Not only is Aviana Huggins the youngest in her family, but in the fall of 2020 she became one of the youngest patients on the 10th floor at MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital.
At just eight months old, Aviana Huggins was admitted to the pediatric oncology unit at the hospital to begin her battle with the unthinkable: a blood cancer known as acute myeloid leukemia.
Little she may have been, but that baby girl ended up being quite the fighter, and kicked cancer right to the curb.
Aviana is now a 6-year-old first grader at Devon Forest Elementary. She is very shy and quiet upon meeting new people, but her style is fun and loud; she is very fashion-forward, girly, and loves tulle skirts and the color pink (extra bonus if she has a pink tulle skirt).
She may not remember her fight against cancer – but her mom, Carletta, remembers it very well.
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, as well as Blood Cancer Awareness Month. Sept. 15 is recognized nationally as Tackle Kids Cancer Day to raise awareness and funds for pediatric cancer research and patient care.
Carletta recently shared the story behind her daughter’s diagnosis, as well as the important lessons she learned during the ordeal – the biggest one being to always advocate for your child’s health.
“You have to be an advocate for your kids,” she said. “Only you know your child.”
A mom’s intuition
The road to recovery was one thing – the road to just getting Aviana diagnosed was a whole journey on its own.
Aviana is the youngest of four siblings. Her mom is a housekeeping manager for Hilton and her dad, Audrey, is a foreman for Infrastructure Technologies. The family lives in Goose Creek.
In September 2020, when Aviana was seven months old, Carletta noticed her baby’s eyes were starting to swell. Since she had no fever or any other major symptoms, the pediatrician’s office assumed it was related to allergies.
By October, Aviana was not feeding as well. This was a big red flag, as Aviana had always been a good eater, but Carletta said the baby was only taking about two ounces of milk per feeding. Aviana had also started became extra fussy and whiney, always wanting to be held, which was atypical of how she had been as a baby up until that point.
Doctors were still chalking the symptoms up to other ailments, but Carletta was not buying it.
“I knew something was wrong,” Carletta said.
Carletta ended up rushing Aviana to the emergency room on Oct. 16 when the baby – now eight months old – was experiencing labored breathing, but even then, the medical staff kept leaning toward allergies, or maybe a virus, being the actual problem.
Still, Carletta knew her daughter, and her family’s situation, better than anyone. This was all going on during the COVID-19 shutdown, so Carletta seldom left the house – and, in fact, was extra mindful about doing so because she did not want to expose any of her children to the virus at the time.
When Carletta and Aviana made another run to the emergency room, Carletta particularly emphasized Aviana’s eyes swelling. She showed the medical staff photos of how her eyes used to look, compared to this point in time – when they were starting to bulge – and this seemed to grab everyone’s attention.
Aviana eventually had labs drawn MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital. Carletta said they waited for a while, and then they learned the news: Aviana had leukemia.
“One of the nurses came down from the 10th floor, the doctor came in…and everyone was in tears,” Carletta said.
Avi Baby
At this point, the type of leukemia that Aviana had was still being determined. Aviana was admitted to the hospital, with plans to do more labs the next day. The duo got settled in the hospital’s pediatric oncology unit on the 10th floor. Aviana quickly had surgery to install a central line, which is a soft, thin tube placed into a large vein to deliver chemotherapy and draw blood safely without frequent needle sticks.
Extensive tests eventually determined that Aviana had Acute Myeloid Leukemia – also called AML for short. AML is a cancer of the myeloid line of blood cells, characterized by the rapid growth of abnormal cells that build up in the bone marrow and blood and interfere with normal blood cell production.
Leukemia is the most common cancer found in children, but AML is a very serious form of it. The prognosis is more favorable in children than adults, but it does put them at a higher risk of needing a bone marrow transplant. An AML diagnosis in a baby is also very rare and unusual.
As one of the youngest patients on the floor, her nurses came to affectionately refer to Aviana as “Avi Baby.”
Aviana’s first admission into the hospital lasted 32 days. They got to go back home for two days, but then they had to go right back for the next cycle of chemotherapy.
“Every time we went home, they let us stay home a little longer – but we never hit a two-week mark,” Carletta said.
Aviana spent a total of more than 180 nights in the hospital and successfully completed five rounds of chemotherapy. During a sixth round, Aviana had an echocardiogram done, and doctors learned the chemotherapy had damaged one of the chambers of her heart (it was performing weaker than the other three chambers). Aviana was placed on a medication called Spironolactone to help with her heart health.
Another obstacle Carletta faced was learning how to care for Aviana whenever they were at home in between the treatments, as hospitals were limited in providing home healthcare because of the pandemic. Carletta had to be taught how to keep Aviana’s central line clear and clean so she wouldn’t get any infections.
The pandemic also had an effect on who could visit Carletta and Aviana in the hospital. Visitations were pretty limited, so it was mainly only Aviana’s parents who were allowed to be present. Aviana has two older sisters but her brother Amir was only 3 years old at the time; with him still being a toddler, Carletta struggled with being separated from him.
“He did not understand why Mommy wasn’t here, and why he couldn’t come to visit,” she said, adding that little Amir even offered to wear a face mask to see his mother.
In May 2021, Carletta got an early Mother’s Day gift: her daughter beat cancer, and they finally got to go home – for good.
Be the advocate
Today Baby Avi is thriving as a busy first grader at Devon Forest Elementary. She has had a good start to the school year, and said she likes her new teacher, Karen Bellemare.
She might be quiet at first but Aviana is very social at school, and is known for being a very caring and helpful person. She enjoys riding her bike and playing outside, but can also keep herself entertained with an iPad. “KPop Demon Hunters” is one of her favorite movies – so much so that she wants to be a singer when she grows up.
Aviana is a big veggie eater; she loves rutabagas, carrots – pretty much anything except for collard greens. It is also impossible for her to take a bad photo; her fashion sense is something to envy.
Carletta and Aviana still have to go to MUSC for follow-up appointments, but with Aviana having been so young when she got sick, she really has no memory of ever fighting cancer.
That said, the Huggins family still talks about it, and Carletta is a huge advocate for childhood cancer awareness. She has a special yard sign outside her front door that reads “Cure Childhood Cancer.”
“It was something I learned from, something that me and my family survived,” she said. “It is a journey – it is a lifetime commitment for us, because I have to teach her, when she gets older…to be her own advocate.”
Cancer was not on Carletta’s radar when Aviana first got sick, but her maternal instinct is essentially what got the family on the road to recovery.
“I didn’t have any idea, I just knew I was going to lose my kid,” she said. “It’s not something that I would wish on anybody to have to endure.”
Carletta has connected with other moms who experienced similar obstacles leading up to their own children’s diagnoses. The journey reinforces the biggest lesson she learned when Aviana first started showing symptoms: always be your child’s advocate.
“We all had to advocate for our kids, and that’s kind of scary,” she said.
Carletta and Aviana are very active in local childhood cancer advocacy groups, such as Courageous Kidz and Camp Happy Days. Carletta has come to lean on the parents and volunteers she has met along the way; they have created a special network of families that have not given hope that someday there will be a cure for cancer.
“It’s one that you love once you’re a part of it,” Carletta said. “We’re all in this together.”
