Trying To Keep It Together
Corrigan was trying her best to stay with it as she played with her demanding little boy. They were playing with his Lego pieces and he was being very excitable. He was always over the moon when she played with him and this time was no exception.
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She could feel her eyes growing heavier and her breath becoming more and more shallow. She was trying so hard to hang on. Only a little while longer, she told herself. Her son’s voice began to sound distant and before she knew it, her vision had gone black and her head hit the floor.
Tired
Laura Corrigan was a single mother living in Durham, England. She was a hard-worker, throwing herself into her job so that she could support her family. While she wouldn’t call herself a fitness enthusiast, she tended to keep pretty active. She thought so anyway.
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Lately though, she had been feeling tired a lot of the time. She put it down to her work and convinced herself that there was nothing wrong. This was just a phase. However, when she told her friends about this, they began to grow concerned. She repeatedly told them that there was nothing to worry about, but she was wrong.
Medication
Laura thought that she would be able to cure this constant feeling of fatigue, so she got hold of some vitamins and over the counter medication, in the hope that this would solve the problem. These were: Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Vitamin B and Iron. However, they didn’t do a lot to help her.
Source: Facebook/Laura Corrigan
When nothing changed over a period of several weeks following this, her friends convinced her to go and see a doctor. The doctor’s didn’t do much to help her, sending her away with a sick note so that she could have some time off work to rest. However, it wasn’t that simple. More needed to be done.
Sleepless Nights
What made matters worse, was the amount of energy her sons were demanding of her. This was nothing outside the norm, but at this point in time, it was too much for her to take. Her youngest was just a baby and would keep her up crying most of the night.
Source: Youtube/Fitmomma
He slept next to her and would pull her hair and kick her during the night. He didn’t mean any harm by it, he was only tiny. This would wake her up and his crying was giving her headaches. Then something happened that shocked Corrigan to her very core.
Strange Symptoms
Corrigan’s condition was only getting worse. She seriously lacked energy and she was looking very pale. She didn’t even seem to have an appetite anymore, so she began to eat a lot less. Her friends couldn’t stand to see her like this and demanded that she go to the doctor for a second time.
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They couldn’t understand what was happening to their friend. She was a strong woman and she had beaten the flu recently but her health was declining. Everyone was growing really concerned about what was happening to her.
Second Appointment
When Corrigan turned up to the doctor’s surgery for a second time, her condition was taken a lot more seriously. He ran some tests to try and get to the bottom of it. However, the tests came back with nothing. This implied that she was perfectly healthy, but this certainly wasn’t the case.
Source: Youtube/Fitmomma
The doctor decided to try a process of elimination. He put her on as many antibiotics as possible, in order to examine her reaction to each one. He thought that this would at least give him some idea of what the issue might be. However, in the end, this had the opposite result.
No Improvement
Despite the antibiotics, Corrigan’s health didn’t seem to be improving, in fact, she was starting to feel even worse. She could barely keep herself awake and her body was aching all over. Her physical deterioration was also threatening her mental health.
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Corrigan’s loved ones were growing still more concerned. Corrigan started to doubt herself, wondering whether there was even an illness in the first place. Perhaps this was all in her head. No, she was sure this couldn’t be the case. She could feel that there was something wrong. Even her friends, who knew her better than anyone, could see something was really wrong.
Searching For Answers
It didn’t seem as though Corrigan’s doctor was going to be able to help her. If he didn’t know what the cause of this illness was, what could he do? She decided to try and find answers online. She chatted online to experts and tried several herbal remedies, all to no avail.
Source: top5.com
She convinced herself more and more that all this was inside her head and she was going crazy. Why couldn’t the doctors work it out? No one seemed to be able to give her any sort of answer. She was starting to feel very alone.
Second Opinion
Corrigan decided she would have to go back to the doctors again, just to get a second opinion. Perhaps another doctor would be able to figure it out. After having a few more tests, she had to wait a few weeks before getting the results back. She was still in a lot of pain.
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She received a phone call from the doctor who asked her to come to the office and speak to him. She was happy with this, since she preferred to speak in person. When she left the doctor’s office, she felt a knot in her stomach that affected her breathing.
Exhausted
As she was leaving the doctor’s office, Corrigan felt a huge wave of exhaustion overcome her. She had to ignore it. Besides, the working day was nearly over. She just needed to get back home to her sons who would be waiting for her to return.
