Meet Olivia

A week before Olivia was diagnosed with ALL, she was very sick. She was pale, heart was beating fast, very tired and wouldn't eat anything. Her Mother took her to the doctor and the doctor said that it was an upper respiratory infection that lead to a double ear infection and sent her on her way with antibiotics. She felt a little better within a few days, but that Friday she lost her color and her lips turned blue. She was rushed to the ER. They ran tests and the tests came back that her bone marrow wasn't producing enough of red blood cells, platelets and white blood cells were very low. Over the course of that weekend while in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Olivia received 6 blood transfusions. That following Monday, she underwent a bone marrow biopsy to determine why her bone marrow wasn't producing blood cells. Later that evening, her Mother saw a different woman other than who was caring for Olivia walk into her hospital room. She then gave me the results of Olivia's bone marrow biopsy, the results were that Olivia had Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, pre-b cell. She was diagnosed as high risk because she previously had steroids to help the double ear infection. Steroids are used to kill cancer cells, therefore they didn't know how much leukemia was actually in body at one point. The next day Olivia, had her first lumbar puncture with chemo and her mediport was placed. Olivia was diagnosed on December 19, 2011 when she was 4 years old and she is currently 2 months into maintenance. Olivia's treatment involved a few setbacks like having pancreatitis twice in Consolidation and Delayed Intensification, but other than the occasional fever and her bone marrow recovering very slowly, her Mother thinks that her treatment has gone smoothly. Olivia has received around 13 blood transfusions. Olivia's treatment will end on April 30, 2014. Olivia loves to play with her brother, Korbin. She loves to color, paint, help cook and bake, she loves to play with her Lalaloopsys and dress up. Olivia loves Minnie Mouse, Lalaloopsys, Disney Princesses, Tinkerbell, Hello Kitty and Spongebob. Images by: LinnyJo Designs & Photography