Pregnant And Unwell
After some time, Nicole was expecting. But she was still sick and the IBS treatments and gluten avoidance were doing nothing to stop her weight loss or worrying BMs. Even after her routine ultrasound of the baby, the doctors uncovered something that the GI docs had failed to detect. It was bad.
An Unwanted Discovery
The doctors that were giving Nicole an ultrasound found something in her abdomen. The soon to be mother-of-three had eight golf ball-sized tumors on her liver. The cancer she was containing in her bowel had spread to her liver and it seemed clear that it was not going away that easy.
Yet Another Diagnosis
On Christmas Eve, Nicole and her husband decided to go get a follow-up scan to clarify all doubts. Then she received a diagnosis they had both feared, that Nicole had metastatic colorectal cancer. Her treatment was supposed to start after three days and they hoped it was not too late.
Avoid Feeding The Tumors
Kathy Narrier, Nicole’s mother, became extremely furious at the doctor who gave her the wrongful diagnosis. “If the doctor had only listened to her symptoms and requested a stool sample or full blood count, at least they would have found it in 2014 because it was the pregnancy that aspirated cancer, it literally fed the tumors,” she said in an interview.
Good At Hiding It
With everything going downhill, Nicole still kept a positive spirit. She refused to be rotted by her disease, trying her level-best to keep her head up. Nicole did not want to witness her family’s pity tears, keeping her sickness a secret from some. It wasn’t until she began to develop fluid in her abdomen that she finally came to terms with the fact that she was on borrowed time…
Biggest Regret
It was a devastating blow for Nicole to realize that she would not be able to be there to see her baby grow up. “Nicole realised she wouldn’t see Aaylah, who’s five, and Alavis who is 18 months old, attend their first day of school, or Alkere’s first day of secondary school, nor see any of them graduate, or enter into their careers or further studies,” said her mother, through tears.