It’s hard receiving a cancer diagnosis - even when you’re an oncology nurse

When former Frankfort resident Nicole Houlihan fell and hurt her shoulder on her wedding day in May 2019, this oncology nurse never expected to get a cancer diagnosis – especially since her MRI suggested a fracture.

But Nicole, now 26, continued to have shoulder pain off and on the next few months so the MRI was repeated that November. That scan found the lesion.

“I was on lunch break from work and following up with an orthopedic specialist, frustrated that this pain would not go away,” Nicole recalled.

Then Nicole heard the word “cancer” and she said her thoughts just raced: “What else could be wrong?” “What do I do next?” “Who do I call?”

Nicole said she always wanted to be a nurse and leaned toward caring for pediatric cancer patients since she really likes kids. But she started work as a registered nurse in 2014 as a floor nurse in an adult oncology unit at Advocate Christ Medical Center and really enjoyed her role, she said.

In 2018 Nicole became a nurse navigator for patients with gastrointestinal cancers, such as pancreatic cancer and colorectal cancers, she said.

Now, just days after she heard “cancer” in her direction, Nicole had a biopsy that was inconclusive, so she had another one. Nicole also had approximately 15 scans in a month, she said.

On New Year’s Eve she went to the hospital with headaches and facial swellings. She had surgery two days later to remove a lesion from her head, which confirmed the diagnosis: stage four Ewing’s sarcoma – a pediatric bone cancer.

“In the meantime I went home and started doing fertility preservation,” Nicole said. “And I started having pain in my legs.”

Nicole soon learned she also had cancer in her femur, pelvis and her spine. The recommendation was that to stop fertility preservation and start radiation immediately.

“I was devastated,” Nicole wrote in an essay about her experiences. “I knew there were other ways to make family, but this broke me.”

Nicole said her husband Peter Houlihan, formerly of New Lenox, was supportive and strong, saying things like, “You can cry tonight but you’re not going to cry tomorrow.”

And Nicole adopted the attitude of, “We’re going to take what we’re given and we’re going to be in the moment.”

“I thought, ‘This is what I do for a living. I navigate my oncology patients,’” Nicole said. “So I asked my co-workers, ‘OK, what do I do next?’”

Nicole said she met with an adult oncologist who suggested she receive treatment from a pediatric oncologist at Advocate Children’s Hospital, which worked out well, she said.

Her doctor’s decided Nicole should complete fertility preservation, she said.

“My first chemotherapy and egg retrieval were on the same day – my brightest day,” Nicole wrote in the essay. “God was watching over me.”

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Nicole was now having chemotherapy five days a week every other week, which would continue for 11 months – along with two 6-week rounds of radiation.

Peter tested positive for the flu before COVID testing became available and moved to a hotel to recover, she said.

When the weather grew warm, friends, family and co-workers put facemasks on and stood beneath the balcony of Nicole’s Lombard home to talk with her, she said.

Nicole never tested positive for COVID-19. But in addition to receiving a deeper insight into her patients’ experiences, she received a patient’s view of the Advocate Health Care system.

“You like to say you work for a good company,” Nicole said. “You see good people and you know how it works but it’s hard to see it on the inside; you see it from the outside. But from the MRI technicians to transportation throughout the hospital to imaging and radiology, doctors, nurse practitioners – I did not come across a negative or bad experience.

“I have to say, I’ve probably met hundreds of staff members I may not have known before, and not every one of the nurses knew I worked for Advocate – and I just had the best experience. I could go on and on. The comfort, the conversation when waiting for tests, inserting an IV or drawing blood – they did such an amazing job talking to me. Even though I was an adult patient in pediatrics, they still treated me as a professional. It was just so nice.”

Although Nicole is not in remission, she has finished treatment, currently has “no evidence of disease” and has returned to work, she said.

Nicole has blood work each week, scans every three months and is currently taking life day by day, a little challenging for her, since Nicole is “a planner” she said.

“I definitely feel like I notice different things,” Nicole said. “I’ve just been so blessed; we’ve had so much support. Every time we hit a bump in the road, something good happens and then something better happens.”