66-year-old Larisa went to the doctor when the pain became unbearable. At first, she thought it was just her stomach, age, nerves, simple bloating. She even joked that she was eating too much bread and maybe that was why her belly was growing. But the tests ordered by her family doctor changed everything completely.
— Ma’am… — the doctor looked at the results again. — This may sound strange, but the results indicate a pregnancy.
— What? I’m sixty-six years old!
— Sometimes miracles happen. But you should go to a gynecologist.
She left the office in complete shock, but somewhere deep inside… she believed it. She already had three children, and when her belly began to grow, she decided that her body was giving her a “late miracle.” She felt heaviness, sometimes even something like movement — and that only convinced her even more.
She didn’t go to a gynecologist. She told herself: “Why? I’m a mother of three children, I already know everything. When the time comes — I’ll go to give birth.”
With each passing month, her belly grew larger and larger. The neighbors were surprised, and she would smile and reply that “God had decided to grant her a miracle.” She knitted tiny booties, chose names, and even bought a small cradle.
When, according to her calculations, the ninth month began, Larisa finally decided to make an appointment with a gynecologist to find out how the delivery would look. The gynecologist was already concerned at the very beginning when he saw her age in the records. But when he started the examination, his face immediately turned pale at the sight of what appeared on the screen 😨😱
He stepped back from the chair and said in a low, heavy voice:
— MA’AM… YOU ARE NOT PREGNANT. — WHAT DO YOU MEAN NOT PREGNANT? AND THE RESULTS? AND MY BELLY? AND THOSE MOVEMENTS? — YOUR DOCTOR WAS MISTAKEN. THE TEST WAS A FALSE POSITIVE. IN YOUR ABDOMEN… THERE IS A MASSIVE TUMOR.
Larisa froze.
— What tumor?..
— Ma’am, you have an ovarian tumor the size of a full-term newborn. That is what has been growing all these months. That is what caused the feeling of “movement.” And that is what is causing the pain. The cancer has already metastasized. The situation is very serious. You need urgent surgery, chemotherapy… and we have very little time.
The woman turned pale, the world began to spin before her eyes. She remembered how she had laughed, how she knitted the tiny booties, how she stroked her belly, believing that new life was growing inside her… while all that time, death had been growing within her.
— If you had come earlier — the doctor said quietly — we could have removed the tumor. You could have lived for many more years. But you lost precious months.
Larisa covered her face with her hands and burst into tears. She understood the terrible mistake she had made — she believed in a miracle, did not check the truth, avoided doctors.
NOW SHE WAS NO LONGER FIGHTING FOR A CHILD THAT NEVER EXISTED… BUT FOR HER OWN LIFE.
