I was praised for losing baby weight fast—but I knew something was wrong
When I found out I was expecting my second child in 2024, I was delighted to be expanding our family. My son was a toddler and I loved the idea of him having a younger brother or sister to grow up alongside.
Having already gone through pregnancy, I knew what felt right for my body. When I was a few months along by that summer, I told my obstetrician that something felt off because I was barely gaining weight. Everyone told me that each pregnancy is different and technically my weight gain was still within normal range. Nonetheless, I remember thinking that it was not normal for me.
I pushed down the doubt and eventually delivered a healthy—but small for me—baby.
After having my daughter, I lost all 35 pounds of weight in around six months, without even trying. People kept telling me that I was bouncing back wonderfully and nobody was alarmed because weight loss after a baby is usually seen as a good thing.
Around that same time, I developed this weird throat-clearing cough that would not go away. I also had crushing fatigue, and I remember lying in bed next to my baby’s bassinet thinking something was very wrong with me. I feared I would not see my kids grow up, but I convinced myself it was postpartum anxiety making me spiral.
I kept telling myself that it must be postpartum hormones or anxiety. As a new mom, you are tired all the time, so it is easy to explain things away.
By the end of April 2025, when my cough had lasted for two months, I saw my GP. They thought it was probably allergies or heartburn, so the doctor told me to try Mucinex and hot showers. I tried to believe that was all it was, but deep down I knew something was wrong. It just did not make sense for me.
Everything looked normal, but my body kept telling me otherwise.
I left that appointment feeling really unsettled because I did not feel heard. At one point, the provider kept glancing at the clock as our appointment was coming close to the 15-minute mark. I drove to urgent care right after because my gut was screaming that something was wrong.
That urgent care doctor really changed everything because she listened to me.
They did a chest X-ray and noticed some haze on my lungs, which they thought could be pneumonia so gave me antibiotics. My bloodwork panel was perfect, so they were not alarmed. But a few days later, on Mother’s Day, I felt even worse and went back. The urgent care doctor ran more bloodwork and sent me to the ER because she was worried I might have a blood clot.
It was not a blood clot though, instead, what they found was a mass on my chest.
I had to have more scans immediately, including a bronchoscopy that came back inconclusive. Nevertheless, the lung doctor who did the procedure said he did not like what he saw and was committed to finding answers. I went for a PET scan and a lymph node biopsy from my neck and that was when we realized this was a much bigger problem. The scans showed that the cancer had already spread to many lymph nodes all over my body.
I was later diagnosed with stage four ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer, specifically adenocarcinoma of the lung that had already spread. I was in total shock.
I kept thinking, how is this possible? I did everything right; I never smoked, exercised constantly, cooked healthy food and stayed on top of my health screenings. My son was 3 years old, while my daughter was 7 months, and all I could think about was whether I would live long enough to hear her call me “mama.”
My husband and I held each other and cried. What hit me hardest was this feeling of, how did I miss this? But the reality is lung cancer is often silent until it has already spread, making it the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Symptoms do not typically occur early on, but when the signs do show, they can include a new cough, chest pain, shortness of breath, hoarseness and coughing up blood.
‘I Can Still Live My Life During Treatment’
As I have a rare type of lung cancer called ALK-positive lung cancer, I started on a targeted therapy pill. For a while, it worked and got rid of my lung cancer symptoms. Unfortunately, the cancer progressed faster than expected, so now I am also doing chemotherapy in addition to targeted treatment.
Chemotherapy is not always what people picture. I am not losing my hair, I can still parent and live my life. I also got second opinions, which I think is so important in cancer care. In a weird way, treatment gave me parts of my life back. My lung cancer symptoms are gone, I can chase my kids again and can play with them. In a lot of ways, I feel better than I did before treatment because the cancer was making me so sick. The biggest challenge has been the brain fog. I could not work as it got so bad, which was a huge adjustment because I had a corporate career and was the breadwinner for my family.
‘People Still Believe This is a Smoker’s Disease’
I had no idea never smokers could even get lung cancer, and I think a lot of people still believe this is only a smoker’s disease. That is just not true. Realistically, anyone can get lung cancer. In the U.S. alone, between 10 and 20 percent of lung cancer patients have either never smoked or smoked fewer than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime.
Just know that there is real hope in lung cancer now. Research is moving incredibly fast, and there are new drugs and treatments being developed all the time. If you get diagnosed, find a community. I would have been completely lost without ALK Positive, a support group for people with my type of cancer. That is why I started my TikTok page (@mayyapapayya6) so I can help build a bridge for other people experiencing life-altering diagnosis, caregivers, friends and family of survivors. You must hold onto hope and reality at the same time, which is easier to do together.
My biggest advice is that if something feels off for you, keep asking questions. Normal for the entire population is not always normal for you.
Mayya Grinberg, 40, resides in Cary, North Carolina, with her husband and two children. Following her diagnosis, she has been documenting her cancer journey on social media (@mayyapapayya6) to raise awareness and connect with other survivors.
