Mom Noticed Something About Daughter On Vacation—It May Have Saved Her Life

A mom of two was vacationing with her family when she noticed something concerning about her 5-year-old daughter.

Nicole Schonlau, from Denver, Colorado, didn’t know it at the time, but that intervention may have saved her child’s life. She was holidaying with her husband, Andrew, and their children, Christopher, aged 7, and Aiyla, aged 5, when she first noticed something that was cause for concern.

The family was in San Francisco, Schonlau’s hometown, staying at her aunt’s house in the Richmond district back in August, when she spotted Aiyla’s eye doing something unusual while she was giving her a bath. “I noticed her right eye suddenly drifting upward toward the ceiling,” Schonlau told Newsweek. “I had a wandering eye as a child, so at first I thought maybe it was genetic, but something did not feel right.” 

Schonlau’s father was also staying with the family as part of the trip and suggested they contact a local eye doctor for advice. Though the medic was unable to help due to Aiyla’s age, as a fellow father, he “strongly recommended” the family take her to urgent care. “I kept asking if it could wait until we got back home to Denver, but he urged me several times to go right away,” Schonlau said.

She wondered if they might be “overreacting” at first but when Aiyla was examined in urgent care, her doctor admitted that, though she looked fine, she thought it was best to refer her to the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Benioff Children’s Hospital ER.

When Aiyla got to UCSF, she underwent a CT scan. “I honestly thought they were about to send us home, but instead a doctor came in with a very serious look on her face and asked us to step into another room,” Schonlau said.

The mom of two said how the doctor began to explain “with so much compassion” that the CT scan had revealed a mass in Aiyla’s brainstem. Schonlau would later track down the doctor and thank her for how she spoke that day. “The doctor was herself a mother to small children, and she had tears in her eyes as she delivered the news,” Schonlau said. Aiyla would need to be admitted for treatment immediately. 

Schonlau can still recall waking the next morning in the hospital with a sense that none of what was happening felt “real.”

“It felt like we were living our worst nightmare, and I still had not fully accepted that this was happening,” Schonlau said.

Aiyla underwent an MRI to give doctors a clearer look at the tumor. “Because of its location in the brainstem medulla, they explained that it was not operable, and a traditional biopsy would be especially difficult,” Schonlau said.

According to the National Brain Tumor Society, there are more than 100 distinct types of primary brain tumors, each of which has its own treatments and outcomes. Aiyla has an astroblastoma MN1 fusion, which is a rare form of the disease. 

Four days after that initial diagnosis, Aiyla and the family traveled home to continue treatment at the Children’s Hospital in Colorado. For the past seven weeks, Aiyla has been in Philadelphia, undergoing proton radiation therapy. She rang the bell to signal the end of her treatment a few days ago.

“She’s doing great,” Schonlau said. “She has not lost her sparkle, and that’s so important and impressive to us. We’re going to go home and get her back into school and try and have a really wonderful and festive Christmas.”

Aiyla will undergo an MRI on January 16. Schonlau is hoping it will show her brain tumor has either shrunk or died. ““I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t nervous to see the results, but we’re helpful because we’ve had so many people message us on social media and say that they’ve seen her eyes improve and we have seen that too,” Schonlau said.

She started posting to Instagram after losing her job back in January. She had been planning to use the account to document her journey learning more about her difficult childhood, but during that time, Aiyla received her diagnosis and everything changed.

It has become a tool for good, though, and a source of strength in dark times. Posting under the handle @thebravestbean, Schonlau speaks candidly about everything the family has been through and how that one moment on their vacation may have ended up saving her daughter’s life. She would encourage other parents to stay vigilant and trust their gut.