Brennan said she began having severe abdominal pain and other symptoms in March. Doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong, until she moved back to Pennsylvania and uncovered e-mail conversations Nickel had with someone through an Internet forum.Brennan said she found the information while cleaning out the e-mail account she shared with Nickel. Instructions advised to boil the rat, which would “help bring out the poisons,” and to cut off its head before blending it up.