Hi! My name is Nicole Body. But that’s just a name. Who I really am is first, a follower of Jesus since 2011 and second, a wife to an incredible husband, Wes, as of June 2014. They carry me through this life with love, grace, and joy. The way I would describe my life would be vivacious {lively and animated}. I have always been on the go, am incredibly passionate about writing and speaking, love planning and hosting events, enjoy spending time with people, meeting new people and hearing their stories. You could say the percentage of the extrovert in me is around 300%. With a gigantic love for golden retrievers, Disney, unicorns, traveling, and everything that glitters, you may call me a 5-year old in the body of a 29-year old. But I can’t complain because life is something I love and enjoy!

Living in Colorado has been such a treat for years with beautiful mountains, gorgeous weather, and both my parents and in-laws living within 15 minutes of us. In May of 2017,
my dad took a position within his company that relocated them to Magnolia, Texas. I was sad but thankful that my brother and sister-in-law would be close by. {There is a purpose for me sharing this detail}.

2 weeks later, we had a BBQ with my in-laws. When everyone left and we got ready for bed, I couldn’t lie down without getting sick. Honestly, I thought I just ate too much barbeque but after a couple days of no sleeping or eating, I knew something was wrong. I called to make an appointment with my doctor, but only his practicing partner was available. I would have seen anyone. I needed to get this figured out. They tried diagnosing me with GERD but found that when he pushed on the area where my gallbladder was located, we may need further testing to see if my gallbladder was failing.

So I had an ultrasound taken. The doctor called back saying they found nothing wrong with my gallbladder but a lesion was seen between my gallbladder, pancreas, and small intestine. He thought it was likely nothing, but wanted to move forward with testing with the small chance that it could be. After a CT scan, the doctor called me to share the heart-breaking news that the lesion was likely to be cancer and I would need surgery to remove it. What a blessing that the provider, who wasn’t even my primary doctor, truly cared about helping me or else we would have never found this. Blessings from the Lord show up everywhere.

Upon meeting with my surgeon, he shared that I needed even further testing and we found that my gallbladder was, in fact, the reason I was having symptoms. With these results, my surgeon thought there was a good chance that this lesion wasn’t anything to be concerned about since it was the gallbladder causing symptoms. He did share that he would remove both just in case though.

After surgery on July 6, 2017, to remove the lesion and gallbladder, I was informed that not all of the lesion was able to be removed due to its location as it rested on my pancreas. The part of the tumor that was removed though was at pathology to determine if it was cancer or not.

I was officially diagnosed with stage 3 sarcoma cancer on July 18, 2017. The procedure that needed to be performed to remove this aggressive and rare disease was highly specialized and needed to be done by the experts. My surgeon set up treatment for me down at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas where I would need months to recover from it. And as God would beautifully write this story, my parents had just moved 45 minutes away from the center just a short month ago. {and this is why I shared that – more incredibly blessings from the Lord}. We had a place to stay. Treatment and survival would really be possible. I knew I could trust God with this as he demonstrated his presence in so many ways leading up to this point. So we were off. Packed up our lives and made the temporary move down to Texas with faith, a full tank of gas, and anything we could fit in our vehicle.

We were surprised to learn that I needed chemotherapy and radiation before surgery. So it would now be a 9-month adventure down in Texas. Chemo was difficult. I experienced many ups and downs through it, but always, I felt God’s nearness and love, which kept

me going. Well, I wasn’t able to tolerate chemo after 4 cycles as my liver levels couldn’t handle it so I had to stop 2/3 of the way through treatment. And then we found out that radiation would not be safe with the location of the tumor. So we moved on to surgery 3 months earlier than planned.

On December 13, 2017, I went in to receive a major surgery called the Whipple Procedure. My surgeon, who performs 80-90 of these per year, made the 9-inch incision down my abdomen to begin and, for the first time in his career, could not find any cancer even though it had shown up on my last scan. It was truly a miracle that I stand humbled and in awe before God today. I am grateful to be writing to everyone as a cancer-free woman.

I’m eternally grateful to be cancer free, but this is the question I face each day:
Why do I get to be cancer free while so many others still battle this disease?

I can’t answer that question, but what I can answer is “What am I going to do about it?” That is where this blog comes in. I want to love, encourage, and support each person I can. I hope to share experiences of what I went through and how I got through it {you will hear a lot about my faith}, what post-cancer life looks like, awareness of all cancers, and words of encouragement and inspiration to bring joy {and, of course, that includes lots of sparkle}! I hope you’ll join me on this journey and find hope, laughter, peace, joy, and lots of love!

I’m so glad you’ve dropped by to hear the story God has been writing in my life. I would love more than anything to hear your story and walk with you through your journey as well. I’m still the same extraverted girl as before, just on a new mission, with a new community, and new passions. I can’t wait to chat with you! Thank you for bringing sparkle into my life!

Love always,

Nicole Body, Sparkly Survivor