Octavia's Fight Against Leukemia

My wife and I have hemmed and hawed over creating this page as we are not people to ask others for help, however, we have found ourselves in a situation that has warranted reaching out to ask our community for help.

Our daughter, Octavia, has been sick for 2 months. We started with an abnormal blood test that we were going to re-run 2 weeks later to ensure everything was okay. However, 2 weeks later, she came down with a cold, so we pushed it off until she was better. Then a week later we found ourselves back at the Dr with an ear infection and were prescribed antibiotics. Those antibiotics didn’t work, and we were right back at the Dr with a worse ear infection, and bronchitis, and were prescribed a stronger antibiotic to help kick it out.

Fast forward to a week before her 1 year well visit she spiked a fever, was lethargic, and stopped walking. Now mind you, Octavia has been advanced with her milestones and has been RUNNING all over the house for 2 months, so when she stopped walking it was extremely concerning. We call the Dr, and they tell us to go up to the Albany ER to be seen instead of coming into the Dr office. We rush her to the ER and go through beginning to end of the last 2 months of symptoms and raise our concerns. Despite seeing no concerns and not agreeing with the need to run the tests, they did a blood test, urine test, and an ultrasound on her hip. Everything came back fine since they didn’t run the correct CBC test and sent us home. But something still did not sit well with us.

We call the doctor back again and ask to be seen as an ER follow-up and to AGAIN raise concerns that something is off with our daughter. As soon as the Dr saw her that day, she had us rush her back to Albany med to get more testing done to rule out cancer. And that was the night that changed our lives…

Octavia was poked and prodded and sent for multiple tests that confirmed she has Infant Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. This form of ALL is extremely rare, less than 90 cases in the country each year. Needless to say we were devastated by this news.

They transferred us to the pediatric wing so we could perform a spinal tap, a bone marrow biopsy, have a port placed in her chest, and start chemo. She will be inpatient for at least 5 weeks while she undergoes intensive chemotherapy, multiple spinal taps to ensure the cancer has not spread to her spine or brain, and another bone marrow biopsy at the end to see if she is in remission or if we need to get a transplant. And as if that wasn’t enough, we have had cardiology look at an EKG and see if anything was needed because her heart rate has been low. Endocrinology come look at her because her blood test showed a high thyroid level. And nephrology on the ready in case she needs dialysis due to developing tumor lysis which is basically the cancer version of sepsis.

Octavia unfortunately has a very long road ahead of her and we are asking for assistance during this difficult time. Your donation will go towards helping us pay for treatment which will include about 3 years of outpatient / inpatient stays, lumbar punctures, and possibly bone marrow biopsies to ensure she is responding properly to treatment. It will help us to stay afloat with bills, traveling, additional support outside of what insurance covers, especially since during this time, both my wife and I will need to take a lot of unpaid time away from work to be there for Octavia as needed.

We know times are tough for a lot of people right now and we cannot tell you how much we appreciate anything you are able to do. All thoughts, prayers, shares, and donations are greatly appreciated. We will make sure to keep everyone posted and put daily updates on this page for those that want to follow her progress!

Thank you all so much!

Note: thank you everyone for the generous donations so far. I have increased our goal and looking to push this global based on research shared with us on the long term costs.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.lls.org/sites/default/files/Milliman%2520study%2520cost%2520burden%2520of%2520blood%2520cancer%2520care.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjOy7PNlrOCAxW7EVkFHaX6CUcQFnoECC8QAQ&usg=AOvVaw2SflE46MT4jcbhE2P43cdx