This girl decided to die at the age of 17. Then doctors realized something shocking. Jenny Lake became a mother for the first time a month before her 18th birthday. However, she had no intention of being just another adolescent mother. She was well aware of this.
In the hospital, she dragged her nurse down to her bedside and murmured into her ear while still in the process of getting admitted. Jenny’s family’s worst fears were fulfilled a day after Jenny’s baby was born and the nurse would later repeat the girl’s words to console them. She explained to the nurse, I’m finished. I’ve completed the task at hand. My baby is going to make it safely to me.
Jenny’s mother, Diana Phillips, expressed her pride in her daughter. The photo of Nathan Whitman’s late fiance, who died of cancer shortly after giving birth to their baby, over which she now has exclusive custody, is displayed in his possession. As Jenny Lake’s mother, Diana Phillips, sobs into the arms of her son as she recalls how brave she was throughout her lengthy battle with cancer. She’s joined in her tears by her son. The baby’s rosy cheeks and robust weight appears to be in sharp contrast to the fragile girl who gave birth to him.
In images taken at the time, she kisses the top of the newborn’s head as she tightly holds him in her arms. Jenny was barely 5ft four inches tall and weighed only £108 at the end of her pregnancy. Despite her large size, Mrs Phillips learnt the next day that her daughter’s decision to forgo treatments for tumors on her brain and spine in order to bear the baby would have grave consequences. The day after the baby’s birth on November 9, 2001, the malignancy has taken up an inordinate amount of space. Mrs Phillips stated that there was nothing that could be done.
Jenny had only been alive for twelve days after her birth, with half of that time spent in the hospital and the other half at home where she passed away. In spite of this, her family and friends maintained that she leaves a legacy that’s concentrated on tragedy rather than sacrifice. In the middle of this month, Jenny’s family gathered at their Ranch style home in Pocatello, where a Christmas tree in the living room was decorated with ornaments chosen specifically for Jenny, including one in a vivid lime green, which is her favorite color. Family. Jenny Lake includes her father Mike Lake, sister Casey Lake, partner Nathan Whitman, mother Diana Phillip, Jenny’s newborn son Chad, Michael Lake, and sister Ashley Lake, among others.
Jenny Lake made the decision to forego treatment for tumors on her brain and spine in order to give birth to her son Chad, in good health. She passed away suddenly in a bedroom just a few steps away. With her contagious laugh and rebellious streak in mind, Jenny’s mother hugged her baby close, nuzzling his head and said, I want him to know everything about her and everything she did, I want him to be a part of her life. It all started when Jenny was a 16 year old sophomore at Pocatello High School, and the migraines began the next year. She was transported to the family doctor, where an MRI scan revealed a little lesion on her right side of her brain, measuring around 2 mm in diameter.
She was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She was transported to a hospital in Salt Lake City, about 150 miles south of Pocatello, where a second scan revealed that the lump was significantly larger than initially thought. Jenny underwent a biopsy on October 15, 2010, and was diagnosed with stage three astrocytoma, which is a type of brain tumor.
Five days after the procedure, Jenny’s situation was considered rare because the cancer had migrated from her brain to another region of her body without any symptoms, despite the fact that she had three tumors on her brain and three on her spine. Her parents, who were divorced, recall being escorted into a hospital room where they were seated at a large table while doctors reviewed her possibilities of surviving the ordeal they were through.
She asked her parents if she was going to die. According to her father, Mike Lake. Lake is a truck driver who lives in Rexburg, which is north of Pocatello, and works in the oil industry. The response was unsatisfactory. According to Mr.
Lake, the youngster was given a 30% chance of living another two years if she received therapy. Mr. Lake was upset, but he couldn’t help but notice how strong she appeared in that moment. In his words, she didn’t break down and cry or anything like that. Jenny did, however, have a weak moment that day.
According to her mother. She became angry when the doctors informed her that she might not be able to have children. According to Mrs. Phillips, age 39. As part of her treatment, Jenny began severe chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
She also began producing films on a YouTube channel dubbed Jenny’s Journey, where she intended to share her story with others by releasing videos every two days. She was only able to post three videos due to the fatigue and weakness she was experiencing as a result of her treatments. Jenny appears distraught in her second video, which was posted on November 2010 and is being recorded by a family friend when she’s having lunch with her mother.
