We Have A Donor

Amazing day! Mia, Ryan, and Logan are the strongest kids I know and they amaze me everyday! The boys are having fun at Nana's and being so great! Mia had a great time playing with Grandma and Grandpa. Her and grandma made a beautiful flower crown today!

More amazing, we received a phone call confirming that they have found Mia's bone marrow match! We have no information on the donor, but have the option to find out a year after transplant. We should be getting her transplant date soon!

Your prayers and support are beyond anything we could have ever hoped or asked for! God is good! Thank you!

4 down, 6 more chemo days to go!

Go Team Mia!!!

Amazing Mia

Mia did great again today! She is simply amazing and so brave! She played and enjoyed the day with Aunt Valerie. We painted, colored, played with tons of toys, and gave all of her stuffed friends a check up!

3 down, 7 more chemo days to go!

Go Team Mia!!!

Rolling Through Day 2

Mia had another long day today but did great! We were at the clinic for 7 hours. Luckily, our good friend, Andrea Santamaria Shea came with us and had fun playing tea party. Mia refused to nap at the clinic so that made for an even longer day.

2 down, 8 more chemo days to go for this cycle!

Thank you again for your continued support and prayers! We hope you are having a great week!

Round 2 Begins

Mia had a long day today but did great! We were at the clinic for 8 hours. Luckily, Aunt Bridget came to play and have fun to help pass the time. She was nauseous and gagging during her chemo but after some medications she felt better. She didn't eat much today but did find a new pasta to enjoy for dinner!

Ryan started CCD camp this week and Logan will have fun at Nana's!

The plan for this cycle is to admit Mia when her immunity drops to 200, before she gets to 0 at home. This way she will be in the hospital and can start antibiotics immediately once she spikes a temperature.

We should hear something about a donor by the end of the week. They are still waiting on a few results. Keep praying for a perfect match! Thank you!

Happy Monday!

Features

Team Mia has a new home at TeamMia.org (MiaCastellan.com will auto forward)

Now you will also be able to email subscribe to this blog to get updates right in your email (for those that don't use Facebook)

Finally, follow the Team Mia instagram account @team_mia on instagram, which is also now displayed at TeamMia.org

Mia's Week Off

Mia has been enjoying being home and playing with her brothers. She's been tiring easily being she has been using muscles that she hasn't used in awhile. She hasn't been eating much but pasta and she changes her pasta shape choice daily! So needless to say we have been making pasta quite often and have every variety out there. The boys are excited to be finished with school and have been enjoying playing at home!

Mia has had OT and PT this week which is much needed and she enjoyed working with both therapists!

Not Ready Yet

Mia seems to be fighting off a virus. Her immunity was lower than expected today so the start of her new cycle is set to begin next Monday. It will give Mia some time to rest and recuperate as this round of chemo will be rough on her. We are looking forward to relaxing this week as the school year comes to an end!

Mia's Aunt Bridget started a new you caring fundraising page for her bone marrow transplant. All of her updates will now be located at the following link instead of this one.

Help Mia Castellan by joining TEAM MIA!

Thank you for continuing to offer support and prayers!

Father's Day

We had a pretty quiet weekend at home! Mia and the boys were excited to go in Nana and Pop pop's pool! Mia also went to visit our church between masses and was blessed and anointed along side her brothers! Besides a little conjunctivitis and a possible spider bite, it was a pretty quiet weekend!

Tomorrow begins the next cycle. Mia will be at the clinic everyday this week for about 6 hours each day plus travel time. We are praying for minimal side effects! We are also hoping to get the plan for the next step after this cycle.

We want to wish everyone a Happy Father's Day! Have a great week!

Remission!!

First of all, we would like to thank everyone who came out to the bone marrow drive yesterday whether you were able to donate or not! We had about 200 people who were able to be swabbed! Simply amazing and we are so grateful! That number doesn't even include people who were able to be swabbed through the mail! Yesterday wouldn't have been possible without JPC Children's foundation who organized the event, all of our friends who took time out of their busy day to volunteer and help, and to our friends who made bracelets and sold t-shirts to benefit Mia and our family! Again, we are so blessed and feel incredibly grateful for your support!

