Holidays can shake up the usual rhythm in the best way. Days blur together, routines loosen, and families settle into a different pace that feels harmless and refreshing. That was the mood for Nicole Schonlau when she traveled to San Francisco with her husband, Andrew, and their two children, seven year old Christopher and five year old Aiyla. It was August, the kind of trip built around ordinary moments that become memories.
One evening, as Nicole was bathing Aiyla, she noticed something that did not fit. Aiyla’s right eye suddenly seemed to drift upward, almost as if it were pulled toward the ceiling. Nicole later told Newsweek that she had been cross eyed as a child, so her first thought was that it might be genetic. Even so, she could not shake the feeling that something about this was different.
There was no pain and no dramatic change in Aiyla’s behavior, just a small detail that felt wrong. Like many parents faced with a puzzling symptom, Nicole started searching for explanations while trying not to jump to the worst conclusion. Her father, who was also with the family, suggested calling a local eye doctor for advice. The ophthalmologist could not examine Aiyla because of her age, but he took their concern seriously and urged them to go straight to the emergency room.
Nicole hesitated, asking more than once if it could wait until they returned home to Denver. The doctor kept insisting that they should not delay. At the ER, the first assessment did not immediately set off alarms, and Nicole even wondered if she had overreacted. Still, the physician recommended further evaluation at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, choosing caution over reassurance.
At the children’s hospital, Aiyla was sent for a CT scan. Nicole recalled thinking they would be sent home after the imaging, but instead a doctor returned with a grave expression and asked the family to move to another room. The scan had revealed a mass on Aiyla’s brainstem, and she was admitted for treatment. Nicole described the moment as stepping into a nightmare she had not yet fully processed.
An MRI later showed the tumor was located in the medulla oblongata. Because of where it sits, Nicole said doctors explained it could not be operated on, and a traditional biopsy would be extremely difficult. Earlier this year, Nicole had created an Instagram account, @thebravestbean, intending to share her own healing journey from a hard childhood. After Aiyla’s diagnosis, the account became a place where she documents what the family is facing and how one brief, almost easy to miss sign changed everything.
What do you think parents should do when something feels off even if it seems small? Share your thoughts in the comments.
