Miah Smith

It all happened so fast!  One day Miah, who is 11yrs old, is having the summer of a lifetime playing soccer every day with her teammates getting ready for the upcoming soccer season.  So excited for her first day at a new school as a middle schooler attending the 6th grade.  The next day being told she has the fight of her life ahead of her. She has Hodgkin's Lymphoma.  Such a fun and upbeat child yet feeling scared about what all this means.  Let's rewind.....Miah found a lump on her neck one day and asked her parents about it. Her parents thought to watch it. The next morning she found another one twice the size above her collar bone. Her parents knew this wasn't normal and had her checked by their family physician where a complete blood count was done. The cbc showed all counts are normal. She then had a chest X-ray and it is also normal.  Her physician prescribed 2 weeks of antibiotics which did not reduce the swelling. An ultrasound was performed the next day and it showed clusters of swollen lymph nodes in both sides of her neck and in front top part of her chest under her collar bone.  Surgery was performed a week later to remove the largest lymph node which was 3 1/2cm and sent off for a biopsy. Our suspicions were confirmed.