On October 31, 2007 Olivia Weber was only 9 months old when she was diagnosed with Stage IV, high risk Neuroblastoma (nmyc amplified). Three weeks prior to that she had been a happy baby, crawling all over the place. She loved being in the pool with her brother Luke and her sister Ava. One day I noticed a bump over her left eye. She was crawling so I thought maybe she hit her head. Two days later she was vomiting and couldn't keep anything down. After three trips to the doctors I just new that something else was wrong. They told me she had a double ear infection and not to worry about the bump. It just didn't seem right to me. So I took her to the ER on the 22nd of October. They did a CT scan and noticed excess fluid in her brain and a mass on her left adrenal gland. Olivia was immediately transferred to All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, FL. Within an hour she was in surgery to get a shunt in her head to relieve the pressure. She had lesions in her brain and down her spine and both adrenal glands had masses. On November 3rd she started her first round of chemo. She got thrush so bad and mucusitis she stopped eating and we were back in the hospital.She was in and out of the hospital for the next three months with fevers, a g-tube placement, stem cell harvest, and she just completed her third round of chemo. After five we will go up to Sloan for her surgery, then back for a stem cell transplant, radiation and possible further treatment at Sloan.

Olivia has been an angel through all of this. At first she was not very fond of all the nurses coming in and out of her room. She would take her favorite blanket and put it over her head, but eventually she started to smile. She loves going for walks in her stroller. Even when we are at the hospital you can find us roaming the halls at all hours and Olivia will be smiling behind her pacifier. She loves watching Luke and Ava dance and sing, especially to High School Musical. I swear she knows the songs. If she gets fussy in the hospital I either sing them to her or find them to play on my laptop. Cancer is hard on any family but we had just moved to Florida from NJ when Olivia was only 2 months old. So here we are with a devastating diagnosis and no family around and we just left an enormous network of friends. We did find however, how wonderful people can be. Friends from NJ helping any way they can and even new friends from Florida. Olivia's godfather is even running a marathon here in Tampa for her. Olivia's both set of grandparents have taken turns staying with us and helping with our other two children. Prayers and support have gotten us through this so far.

We are only in the middle of our treatment and have such a long way to go but Alex's story gives us new found hope and courage to face every new challenge that might come our way. I look at my little baby and I am simply amazed at what she has endured so far in her little life. I make her promises everyday that as soon as she gets better I will make it up to her and give her back everything she missed. She just likes to smile and pat me on the back. You can follow Olivia's progress at www.carepages.livilulu.com.

Update: Sadly, Olivia passed away on June 20th, 2008