The video shows Jenny crying as she describes her experience last night. I was just lying in bed thinking about everything that had been going on and it just hit me like everything and I don’t know what it was, but it made me cry, she said.
Her mother’s scene with her hands clasped around her mouth. Then she breaks down in tears, explaining how difficult it is to be a mother while knowing that your child is ill and there’s nothing you can do to help her. Jenny maintains her resolve. It’s difficult, as in I’m not sure how long this is going to last, and I just want it to be over. I feel like this is preventing me from accomplishing so much.
The tumors had begun to diminish by March of this year, according to the family’s account. When Jenny was seen at her prom in early May, she was dressed in a dark blue strapless dress and flashed a little smile at the photographer. Her hair is styled with a silver headband that’s less than an inch in length, and she wears it down. Chemotherapy stripped her over shoulder length blonde locks. Nathan Whitman, who’s dressed conservatively in a black dress shirt and black dressed pants, is cradling her from behind.
Jenny began dating Nathan just a few weeks before being diagnosed with cancer, and they’ve been together ever since. Despite the very adult test that cancer presented, the treatment that left her hardly able to walk from her living room to her bedroom and the chatter at school, the adolescent romance endured. The rumors started floating about like Nathan was only with her because she had cancer, said Jenny’s older sister, Ashley Lake, aged 20, who tried to put a stop to the mean spirited talk even as the young couple chose to ignore it. Nathan was only with her because she had cancer. Ashley Lake claimed they were optimistic, and they hoped to one day start a restaurant or a Gallery of their own.
Jenny had been working as an apprentice in a tattoo shop in her hometown. In the words of the proprietor, Cascade, she was like our little sister. Jenny’s visits to the business, on the other hand, became less regular in May. She’d been vomiting a lot and was experiencing intense stomach pains. She and her partner went to the emergency room early one morning, and when she returned home, her family members were awoken by the sound of sobbing in the background.
She’d been crying in a room, according to Jenny’s sister, Casey, age 19, who had overheard her. She discovered that she was expecting a child, and the ultrasound revealed that she was ten weeks pregnant. Jenny’s path to become someone else’s responsibility. Her mother claims that she was advised from the beginning of treatment that she might never be able to have children and that the radiation and chemotherapy could practically render her sterile. The couple’s son, Nathan, 19, said, we were told that mom couldn’t become pregnant, so we weren’t concerned.
Jenny, the third of her parents eight children, had always dreamt of being a mother in her own. In Pocatella, Idaho, she saw her oncologist Doctor David Rear two days after finding out she was pregnant. She had already made up her mind to keep the baby. When she went to see him, she was warned by the doctor that she would be unable to continue the treatment while pregnant. According to Mrs.
Phillips. She would either have to abort the pregnancy and continue the therapies, or she would have to cease the treatments. Knowing that the fetus could continue to grow indefinitely. Dr. Weary declined to comment on Jenny’s treatment because of confidentiality regulations, but he did say that in general, when a cancer patient is pregnant oncologists weigh the risks and benefits of continuing with treatment such as chemotherapy.
There are cases during pregnancy, breast cancer being the classic example where the benefits of chemotherapy outweigh the risks to the mother and the unborn child, Dr. Erie explained. There are occasions where the risks outweigh the rewards, says the author. There was no debate about which road Jenny would take. It was just her.
She may not have seen it as a life or death situation as her parents did, and Jenny may not have seen it that way either. The doctors were confident that because the tumors had already begun to decrease earlier, she stood a good chance of being able to take the baby to term and then return to therapy after delivering him.
After she gave birth, her mother explained, I guess we were just hopeful that she would be able to return to chemotherapy and get better. Jenny and Nathan named their son Chad Michael after their fathers who were both military officers. While Nathan has physical custody of the child, the majority of the child’s care is provided by Nathan’s mother, Alexia Whitman, age 51.
