Olivia Battles Brain Cancer: Her Mom’s Perspective

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Childhood cancer.95 days.

This is how long I’ve been a Cancer Mom. Just 13 and a half weeks since our entire world changed. It takes less time than a college semester. Not quite seven pay periods. However, you want to look at it; so much has changed since that day the doctors told us, “Your daughter has a tennis-ball-sized tumor in her brain.”

Our daily lives have changed drastically. But o did not expect such a change in how I see the world. I still sometimes feel like this is all just a bad dream.

But it is real. Too real. So I’ve decided to share the changes I’ve noticed in myself.

Cancer is no longer an indistinct idea. For me, cancer was something I heard about but didn’t spend too much time dwelling on. Cancer was something scary, something maybe a friend or a grandparent had. But still, just a “thing.” To our family, now cancer is our daily life. Cancer is involved in every moment. It’s gone from a “thing” to “everything.” In an instant.

My worldview has also changed in relation to Olivia. One of the most common things I hear from parents with ‘normal kids’ all the time is, “I wish time would slow down” or “They are growing so fast!” I no longer have those feelings. I wish my greatest worry were that  Olivia was growing up too fast.

I catch myself willing time to go by quicker so I can see all the milestones I am terrified she won’t reach. I wish I could fast forward time to when she is ‘done’ with all of this, despite knowing there is no such thing as ‘done.’ I secretly hope time flies by and I can see her as the grown woman who beat brain cancer. I want to know the future because I’m scared of what that future may hold.

Despite this, we have learned so much about medicines and treatments I wish we never needed to know. But we’ve also learned about ourselves and our strengths and where our priorities are. I’ve seen my husband become a better father. And I’ve seen strength in my daughter’s eyes that I am so proud is there.

Olivia’s cancer has also forced me to be more social and outgoing, as some amazing foundations and groups are helping us. There is also a community of parents with information, similar experiences, and insight that I need to be a part of. So I push my social anxiety aside because it is what is best for Olivia. And I think she is making me a better person because of it.

I’ve also learned to enjoy every moment and bask in every tiny milestone because we have lived some unbelievably terrible moments, and I choose to use that as a learning experience. So I try to see the good in the world and look for the best in everyone.

Our lives have been inexplicably altered in ways I don’t know I will ever be able to put into words, but these are just a few.

And for every parent reading this who has a child with cancer or another life-altering disease, please feel free to leave a comment below about how your thought processes have changed since the diagnosis.

And for everyone reading this who has been lucky enough not to have experienced hearing those horrible words, please hug your children and your loved ones tight tonight. Every moment you have with them is a moment worth savoring.


Danielle is mom to her sweet little lady, Olivia. Shortly after her first birthday, Olivia was diagnosed with brain cancer. 

1 COMMENT

  1. I am reading your article as I lay next to my own daughter who is in a fitful, uncomfortable sleep after a day of chemotherapy. She tries hard not to fully wake up because that will bring on the debilitating nausea. I will her to stay asleep because she is just too sad to be awake tonight. I’m a Cancer Mom too. Our world changed 6 months ago with her diagnosis. Like you, our lives changed immediately as we entered a world of fear and shock, hospitals, infusions centers, chemotherapy, side effects — cancer and all it’s insult and pain to my 16 year old daughter. At the same time, we’ve worked really hard to try and allow her to be as 16 and a junior in high school as possible. She sees friends when she’s well, she performed in her school production of The Tempest, she goes to Wednesday afternoon Broadway matinees with me . I love this girl more than wo and the thought of this taking away her future and her dreams is too much to bear and so it is not an option. We move forward. We make sure she gets in one good activity a day, we watch 30 Rock and laugh, we home school, we visit colleges, and we keep going. I am grateful to everyone who has been here for us from homemade dinners, spontaneous walks and visits, to teachers who tutor after their own school days are over to Soul Ryeders with all their love and support. I send you good wishes and hopes for complete recovery for Olivia and for my own daughter.

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