Mom Opens Up About Being Diagnosed with Cancer One Day Before Giving Birth

A Tennessee mother is opening up about receiving a devastating diagnosis just one day before giving birth.

On Aug. 27, Sara Walton reflected on what had been happening in her life for the last year, writing on Facebook, “One year ago today my whole world was rocked.”

Walton explained that she’d headed to the Jackson-Madison County General Hospital while pregnant with sciatic pain, hoping she could be induced a day earlier than her “original scheduled 41-week mark induction date,” which she said had been the next day.

However, Walton ended up being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Per the Cleveland Clinic, AML “is a rare cancer that affects your bone marrow and blood. It’s an aggressive cancer that, left untreated, may be life-threatening.” 

“AML typically affects people age 60 and older, but it can affect younger adults and children,” the clinic’s description reads.

In her Facebook post, Walton recalled how her obstetrician, Dr. Rickman — whom she called “the most wonderful man” — had told her that something wasn’t right, and she’d be “meeting with an oncologist from Kirkland Cancer Center shortly.”

“In his words, ‘You just think when you’ve been doing this job for so long that you’ve seen it all.’ I could see his heart break but you could’ve slapped me in the face and I wouldn’t have felt it. My body went numb. I didn’t cry, [panic], nothing. I sat there thinking… what? I’m here to have a baby and go home,” she wrote.

Walton — who is now cancer-free and mom to her adorable daughter, Elleott — recently opened up to Nashville station WKRN News 2 about her diagnosis, insisting, “I had a wonderful pregnancy. I never had any trouble.”

After Walton gave birth the day after her diagnosis, her baby was sent to the NICU and she was flown to TriStar Centennial Medical Center in Nashville for cancer treatment, the outlet reported.

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Walton, who rang the bell to mark being cancer-free in March, is now looking forward to the future with her now-1-year-old daughter.

“I would say that having cancer makes you change your way of living,” she told the outlet.

“I would say that I am thankful, in a way, to have gotten cancer, because it changes your life, it changes the way you think and your mentally, and honestly it just makes things a little sweeter,” Walton shared.

Walton didn’t immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for comment.