A young mother has revealed her desperate struggle to see her 10-year-old son grow up after being diagnosed with cervical cancer for the third time in three years.
Elissa Blake has pushed for expensive treatment worth tens of thousands of dollars after doctors told her the cancer had come back and was now considered incurable.
The Brisbane-based nurse, who was forced to postpone her 30th birthday due to her diagnosis, assumed something was wrong when she was “taken out” by crippling pain just months after being treated for the cancer for the second time.
“I kept going to the doctors, but they gave me painkillers and sent me home,” she told FEMAIL.
“I knew something was wrong, it wasn’t normal for someone to be in so much pain.”
Elissa Blake, pictured with her 10-year-old son Chase, was diagnosed with cervical cancer for the third time weeks before her 30th birthday
The mother thought she had finally conquered the disease six months ago after grueling treatments
The mother said she would spend days in bed, while her 10-year-old would check on her with heat packs and cuddles.
“I lost 15 pounds because I completely lost my appetite,” she said.
Elissa has decided to try immunotherapy in a last ditch effort to see Chase, 10, grow up.
Her aunt Shondi told FEMAIL that the family had to push for the treatment, which costs $7,000 per person up to a maximum of $63,000.
“Doctors never offered it, we only knew about it because friends told us to look into it. Doctors have admitted that this is Elissa’s best chance to become cancer free.
“The fact that it’s not free for her cancer, but it is for others, is the hardest pill to swallow. That’s why they don’t tell people about it, but they have to give families that option,” she added.
She’s pictured here with her son and partner Travis before she was first diagnosed, in December 2019
Elissa’s cancer nightmare started in 2019 with extreme spotting between periods and a few ‘rogue’ on a Pap smear.
Doctors said the cells, which were stage two precancerous cells, would “dissolve themselves” as the body fought them off.
But that didn’t happen and a follow-up Pap smear six months later revealed they had progressed to stage four pre-cancerous cells.
“They told me not to worry because those cells take 10 to 15 years to turn into cancer,” she said.
Then three days before Christmas in 2019, she got a random call from the doctor’s office asking her to come over.
The cancer came back 12 months after her first surgery and six months after the second round of treatment
“I was told I was part of the 2 percent of women who skip the 10 to 15 year wait before their cells become cancerous.”
The cancer was in her cervix and the doctors scheduled her for surgery, which she underwent in March 2020.
“At that point I thought we were all done and dusted off, we had it,” she said.
But 12 months later, she knew something was wrong when she was bleeding more often than not.
“A scan showed the cancer had come back,” she said.
This time, the cancer had progressed too far into her cervix and she needed chemotherapy and radiotherapy to treat.
The nurse knew something was wrong before the cancer came back for the third time, she lost a lot of weight and was in crippling pain
“Doctors were shocked, especially since I’m fully vaccinated against cervical cancer, which makes it even rarer,” she said.
Chemotherapy was relentless, Elissa had to rely more than ever on the help of her now ten-year-old and lean on her support network.
“Sometimes I cry when I look back at how sick chemo has made me,” she said. “But everyone is just a message away and I couldn’t be more grateful.”
Once the chemo was done, Elissa was told once again that she was free. Then the back pain started.
“The pain was like nothing I had ever felt before, it’s so hard to explain, I would just lay in bed for days or scream into a ball in pain,” she said.
Doctors kept sending her home with strong painkillers and telling her to rest – despite her previous cancer history.
She lost weight, almost 15 kilos in total, and was tired all the time.
“I had to wait until six months before I could get a PET scan and wasn’t surprised when they said it was back,” she said.
This time, the cancer had seeped into nearby tissue, including her ovaries (which have now been removed) and lymph nodes. Doctors told her there would be no chance of a cure.
But she refuses to let cancer win and dreams of a time when she can plan vacations again with her partner and son
But the nurse does not intend to leave her friends, family and especially her ten-year-old son behind.
She is hopeful that the immunotherapy will make all the difference and help her beat the disease once and for all.
Her aunt even made one Go fund me to take the pressure off the family who made an effort to come up with the money.
The cancer returned weeks before Elissa’s 30th birthday.
“I planned to celebrate being over cancer, turning 30 and getting a second chance at life,” she said.
The nurse has spent three years alternating on the other side of the healthcare system and can’t wait to be there for others again
“So the plan is to bring that back to 31.”
Elissa’s sister Alison has described seeing her in so much pain as ‘unbearable’.
She’s also in healthcare, but seeing it from the point of view of a patient’s family opens her eyes.
“It’s almost like we need a foreman to get all the messages from all the teams and relay them to us. It’s so confusing, especially when you ask someone something and they say that’s not their job,” she added.
Elissa lives ‘day to day’ but is looking forward to being able to plan a vacation with her partner Travis and do fun things with her son once she’s better.