Local News Anchor Discovers She Has Rare Form of Cancer Caused by Pregnancy: 'It's Very Complicated'
A Las Vegas news anchor is candidly revealing to the world how she went from being an expectant mother to a cancer patient.
Last week, KSNV News 3 reporter Michelle Velez returned to social media to share with viewers why she had been absent from work for the past few months.
“I was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer that was caused by an abnormal pregnancy,” Velez wrote on Facebook and Instagram. “It’s extremely complicated so I’ll try my best to make it easy to understand.”
The mom of two then shared that she suffered a molar pregnancy.
“It’s a pregnancy that is not viable — meaning a fetus never formed — but instead of miscarrying… the pregnancy continued to grow and produced invasive tissue,” Velez explained.
According to American Pregnancy, it is a rare condition that affects “1 out of 1,000 pregnancies.”
Some signs of molar pregnancy include vaginal spotting or bleeding and nausea and vomiting.
“In some very rare cases that tissue can turn into cancer and spread to other organs in the body,” Velez continued. “That is what happened to me. No good reason… just unfortunate dumb luck.”
A post shared by Michelle Velez (@michellenews3lv) on Oct 17, 2019 at 11:57am PDT
Luckily, Velez’s form of cancer is treatable, she explained.
“My doctors have every reason to believe I will be free and clear at the end of this,” Velez wrote. “I am so thankful for that and that is what I’m choosing to focus on.”
However, in order to kill the cancer, Velez must “go through aggressive chemo,” she explained.
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“I will probably lose my hair and experience other side effects of chemo — but all that is temporary.”
“I have already made it through my first two treatments this week. Total number of rounds all depends on how long it takes the tissue to disappear,” Velez continued.
“Again this is a very vague explanation of what has happened to me the past 3 months. There is so much more to this… but the important part again… is that it’s treatable.”
As she undergoes treatment, Velez is remaining positive.
“My spirits are good for the most part thanks to our incredible support system and strong faith. I appreciate all the posts… messages… thoughts and prayers from all of you so far. It’s hard for me to respond right now… but I’ve seen every one of them and it means the world to us.”
“I look forward to coming back healthy and strong again.”
Alongside the message, Velez shared a touching photo of herself and her mother sharing a tight embrace after “making it through my first day of chemo.”
“I know it seems sad… but I don’t see it that way. I look at it as a warrior hug. One step closer to the end,” Velez added.
On Saturday, Velez shared an update, explaining that she was in the hospital getting a blood transfusion. Due to her condition, Velez is constantly bleeding and in order to undergo chemo, her blood levels must be at a certain level.
“Today, we had to make a decision about going in surgically and clearing out some of the tissue that’s causing the bleeding. It was a bit of a difficult decision because there are some risk that can delay chemo, but thankfully that didn’t happen and everything went really well.”
“The bleeding is going to slow down a lot and I should be able to let the chemo do its thing.”
