Mia

Miss Mia -

For those of you that don't follow we have a friend. A little five-year old named Mia. Mia has a twin brother, Noah. Mia was diagnosed when she was 2 with the exact same diagnosis as Anna. Last winter, right before Anna was diagnosed, when Mia and Anna were both four, Mia had an early relapse. (needless to say, this story with Mia scares me, terribly.)

After her early relapse Mia needed a bone marrow transplant. Fortunately for Mia, she does have this twin brother that was able to provide her with a marrow transplant. This was a very long, difficult journey for her family - as I'm sure you can imagine.

After transplants, from what I've learned, the first 100 days are crucial. Mia was doing great after her transplant. She was weaned off her pain medication, she started eating solid foods again, played with her brother and was more back to being herself again. As Mia's family was preparing to leave the hospital and return home - Cured! - on Day 97, of 100 days, Mia was found to have relapsed with a particularly aggressive leukemia. Her parents were told they don't have a cure for her anymore.

There are many things the hospital and doctors and treatment can do and her parents have searched every avenue - Mia's best hope is to be in a clinical trial. I don't remember the exact events but she was, I believe, too healthy to be in one trial and too sick to be in another. There isn't, right now, any doctor or hospital in the country that thinks they can cure Mia. This is what her parents live with on a daily basis.

Most of this is not new news. Mia has been having quality of life chemo and her family has been out - living and having fun and doing things together. They went to Disneyland and Leavenworth and are just soaking up fun.

Last week(?) they found out she had 90% blasts in her blood. :( They changed up her medications and she was responding well to the medication, but as always, always, the side effects. Mia was hospitalized with a fever of 105.+ and they didn't know what was wrong. She's been on three antibiotics and her counts are too low so they have to hold her chemo - but if they hold her chemo her blast count goes up and if they don't hold her chemo she can't recover from the infection her body is fighting - she has no germ fighting cells left in her little body because the chemo kills them all off to fight the leukemia.

Please. Please. Please. Pray. Pray for whatever you are called - Mia, her brother, her parents, her family, her cure - whatever you pray - please pray for Mia. If you aren't the praying type - good thoughts, healing energy, positive thinking - whatever you have.