One night I received a call from Mya's Nana telling me she found a lump on Mya and that she needed to be taken to the hospital. I didn't think it was anything serious because I hadn't seen anything on her that day. Sure enough when I checked her the next day there was a medium size lump on her groin area. The following Monday I took her to St. Christopher's Children's Hospital to get her checked out. By that time the lump had gotten bigger and a second lump had started to grow. The resident felt around the area and declared it a swollen lymph node due to a bacterial infection. My mother's intuition was telling me that the diagnosis wasn't that simple and there was something seriously wrong with Mya. I explained to the doctor that Mya had not had any recent bacterial infections but he stuck with his diagnosis. I took the antibiotic prescription and took Mya home. The next day I took her to The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for a second opinion. They took an ultrasound and gave the same diagnosis. I again took her home and continued to give her the antibiotic.

After five days of giving her treatment, I saw no change in the lump, in fact it kept growing. That Thursday night at 11:30PM, Mya woke up screaming inconsolably. I tried to hold her and lay down with her but it seemed as if any touch caused her more pain. She was in so much pain that she curled herself into a fetal position and started shaking uncontrollably. Tears fell from my eyes as I saw her walking around like a frail old lady. I knew then that something wasn't right. I didn't get her back to sleep until 1AM. Then she awoke again at 4AM in agony. I changed her and saw that along with the lump she had two deep red gashes in her groin area. The next day, I left work early to take her back to CHOP. By that time a full red rash with white scaly bumps had developed and the lump was causing her so much pain she couldn't sit down or walk normally.

Back in the ER, they still believed the lymph node was due to a bacterial infection but believed it wasn't responding to the antibiotic so they switched her antibiotic to a stronger one. At this point I was convinced she did not have a bacterial infection. They wanted to discharge her but I literally begged them to admit her for observations. She spent almost a week in the hospital on four different antibiotics while the lumps in her groin continued to grow and anther one showed up on her neck. The doctors finally decided to give her a biopsy of the lumps. On September 5th, a Friday night, as she was waking up from the anesthesia, I found out that my daughter had cancer. Her Nana and I spoke to an oncologist and the next day she was transferred to the oncology unit. Mya was scheduled for a CAT scan the following Monday and shortly afterward I discovered that she had a stage 3 germ cell tumor. Formally, her tumor is known as an endodermal sinus tumor in the sacrococcygeal region. She is considered to be high risk and needs four rounds of chemotherapy before a tumor resection surgery. If there is anymore cancerous cells found at the time of surgery, then she gets two more rounds of chemotherapy. I am saddened to see my precious child go through this illness but I am hopeful that we will get to the end of this road unscathed.

Unfortunately during her follow up scans, tumor regrowth was found. Mya will now follow another chemotherapy plan, followed by possible surgery or stem cell transplant. We are still fighting this battle strongly and with utmost faith in God's healing and ultimate plan for MyaRose.

http://caringbridge.org/visit/myaroseharris

Written by Shardai Williams, Mother
03/09

Update: Sadly, MyaRose passed away in April of 2010.