I'm Trish.
Wife and mom to two. On August 21st, 2012 my life changed forever as my sweet little girl, Olivia, died. She had just turned 7 and had battled cancer, specifically Hepatoblastoma, for 28 months. Cancer took my little girl from me. I am sad, bitter and trying to find my way back to life.
This blog will be a mixture of current events and quite possibly, memories when they hit.
Grief is raw, real and painful. Some days are better than others.
My Olivia was also a child with special needs. For the past 7yrs my life was dedicated to loving her and taking care of her 24/7. She needed me for everything and I was happy to do it for her. My life has done a 360.
I also have a son. His name is Nate and he's such a great kid. He was the best big bubby to Liv. He loved her so fiercely and she him. Nate is a sweet, kind boy, who in the midst of missing his little sister, wishes to become a scientist to cure these terrible pediatric cancers. I will do everything in my power to support him in his destiny, whatever it is.
There is also a daddy missing his Princess. My husband and I have been married for almost 14 yrs. Planning a funeral for our babygirl was definitely the hardest thing that we've ever had to navigate our way through in life.
I have decided to start a blog because I imagine many of my family, friends and facebookers may be getting tired of my postings. Some may even think that I should be getting over things a bit. I will state right here and now, that there is NO getting over the death of your own child, regardless of the reasons of the death. Your child dying before you is just not the natural process of things. It's simply NOT how life is supposed to go.
As a step of continuing to live my life after losing my LIV, I am pursuing my nursing degree. It is a way for me to take all that Olivia taught me and honor her memory with. I know trachs, vents, suctioning, gtubes, feeding pump, shunts, ports, iv infusion, therapies, VSDs, O2, nebs, meds, chemos....and many other things.
Some have said I should be an patient advocate but I genuinely liked all the hands on "nursing work" that I did for my girl. That is what I want to do. I do believe that being a pediatric oncology nurse is where I'll end up, but of course, that could change.
So that's me in a nutshell. I start school on Jan 7th, 2013, 18 yrs after graduating HS, just 4.5 months after my little girl went to Heaven.
Trish
