Our journey began 5 years ago.  What was once a healhy little girl who would run, jump and play litterly turned into a nightmare overnight.

Our beautiful little 2 year old girl went from running and playing to virtually overnight not being able to get up off the floor without help.

Numerous tests showed nothing - we were left without answers and our daughters health over the next two years quickly worsened.  We have watched her loose all control of her muscles and her dighram stop working.  We watched helplessly as she went into respitory arrest and was airlifted to the children's hospital in Ottawa.  Here she laid in bed for 9 weeks fighting to live.  She was given a trachostomy and her little life slowly got better.  After 9 weeks at CHEO we were airlifted back to our home hospital where Mia had to live for 7 months as nurses were hired and trained for her to go home.  She now requires 24 hour care.  It was with this that she lost control of her neck muscles and was now completely wheelchair boound and tied to a vent 24/7.  But she prevailed.  She went back to school and was doing amazingly well!

Last August we finally were given a diagnosis of what Mia truly had and we were beyond over joyed.  JM Polymyostitis.  An auto-immune disease that begins to attack the muscles in the body and slowly kills them!  The best news ever was that there was a treatment!!  We were quickly rushed to CHEO and several tests and treatments were started. 

Mia responded well to treatment!!  We slowly started to see strength coming back to her arms and hands, she wasn't tiring as easily, her voice was stronger, she could move her head!  All miracles!!

As she began to get stronger she was cleared to begin weekly physio sessions where she made progress by leaps and bounds!  We met with a surgeon to help fix the tendons in her calves and feet as they were pointing down and tightening to enable her to start to bare weight again on them in time.

On May 29th I laid my fragile little girl on the operating table and told her that everything was going to be okay.  Three hours later I was told that she had suffered a cardaic arrest and was in the ICU.  I watched as doctors and nurses again crowded around her trying to save her life. 

We were airlifted to SIck Kids in Toronto, where Mia again became unstable.  The doctors met with us to tell us our options we could let her go, or we could put her on a machine called ECMO and see if that would help her heart to heal.  But we needed to know that she may never come off and that would mean she would die.  They asked us what her quality of life was and we told them that she had just sung in the talent show 2 weeks prior, that she had friends that loved her, how much she loved school and parents that just weren't ready to see her go yet.

They decided to try her on ECMO and it with the grace of GOD it worked.  She was taken off 4 days later.  We then discovered after several tests and MRI that she had also suffered a stroke and was in a coma that she was slowly emerging from.  No one knew what she would be like or if the little girl we knew and loved was gone and replaced by another.

As Mia emerged from her coma and became stable we were moved to Bloorview Childrens Rebab in June where we remain today.  Mia is undergoing many therapies daily here.  When we arrived she could not talk, or move her right side, today I am happy to report she can say Mommy and Daddy and NO!

Mia still has a very long road for us to go home.  Costs are very high to stay here and most are not covered by insurance.  As well when we go home we have a whole bunch of new equipment that needs to be purchased not covered by insurance as well. Things like standers and lifts.

We also have been told we will have to find better accomodations for our family as we currently have Mia's room set up in our dining room and it is no longer safe for me to carry her in and out of the house.  As we have been living in hospital since May our savings have been completly depleted.

We are asking for your help by donations or prayers of any amount to help with Mia's continued recovery, costly medical equipment. 

Much Love
Heather