I always dreamed of becoming a mom. There was nothing in the world I wanted more. It was my dream job and welcoming my daughter in June 2024 was absolutely worth the difficult pregnancy.

I had nausea until 21 weeks in, developed gestational diabetes and found out that I have a genetic mutation, so I needed to have an amniocentesis. I was really nervous about giving birth and had to be induced at 39 weeks.

It was not a fun time, but thankfully I had a smooth delivery, and my daughter, Eliana, was born perfectly healthy.

I settled into motherhood as well as I could. I did not exclusively breastfeed. I pumped and occasionally gave her formula when necessary.

By the time Eliana was around 8 months old, I started to wean her. I had enough supplies in the freezer to get her to a year, and I wanted my freedom back.

As I weaned quite quickly, my right breast seemed to go back to normal in no time, but my left breast still seemed quite large and heavy. I presumed there was some milk trapped in it as there was no pain or discomfort, it just felt full. You get used to weird occurrences and bodily changes while breastfeeding, so I did not think it was a red flag.

Fortunately, I am very close with my midwife and I consider her a friend, so by April 2025, I raised this with her. To this day, I credit my relationship with her to still being alive.

I texted her saying that the left side had not returned to normal, and she agreed to assess me. Even though it was not hurting or inflamed, my midwife said the left side looked pretty angry. It was enlarged and she referred me to a breast surgeon.

By early May 2025, I went to my appointment, and I felt nervous because I had never had anything like this before. As I was just a few days shy of my 30th birthday, I did not meet the threshold for a mammogram, so I was just given a breast ultrasound.

Shortly after, a doctor came into the room and said, “congratulations, you have mastitis [inflammation, of breast tissue].” That made sense and I had no reason to question the diagnosis. I was prescribed antibiotics and we hoped that would be sufficient.

Needless to say, the antibiotics did not do anything.

I also started to exhibit symptoms by this time, as my breast felt hot, it was bright red, and I had pain shooting down my left arm. I presumed the mastitis was not resolving and was given another antibiotic. I was under the impression that I just needed to find the right medication and all would be fine.

‘One Phone Call Changed Everything’

Weeks later, I went for a second ultrasound with the breast surgeon. She gave me a third antibiotic, although she had an inkling that it could be something more severe. Just in case, she wanted to do a biopsy to ensure we covered all bases.

It caught me off guard when she called me that June. I missed the call and she left a voicemail asking me to call back. Still, I did not think it was bad, I’d just need another prescription to treat whatever strain of infection I had.

When I called back, I got the news I never expected and was not prepared to hear. It was breast cancer.

“No, I have a baby,” was all I could say in response to those life-shattering words.

I definitely panicked. I was in a very transitional phase in life as my daughter was 11 months old, I just left my job in finance to follow my dream of starting my own wedding planning business. Everything felt exciting and new, but that one phone call changed everything.

I was told it was stage 3 invasive ductal carcinoma, but it took a few days to get the diagnosis. I actually had a specific type called inflammatory breast cancer which is rare and aggressive.

A PET scan also showed a suspicious spot on my pelvis, so I had a biopsy taken from that area which came back positive. So, my diagnosis was upgraded to stage 4 oligometastatic inflammatory breast cancer de novo, which is hormone-positive [a type of breast cancer that grows in response to female hormones].

‘Nobody Knows What Their Fate Is’

Chemotherapy started just a couple of days before my daughter’s first birthday. It certainly was not the party I wanted for her as we had to uninvite almost everyone because I was immunocompromised.

I started chemotherapy in Florida, but once we found out the cancer had spread to my pelvis, my husband Brett and I booked flights to Texas where I went for more imaging, and those additional scans revealed cancerous spots on my clavicle area and lymph nodes.

We decided to take a trimodal approach, completing 16 rounds of chemotherapy, a single mastectomy and 66 rounds of radiation.

Chemotherapy was brutal, starting in June until October. I suffered a lot of fatigue and nausea, and the steroids kept me awake for 36 hours minimum. A few weeks later, I went in for surgery, then once healed I started radiation—22 rounds on my pelvis sacrum bone and 44 rounds on my chest area.

My experience of motherhood was greatly impacted by cancer treatment.

I had always dreamed of having a family, but there was so much I could not do with my daughter during those months.

We often went to Houston Zoo and the Children’s Museum, but there were times when I physically could not bathe her or put her to bed. That was so tough because there was nothing I wanted more.

Our family was incredibly supportive. My mom Jaime Taylor, my husband’s mom Andy Kaplan, and his aunt Sharon Luboff effectively took turns living in our home to care for Eliana when I could not.

It has also been hard to process that Eliana will be my only biological child. There wasn’t time to do IVF before starting treatment as my cancer was so aggressive, and now I cannot carry another child.

Those dark moments were difficult, and I basically had to go through five stages of grief. You never really know how long it takes to reach acceptance. You have to realize that what will be will be—nobody knows what their fate is.

My biggest driver was my family. Having a daughter that I needed to live for really kept me going and my incredibly supportive husband who fought like crazy to make sure I was seen by the best doctors.

Now, I’m in remission and fly out to Texas every three months for scans and I take daily medication. I lost a lot of range of motion and strength so I do weekly physio to try and gain that back since I’m very limited. I deal with a bunch of side effects, but I have gained the ability to take care of Eliana again and now I try and live as loudly as possible.

Ashleigh Kaplan, 31, resides in Boca Raton, Florida with her husband and daughter. She has been documenting her cancer journey on social media (@ashleighisobel on Instagram) and was set up to help cover the cost of her extensive treatments.