IOWA CITY, Iowa — Throughout her childhood, Mya Gilchrist spent more than six years undergoing chemotherapy, with her first treatment beginning before she was 2 years old.
Her story begins when local doctors diagnosed her poor balance as an ear infection, a common ailment for an 18-month-old toddler. But Mya’s parents, Brooke and David, suspected something more serious.
“For me, the breaking point where we thought something was wrong was when Mya wanted to come to me and she couldn’t,” Brooke says. “She looked right at me, and she wanted to come to me, but she couldn’t, because every time she tried to come to me, she would veer off to the left.”
Unnerved by this moment, the family returned to their local doctor. When Mya’s pediatrician was unavailable, she was seen by a new doctor who ordered an MRI. By this point, Mya’s parents knew it likely was serious. Their intuition proved correct when the MRI revealed a large tumor.
Read Mya’s story here.