Olivia's Brain Tumor Help
Donation protected
My little girl Olivia was born in August after a perfectly normal pregnancy. About five hours after she was born she began to get cold so they took her to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and checked her blood sugar and hemoglobin levels. They were both dangerously low but she looked perfectly healthy, that is where the nightmare began. After several blood transfusions, hundreds of tests, and a week at that NICU they could not figure out what was going on with her. We were transferred to wolfson's Children's Hospital in Jacksonville Florida where she began to go through several test for her adrenals and cortisol production. Within a few days they ordered an MRI and found a craniopharyngioma brain tumor on her pituitary gland. My little one was 15 days old when she had a craniotomy to remove the tumor which unfortunately included removing the pituitary gland as well. The tumor is extremely rare affecting two to three out of every 1 million kids . All of her follow-up MRIs have been good but there is a risk of the tumor growing back so I live with that in the back of my mind. The pituitary is the master gland and produces all of the hormones required for life. Since it was completely removed she has a condition that she will take with her the rest of her life called panhypopituitarism. This means that she has to take hormone replacements twice a day including an injection every night. She is an absolute warrior and I'm so thankful that I get to walk this path with her. But with that there comes a lot of challenges. I have had to quit my job to stay home to take care of her because she is considered medically fragile and we've already been in the hospital 3 times since she was discharged. I created this account because I decided I needed to drop my pride and be okay with asking people if they would like to help towards her medical bills. My husband works very hard but it's expensive these days to have a family of 4 supported by one person. I appreciate you taking the time to read our story and thank you for your generosity.
Organizer
JI Schmidt
Organizer
Yulee, FL