Sydney Towle is sharing the results of her latest CT scans, which confirmed some of her fears about her ongoing cancer treatment.
On Wednesday, March 4, the content creator posted an emotional TikTok video after opening the latest report on her cholangiocarcinoma, which she was diagnosed with at age 23. Towle, now 26, prefaced her video by saying she had a “bad feeling” about the scans but was hoping that it was only anxiety.
Unfortunately, however, she revealed that “everything has increased in size.” Speaking through tears, Towle further explained, “All the tumors in my liver have grown. Some of the lymph nodes have grown. It also says that my spleen is increased in size, and I now have ascites.”
Sydney Towle
Per Cleveland Clinic, ascites is “a buildup of fluid” in the abdomen. Towle said, “It’s not typically not a good sign.”
Last summer, Towle underwent an operation to get a hepatic pump, a device that delivers high doses of chemotherapy to the liver directly. Speaking in her recent video, she said, “I thought the pump was gonna do her a big one. I’m not really sure what to do. Definitely not the news I was hoping for, but I had a feeling.”
In a statement issued to PEOPLE, Towle adds, “Despite how hard the news is in the moment, I am still very hopeful given how many options continue to become available for those of us facing this and similar diseases.”
The day after she shared her initial reaction to the CT scans, the influencer posted another video of herself after waking up crying, as she explain in the beginning of her TikTok. “I just really didn’t want to get out of bed because it’s just getting harder and harder to hear bad news when you’re trying so hard,” Towle said.
On Saturday, March 7, Towle explained why her most recent test results “hit harder than it normally does,” noting that there are “only so many doors that you can open and then have closed on you, especially with a rare cancer. “
That said, she said there are still options for her, and she’ll soon be going to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to be screened for a potential clinical trial. Towle also said she expected her oncologist may want to put her on another type of chemotherapy, which the TikTok star described as “one of the last chemo options available for my type of cancer.”