Mia is our light in the dark. Her laughter is really contagious and she loves wholeheartedly. Mia thinks of others before herself. She comes across super shy at first but as she gets to know you, her personality comes out.
Shortly before Mia’s 5th birthday, she started limping and complaining of pain. She’s never been seriously sick in her life so we watched closely and within the couple days, she got worse. We took her to the ER and they ran tests. Couldn’t find anything that stood out but they admitted us for 5 days for antibiotic treatment and that seemed to help and we were sent home. Fast forward about 3 weeks after her birthday and her pain had returned, but 100x worse. My husband rushed her back to the ER. I was out of town so I found a return flight back home so I could be there with her. At that second time, her blood panel was all off. They didn’t know what was going on but treated her as the labs came back. That meant several blood sticks, scans, procedures. After two days of being on antibiotics and testing, they called the pediatric oncologist for a consult who assured me that he thought it was just a viral infection but wanted to ease his mind and do a bone marrow biopsy to rule out leukemia. It was scheduled for the 13th of February. The biopsy was supposed to take 4 hours to get back and it ended up taking 11 hours as they cross checked and re-checked it all before telling us that she had Leukemia.
Mia isn’t a fan of being accessed and I think that has to do with all the pokes and procedures she endured before she was diagnosed. But we try hard to accommodate her every needs prior and let her have as much control in the situation. She’s really tolerated chemo well with minor setbacks thankfully.
Knowing we have an immunity compromised child has been a struggle as we are a family that loves to have any chance at being out spending quality time together and be outdoors. The planning aspect of it all; packing masks, wipes, hand sanitizer, chemo meds has now become my new normal. Watching everyone stare and point at her wearing a mask and ask ME if she’s the contagious one has been mind opening and taught me patience with the uneducated. It’s really opened my eyes at how many people don’t understand that children get cancer too.
We are seriously blessed to have an amazing family support system. I know that no matter what, I can always count on my family to help and my other kids have just been so amazing and calm throughout this whole ordeal. We talk a lot about things and no subject is off limits. I feel that’s helped them adjust as best as they have.
Hope session by 3 Bells Photography | FacebookÂ