsey had no known risk factors and had just given birth to a healthy baby.
Now she was staring at a terminal diagnosis before her daughter’s umbilical cord had even healed. But even at that moment, she couldn’t give in to fear. Her first thought was not about dying. It was about staying. “I knew I had to do whatever it took to be here for my family,” she said.
Chemo, Exhaustion, and an Unrelenting Routine
Lindsey started chemotherapy soon after the diagnosis. Every three weeks, she spent three hours at her oncologist’s office while her body endured the effects of the treatment. The exhaustion hit hard, and with two young children at home, rest was essential.
Her husband, Spencer, stepped away from his business to care for their daughters full-time. “He stayed up with Savannah every night for the first six months of her life so I could sleep during chemo,” Lindsey said. The treatment schedule dictated their lives. There was no breastfeeding. Her hair began to fall out.
Despite the physical toll, the emotional weight was heavier. “It was a lot for me as a woman,” she recalled. “Having all that ripped from you.” As the reality of her diagnosis set in, her thoughts turned to her daughters. Lindsey began preparing for the possibility that she might not survive.
One of the first things she did was sit down with her eldest, Saylor, then two years old, and try to explain what was happening and that she might have to go to heaven. Her newborn, Savannah, lay asleep on a nearby playmat. Lindsey recorded the moment on video, one of several she began creating to preserve memories.
Saylor told her, “I’ll miss you,” as Lindsey pulled her into a hug. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” she said. She also began writing letters. She filled her phone with messages she hoped they would, one day, need — words of encouragement, comfort, and love.
“All I could think about was, ‘What can I do for them before I die?'” she shared. Every day was consumed by the fear of leaving them too soon. Even simple moments carried a new kind of weight. She clung to her daughters during playtime. She studied their faces.
The idea of missing out on their lives was harder than anything else she was facing. Spencer’s belief in her survival also kept her anchored. “He always thought I would beat it,” she said. “I held onto that hope.”
Defying the Prognosis
Lindsey continued treatment with immunotherapy after completing chemotherapy. She now undergoes multiple PET scans each year to monitor the disease. The cancer is still considered incurable, but her scans have shown no evidence of active disease.
“I can actually be present with them,” she said of her daughters. “I try to enjoy my time with them, make memories, do fun things, take them places, and raise them to be kind.” She’s been present for milestones she once feared she’d never see.
In 2024, she celebrated Savannah’s second birthday. She saw Saylor learn to ride a bike without training wheels. All these ordinary moments now feel extraordinary. Sometimes, she lets herself believe the best-case scenario.
“Sometimes I just ring the bell and believe I’m cured because that’s all I know how to do,” she wrote in February 2024. “But then reality will set in, and I remember my cancer is incurable. Of course, there’s the small percentage that do beat it for good, and I’ll never stop believing I’ll be one of those miracles.”
For Lindsey, it’s a balance — accepting the reality of her condition while staying open to hope. And understanding what that condition means makes her determination even more remarkable.
What Is Metastatic Breast Cancer?
Metastatic breast cancer, also called Stage IV or advanced breast cancer, is cancer that has spread beyond the breast to other parts of the body. This process, called metastasis, often affects the liver, lungs, bones, or brain. While it isn’t considered curable, treatment can improve the quality of life and help patients live longer.
In recent years, more people have been living extended lives with the condition as new therapies become available. The symptoms vary depending on where it spreads. If it reaches the bones, it can cause sudden joint pain, fractures, numbness, or swelling.
Illustration of the formation of metastases | Source: Getty Images
If it spreads to the brain, symptoms include worsening headaches, vision issues, seizures, nausea, or changes in personality. In the lungs, it may lead to a chronic cough, shortness of breath, chest pain, or frequent infections.
When it spreads to the liver, like in Lindsey’s case, signs can include jaundice, itchy skin, nausea, stomach pain, or loss of appetite. Because symptoms are often subtle or absent in early stages, metastatic breast cancer is sometimes discovered only through imaging, as it was for Lindsey.
Ongoing treatment typically involves chemotherapy, immunotherapy, hormone therapy, or targeted drugs, depending on the specifics of each case. While there’s no cure, new therapies are helping more patients manage the disease for years after diagnosis.
Lindsey’s journey is a testament to instinct, resilience, and the quiet decisions made in moments of crisis. She isn’t alone. Another young mother, diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer, faced a different but equally daunting fight that threatened her ability to have more children.
A woman clutching her chest, indicating sudden chest pain—a potential symptom requiring medical evaluation | Source: Getty Images
But like Lindsey, she refused to accept the limits placed on her future. Read how Shelly Battista defied a terminal diagnosis and became a mother of three.
