It all started when 12-year-old Mia Trease started having knee pains during a summer of softball.
The phone call with the bad news couldn’t have come at a worse time. She was in the middle of a softball tournament on July 14th when the doctor called with the test results. It was a tumor on her leg, they said. Mia had to end her game early and travel from the fun-filled field to the dreary Emergency Room to get an MRI.
So began the long arduous process of treatment at Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. The diagnosis was osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer that developed in her thighs and spread to her lungs. This is the most common type of bone cancer and appears prominently in teens.
To learn more about osteosarcoma, click here.
The chemotherapy is a long haul. Mia has to spend three weeks at a time at Primary Children’s Hospital for five days each week.
“She’s really excited to get the surgery over with,” Trease said, “so she can start physical therapy. She wants to get back to playing softball. Mia is a very energetic, very athletic, competitive girl. I think that’s how everyone would think of her.”
Mia has begun seventh grade and was really excited to be a teen again, away from the bright hospital lights and immersed with other people her age. She can’t go to school on a regular basis but the doctors want to make sure she gets enough social time with her friends. Good vibes and spirits will in turn, affect the healing process.
