Cancer is a difficult ordeal that takes a lot of time, effort, and emotional strength to beat.
Some people conquer their cancer with uplifting Facebook posts and funny costumes. Others choose to make light of their difficult procedures with wacky hairstyles like this amazing woman did.
Rachel Kierstenson also conquered her cancer in a unique way — by not letting it define her decisions years after it happened.
She was placed on medication after her operation in order to ensure that the disease wouldn't return, but decided to forgo the three remaining years recommended to her in order to try to get pregnant.
This was definitely a risk, as the change in hormones could have brought back her breast cancer.
But she took the chance anyway and believed that it all paid off once her beautiful baby boy was born.
Check below to learn more about her intense journey toward motherhood.
[H/T: Daily Mail]
In 2010, Rachel Kierstenson found a lump in her right breast and immediately postponed her wedding and future plans in order to treat it.
She underwent an operation to remove the lump, as well as six rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy to treat her stage 2 grade 2 breast cancer.
The cancer was hormone-receptor positive, meaning it grew depending on the amount of estrogen in her system.
She was then ordered to take the hormone drug tamoxifen for the next five years to keep her in remission — but she stopped taking it after only two and half.
This is because Kierstenson and her husband Michael wanted to try and have a baby, despite the considerable risk it posed for her health.
Stopping the hormone-regulating drug and introducing a hormonal change as drastic as pregnancy could have caused her cancer to return.
But it was a risk the two were willing to take because they wanted to start a family so badly.
"Stopping tamoxifen was risky in itself, I knew the cancer could return at any point but I also knew that I was getting older and I wanted to become a mum," she explained to Daily Mail.
The couple tried to conceive naturally for two years, without any luck.
After testing her fertility, it was revealed that the chemotherapy compromised most of her egg supply, so IVF was their most viable option.
But they were warned that the various drugs associated with the procedure would significantly alter her hormone levels and cause the cancer to return.
So the two found a clinic that uses a lower dose of the IVF drugs and, despite the ever-present risk, they went forward with the procedure.
"Our doctor was amazing, we had a specially tailored treatment plan just for me, it was still a huge gamble to take but we were doing it in the safest way possible," she explained.
Fortunately, it all worked out and the couple became pregnant with a boy, who was born in June.
They couldn't have been happier to welcome baby Logan into the world, calling him their "little miracle."
What's even more exciting is that Kierstenson's cancer has not returned since — the risk was definitely worth the reward!
Though there was plenty of struggling and sacrificing in the process, the couple persevered and eventually got the family they always wanted.
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