I received a phone call this afternoon from Mia's amazing nurse practitioner with fantastic news! She called with more test results that confirmed remission! This incredible news ensures we are able to move forward and prepare for Mia's bone marrow transplant!!! Tomorrow, she will go to the clinic for blood work and a check up and then will be able to begin the next chemo cycle on Monday in CHOP's Vorhees clinic. The next cycle will consist of chemo of 10 days of straight chemo with a break on the weekend.

Even though we have a long road ahead of us, we are headed in the right direction! Again, thank you so so very much for your continued prayers and support! We wouldn't have been able to get through the last month without you!

A Bit of Good News

Amazing news today!!! Unofficially it seems that Mia is in remission. The test results from yesterday's test showed no evidence of leukemia cells again! We are still waiting on 2 more tests that should be back by Thursday to confirm this. They also went back and looked at her blood work from Sunday and the technician saw no leukemia cells. The doctor is a little puzzled and wondering what they have been seeing everyday this past week. He is thinking that maybe they are seeing new cells as the bone marrow recovers which can look like and fool them into thinking they are leukemia cells. Also, they went back and looked at her cat scan because if there were cancer cells in her bone marrow they would have seen some in her liver and spleen too. Needless to say, there is no cancer in her liver and spleen! So an amazing day! We have some amazing people in our village! Thank you!!! God is good!

Don't forget tomorrow is Mia's Bone Marrow Drive! If you can, please come out and save a life, possibly Mia's! 2:30-6:30 @ Middle School South in Howell!

Home for Few Days

Amazing news... Mia came home late tonight. We are still awaiting definite results which we should have tomorrow. So far this is what we know...

1. There are still leukemia cells in her blood, this morning it was 1.4%.

2. Under the microscope, there was no evidence of cancer in her bone marrow. That being said it does not mean she is in remission.

3. They took a different sample from her marrow and are running other tests that will come back tomorrow.

If there is a small percentage of cancer in her marrow, then we might be able to start next week at the Voorhees clinic. If they see a lot, then she will begin immediately and be admitted back to the hospital and will remain inpatient for the next cycle.

She also had a CT scan today to rule out any fungus infections in her sinuses and abdomen. Both areas were clear, however they found something in her groin area. She either has a piece of the pic line(original chemo line from November of 2014) or calcification from the pic line in her blood vessel. She will get an ultrasound when she returns to the hospital to follow up.

Of course, to make things interesting Logan woke up with what seems to be a stomach virus tonight. He is now resting and recovering at Nana's. We are praying that he gets better fast and that no one else catches it! Seriously, what are the chances?!?

We will continue to update everyone as we get information tomorrow. Your prayers and support are beyond amazing and definitely working. Thank you!

Jun 12th, 2016

Today was a decent day for Mia because all her numbers started to climb. This means she is starting to recover from this round. She was also in good spirits, ate, played, giggled, and told me off a number of times.

Tomorrow they will do a bone marrow biopsy to see the percentage of bad cells left. They also want to take a closer look at those cells to understand her cancer better. They will also do a spinal tap to confirm the spinal fluid is still clear. We know she will not be in remission, but hope for a low percentage of disease to show treatment was effective. Good results could see Mia coming home for a few days to recover before having to come back. Unfavorable results will mean starting treatment tomorrow.

Either way she is strong and we are strong. We hope the next round will get us to the remission we seek. Thank you all for your continued prayers and support.

New Website & Blog

Now follow all the Mia updates via her own website at www.miacastellan.com. The blog with her updates are embedded, but can be accessed directly at http://miacastellan.blogspot.com/

In time the page will show events, pictures, etc...

Stay tuned and thanks for all your prayers and support

Love,

The Castellan Family

June 11th, 2016

Mia had a great day playing with Nana, the art therapist, and physical therapist. Of course, we watched a lot of Doc McStuffins too! She even ate great today and for the first day didn't throw up the NG feeds.

Her heart rates has still been high, so they are monitoring them. The chemotherapy she got on day 1 & 2 of this cycle were given with another prevention drug because it's known to cause heart problems. Between both the chemo and high heart rates they decided to follow up today with an echocardiogram and EKG. The echocardiogram was normal which is great. We are still waiting on the results from the EKG, but I'm sure it is fine also.

