Influencer Carly Douglas has revealed that she was diagnosed with stage IV gastric cancer.
Douglas shared a video of herself sitting in a hospital room in a yellow hospital gown via Instagram on Tuesday, March 24. The social media personality, who has nearly 34,000 followers and is known for her stay-at-home mom content, disclosed that she received the diagnosis two weeks ago when she visited the emergency room, believing that she had a bowel obstruction.
“My belly was just very distended, and I was in a lot of pain, and so they did a CT scan, and showed that I had stage IV gastric cancer,” Douglas said through tears. “On the CT scan, they saw a bunch of ascites around my abdomen, which is fluid buildup, and the peritoneum of my abdomen was very inflamed, which they called peritoneal carcinomatosis. The next day, they did an endoscopy and found a very large tumor on my stomach, a bleeding tumor that they biopsied and that came back cancer.”
Douglas said doctors believe that her cancer began in her stomach and metastasized.
“It’s truly like living in a nightmare and keep trying to wake up, but it’s very much real,” Carly, who shares three kids with husband David Douglas, continued. “I think it’s anyone’s worst nightmare, especially a mother.”
Carly added that she has gone through “every stage of grief” and now has an “overwhelming sense of peace.”
“I’m gonna be OK, and I’m gonna fight. I have to for my kids, and there’s so many people I love, and I just know that the Lord is gonna sustain me every step of the way,” she said. “He’s already sustaining me. He’s sustaining my children. He is [sustaining] the people that he has put in my life to take care of all the things while I’m in the hospital. Has truly just proven his goodness. He is so good. Despite all this, he is so good. And I know that sometimes [is] hard to see, but I know it. Know he’s so good.”
Carly explained that she completed her first two rounds of chemo and slept “for 20 out of 24 hours” and “threw up all the others.”
“But I just wanted you to know and to be praying, because I feel so many of the prayers, I really do, and just the people that are taking care of my kids and my family and my home, and I’m just so lucky and so appreciative for the village that I have,” she noted. “I’m gonna beat this. I am gonna beat this. I’m gonna come out on the other side.”
After thanking fans for their support, Carly concluded, “I keep telling people that cancer picked the wrong girl, because I’m not gonna let this beat me.”