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The thought of seeing her children later kept Corrigan going. She wondered what they were up to. The thought of this kept her going for a while and she managed to muster up the energy to carry on working. However, this didn’t last long.
Bad Timing
Corrigan managed to make it through until the end of the working day and get into her car. She was looking forward to getting home and seeing her lovely boys. She needed them to distract her from the problems she was having.
Source: Facebook/Laura Corrigan
She made it to the crossroads and turned in the direction of her home. All of a sudden, it happened again. This intense wave of exhaustion. Not now. She started to feel all dizzy and then something happened which made her slam her feet on the brakes.
Excruciating Pain
She managed to safely pull over and let the pain take over her body for a moment. She sat there, hoping that it would pass quickly. The pain was everywhere. When it finally passed, she restarted the engine and headed towards home.
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When she finally arrived home, she greeted her boys with open arms. She was so glad to see them. She made them some dinner, but there was only one thing on her mind. She felt panicked and knew that nothing would be able to take her mind off it.
Family Time
She knew that there was only one thing for it. She needed some fresh air and some thinking time, so she decided to take the boys for a walk along the seafront. It was one of her favourite things to do and it meant she could breathe in the healthy coastal air.
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Just as she had predicted, she felt a lot better for it. The calming influence of the sea and the company of her boys caused her health-related worries to fade and she began to relax. She would deal with that problem in the morning. For now she would just try and enjoy a nice evening with her little boys. However, things did not go as she hoped.
No Rest
Feeling totally refreshed, Corrigan and her boys returned home. She was looking forward to relaxing on the sofa. However, the boys had other plans. She sat down on the sofa and moments later, the boys proceeded to get the lego set out.
Source: Facebook/Laura Corrigan
They wanted to spend some more time playing with their mum, to her dismay. She quickly gave in. The boys were far too cute for her to refuse. She sat down with them on the floor and joined in with the lego. That’s when it happened.
Giving In
Her eyelids started to grow heavy and she struggled to breath. She couldn’t keep going. Everything went black. Corrigan had succumbed to sleep, mid lego battle. Her son took a photo of her, which she later posted on Instagram.
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How could she be this tired? There had to be a logical explanation for all of this. She decided to publicly reveal the awful truth as to why she was this tired. She sat down in front of a desk, her heart pounding and started to type it out.
Finally An Answer
Laura had finally sought medical advice from a doctor who could give her a prognosis concerning the symptoms that had been troubling her so much. Shortly after going to see this doctor, she received a diagnosis. She was told she had bowel cancer.
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This is a condition that tends to be rare for someone of Laura’s age (mid-30s). Despite this, doctor’s were still hopeful. “It was pretty hard to process,” she recalled on her blog, Cancer, Milk & Rainbows. “All I wanted to know was if I was going to die or not and that, they couldn’t really answer.”
Social Media
Up until this point, Corrigan had been too afraid to share the truth of what was happening to her. However, she ultimately plucked up the courage to create a blog. This was a good decision. She later explained how she found social media a great release.
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Sharing her stories with others became a kind of therapy for her. “It has helped me, both writing thoughts and feelings down and connecting with others,” she explained. She also decided that she wanted to help others in her position.
Keeping Active
Corrigan joined multiple different societies and also decided to raise money for Bowel Cancer UK, in order to give something back to the cancer community. She also managed to stay surprisingly active during her fight against Bowel cancer.
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She was very into her kayaking and swimming and, despite being seriously ill, she managed to compete in a one-mile swim to raise money for Bowel Cancer UK. Corrigan was at her happiest when she was next to the ocean and completely surrounded by nature.
Chemotherapy
It wasn’t long before Corrigan had to start enduring daily chemo-radiotherapy sessions. She soon began to notice the effect that this was having on her children. She even had to stop breastfeeding her youngest son, Finn. This was particularly hard for her.
Source: The Guardian
When this happened, Laura turned to her blog for comfort. “This has been the hardest part of my journey so far, certainly harder than hearing the diagnosis. He, on the other hand, after just two weeks, is coping amazingly well,” she wrote.
Fighter
Corrigan refused to let this illness beat her. She was a self-confessed “fighter”. She took every day as it came, embracing every challenge that life and this illness threw at her. Her blogging was a way of making sense of it all and sharing her feelings.
Source: top5.com
“I write when I can and have connected with other people a lot that way, as well as in Facebook support groups.” For many struggling with cancer, or other long-term illnesses, sharing their experiences online can be hugely helpful in that it enables them to connect with other people who are fighting similar battles.