 Daddy returns tomorrow for some hospital fun with Mia and I get to hang out with my boys! Please keep the prayers coming for Monday and I will update again Monday night. The final results of her bone marrow biopsy will take 3-4 days to come back but we are hoping to have the microscopic results by Monday night. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

June 9th, 2016

Mia had a busy day of painting, playing with princesses, building a doll house, and playing in her kitchen. She loves to make food for her dollies.

We started with a new formula last night for her NG feeds. We are hoping it agrees with her stomach.

On Thursdays, oncology meets as a group and discusses each of their patients as a team. They all agreed that they are concerned that she still has leukemia cells in her blood work everyday. They talked and confirmed what the next cycle would look like. Everything depends on Monday's bone marrow biopsy; if they see a lot of cancer in the marrow they will start the next cycle right away and if there are minimal cancer cells they will let her body recover before starting.

 We know at this point that remission this month is not possible. Just praying that there is less than they are thinking!

June 7th, 2016

Unfortunately, Mia will not go home this week. Her neutrophil count dropped lower today. With leukemia cells still present and her low white blood count it's safer to remain in the hospital and on IV antibiotics until her counts recover. She will get her biopsy here on Monday. Depending on what they see under the microscope they may begin the next cycle on Monday.

Physical therapy started this morning and she will continue to get services Monday-Friday. She's been having pain in her right foot and is hesitant to put pressure on it. They are trying to determine if it's neuropathy or pain. It wasn't easy, but we managed to get her walking with assistance. Boy is she stubborn!

Being she can't leave her hospital room, 2 special visitors waved to her from the window this morning. Elmo and super groover were happy to blow kisses and send presents her way! She was so excited!

June 6th, 2016

Mia had a great weekend with daddy! She didn't sleep at all last night; she's still dealing with the after effects of the steroids including an elevated heart rate again. They are monitoring it closely and might decide to giver her hydrocortisone again to see if it helps.

The goal is to get us home at some point this week so she has a break before starting the next cycle but we are waiting for her neutrophil count to come up. It went up and now dropped again today so it's a wait and see. Her bone marrow biopsy is scheduled for next Monday to see how much leukemia is is still there. At this point, it looks like she won't be in remission after this cycle being there is still leukemia in her blood. We will keep moving forward and pray that the next cycle gets it for good!

On on a side note, yesterday we had a nurse that was a cancer survivor. She relapsed 1 year shy of being 5 years cancer free, had a bone marrow transplant, left teaching to become a nurse and now has 2 healthy children. So inspiring and at the right moment too!

Your constant prayers are being felt everyday!!! xoxo

June 3rd, 2016

Mia has spent most of the day in bed. Her pain is being managed from morphine every 4 hours. Tonight will be her last dose of steroids, thank goodness! Hopefully she will return to her normal self in a few days. She accidentally pulled her feeding tube out last night so we are still working to see what rate she can tolerate with her feeds. We are hoping that if things continue to head in the right direction, she might be released next week. We will then need to return on day 29(June 13th) of this cycle for another bone marrow biopsy. She continues to have leukemia cells in her blood, although after a week of being around the same number they finally decreased today.

I seriously can't even find the right words to thank everyone for your amazing words, support, prayers, offers, texts, and posts. We are truly so fortunate and blessed to have so many people fighting along with us! Thank you!

Please remember, if you can Mia's Bone marrow drive on June 15th! You can save her life and so many others with just a simple swab! Thanks!

June 2nd, 2016

Mia started steroids on Monday and they are making her completely miserable. She received her last chemo yesterday and will remain inpatient until her counts recover. Her hair is falling out rapidly which is to be expected. Her NG feeds have been going well, but last night she threw up her feeds and the tube. We are planning on getting a new one in this morning so we can start her feeds up again.

A urine culture was also sent out last night because she's been complaining about pain when going and literally asks to be changed every 5 min. It was negative so we are assuming it's a combination of the steroids and virus still working its way out of her system. In general, she's just uncomfortable. Hoping she will be in the mood to play soon!