Hi! My name is Katie, and my husband’s name is Mark. We have two children: a 5 year old son, Matthew, and a 2 year old daughter, Olivia. We live in Ocean County, New Jersey and my husband and I both grew up here. We love doing weekend adventures together and movie nights at home. We considered ourselves a normal family; whatever "normal" means at least. At the end of 2021, our lives were forever changed. Our daughter, Liv, was diagnosed with Stage 3, type IV, yolk sac sacrococcygeal teratoma at 17 months old.
 
When Liv was around 15 months old, we noticed some bruising on her back and took her to the pediatricians and they said she’s an active toddler trying to keep up with her brother. They weren’t concerned. But a few weeks later, Liv, was having trouble voiding and constipation issues. We took her to Jersey Shore Medical Center. It was there that she was throwing the doctors for a loop, over Christmas weekend, when she stopped voiding altogether and could no longer walk. They ordered an MRI and what should have been about an hour turned into almost 4. We knew something wasn’t right and when we got back into our room, they told us she had a mass that was appearing cancerous near her spine. The oncologist had already left, but would be in touch with us the following day. I’m not sure what happened overnight, but the next morning, the oncologist called and said CHOP needed to handle this and we were transferred there that night.
 
The next few days there were some of the hardest days we had to experience, there’s no guidebook or preparation you can do to help navigate those first few weeks of a cancer diagnosis. While they normally would have liked to resect the tumor, Liv’s was too big at this point and was intertwining in between the spine. She started with chemo to help attack and shrink the teratoma. Her chemo cycles were 21 days, the first five days she received chemotherapy consisting of 4 different drugs. The next two weeks afterwards were for count checking and transfusions she needed. In April of 2022 she had her resection surgery and removal of coccyx to lessen the chance of reoccurrence. In August her doctor officially said she has no evidence of disease. During those 8-9 months, her bladder and bowels recovered to the point, where she doesn’t need to be catheterized daily or given suppositories/enemas as much.  During her year of physical therapy, she regained her ability to walk again while building her tone. Now she can complete the exercises at home. She has weakened nerves where the teratoma sat on, that require follow ups with other specialists, in addition to her monthly bloodwork and quarterly MRI’s to monitor.
 
That’s the thing with pediatric cancer, just because chemo is done, or their hair has grown back, or they look good, doesn’t mean the battles over. These children face secondary issues that they are battling and having to go through. Recovery lasts long after treatment. A childhood cancer diagnosis effects the whole family, even the siblings, their world gets turned upside down too. There are many challenges a family goes through once being diagnosed. It’s more then just medical bills that pile up, it’s the parking fees, gas, food at the hospital that add up fast. This is why we are so personally grateful for, Liv Like A Unicorn, they stand right next to you, fighting the fight with you. They give support to their families, financially and emotionally, while making donations to the hospital research teams to find a cure for these children because, childhood cancer isn’t rare, it’s just not fair.

​

Katie & Mark Sotak

Olivia's Parents