Octavia's Journey

“Your child has cancer”. Those words changed our lives forever on October 25, 2023.

Octavia was only 10 months old when things took a turn. She was early with all her milestones. She was walking at 9 months old, and by this point she was RUNNING everywhere she could go. Always so happy and so full of energy that she fought every nap or bedtime and wouldn’t make it through the night because she just wanted to play and explore.

We went in for her 9-month routine checkup and blood work, and the blood work came back abnormal. With Mom and Dad being analysts, we got to researching what the possible cause could be… sick with a cold, autoimmune disorder, cancer, Lyme… the list went on. We tried not to panic and made a follow-up appointment with the Dr to discuss. They decided “young kids can ebb and flow with their counts, let’s give it two weeks and re-run the bloodwork and go from there”.

So, we started our waiting period until the next blood draw. But during that timeframe, she got a cold. Typical, nothing to worry about, but will skew the blood results so we’ll wait until she’s healed to re-run. During that waiting period, her cold got worse. Then that cold turned into an ear infection, which then turned into bronchitis. Octavia just wasn’t getting better, only different ailments, different medications, stronger medications. Something was wrong, we could feel it.

Fast forward to 10/19. Octavia spiked a fever and was not acting herself. We call the doctor but the only appointment available is the next morning, so we booked it. Later that day, her fever was still there, she was extremely lethargic, not eating or drinking, and completely stopped walking. She could not put any pressure on her one leg and would just collapse when she tried. So, we call the doctor back and they advise us to go to the Pediatric ER to get her checked out more urgently. Panic sets in. But we bring her to get checked out, and we were discharged to come home as the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with her besides healing from the normal sicknesses she’s been facing.

But parent gut is still there, we know something is not okay. We watch her for a few days. Octavia started getting very pale over the next few days. No interest in food, water, formula. Loses interest in playing as much as she used to. Not walking as much as she was, she resorted back to crawling. Very lethargic and snuggly. And now, has these little red dots all over her… petechiae.

So, we call her doctor back up and go in for a follow-up with her directly. As soon as she came into the office, she knew immediately something was not right and wanted us to go back to the pediatric ER to rule out cancer. And sure enough, that was the night that our lives changed forever. What we anticipated was a few hours or all-night ER visit, turned into a 43-day inpatient stay to start this fight out.

10/25/2023 was the day we were told Octavia, our 10-month-old daughter, was about to start one of the hardest fights of her life. But here we are today… still fighting like hell, but in remission currently, and being the strongest little fighter out there!

Below are breakdowns of our monthly progress. Pictures and updates from our stay inpatient, along with everything we have faced since! Please click each month to see a detailed breakdown. Thank you for all your love and support! <3

Octavia's journey in numbers as of 07/06/24

Days of Active Chemotherapy - 111

Days Inpatient - 90

Outpatient Clinic visits - 58

Blood and Platelet transfusions - 30

Tests (MRI, EEG, EKG, Echo, CT scan Etc.) - 17

Spinal Injections - 9

Emergency Room visits - 8

Bone Marrow tests - 4