Jen Arnold, star of TLC's "The Little Couple," bravely showed off her bald head from chemotherapy treatments. The 39-year-old has been keeping her fans updated on her treatment and tweeted a picture without her wig for the first time. Arnold revealed to People magazine that she was battling Stage 3 uterine cancer.
"Day 2 inpatient chemo - sleeping a lot, liking new anti nausea med this time, & looking to get home today!" she captioned the photo.
Arnold told People that the cancer was the result of a non-viable pregnancy in August. She said she was shocked when she discovered she was expecting over the summer but when she went to the doctor for an ultrasound the baby didn't have a heartbeat. Doctors removed the embryo but cells left behind sparked the cancer.
Almost immediately after the diagnosis Arnold, who is a neonatologist, began receiving chemo but the tumor was not responsive and grew four times its size. Doctors also discovered that the cancer had spread to her lungs.
"There are moments I feel just terrible," she told the magazine. "I can't believe it's happening. Other times, I feel like this is just a bump in the road."
Because Arnold has dwarfism doctors have struggled to find the right amount of chemo to give her but feel the prognosis is promising. Recently, the TLC star underwent a hysterectomy.
"We wanted to avoid surgery in her case because of her shortened airway and the difficult she has had in the past with surgeries," Dr. Concepcion R. Diaz-Arrastia from Baylor College of Medicine told People. "But we felt we had no choice. The disease was not responding to chemotherapy. We had to do this in order to save her life."
"The treatment is rough," Arnold added. "But I have a chance of being cured. I just have to push through it."
