This page is for my niece Milania. She has brain and spinal tumors, specifically called Juvenile Pilocytic Astrocytoma. Her largest tumor is rapidly growing, which is not common for this type of tumor. She was diagnosed May 14, 2012, just four days after her first birthday. 

At about 4-5 months old, we noticed Milania wasn't gaining weight like she should. After months of going to doctors and being diagnosed as failure to thrive, someone finally decided to give her an MRI. That's when a very large tumor was found in her brain, along with several other smaller tumors in her brain and spine. 

She had surgery in May 2012 to see what kind of tumors she has and try to remove the tumors. They couldn’t remove another of the tumors. Her biggest tumor is far too large and deep in the brain that removing it could cause serious damage. The surgery left Milania blind. She also had a mic-key button in her stomach because the tumor makes her not want to eat. (She recently had it removed in 2021 because she learned to eat, but she may have to put it back in with new treatment.)

She stayed in the hospital for two weeks, then started chemotherapy on May 31, 2012. The chemo worked for the first year or so, shrinking her largest tumor in half. After about a year, the tumor stopped shrinking in size. She ended that regimen in Dec 2013. In Jan 2014, Milania had an MRI that showed growth in the largest tumor. Her doctors started her on new chemotherapy, which didn't work. Her tumor grew a little more. She then started her third type of chemo, which worked well by shrinking the tumor down slightly and continued to be stable until Dec 2016.

Milania then had radiation therapy in May/June of 2017. That caused her largest tumor to shrink quite a bit. She was able to live a relatively normal life for a couple years. She attends school (now virtually thanks for the pandemic) and even makes honor roll!

Unfortunately, Milania’s tumors grew again in April 2021. We are now starting the process all over. She will be undergoing another biopsy to see if the pathology has changed. She has no more treatment options, so doing another biopsy is our only option. I’ll keep updating on her progress.

Our main fundraising goal is to help pay monthly bills/gas/living expenses while mom and dad are away from work. Milania gets treatment three hours away at Children’s Hospital New Orleans. Mom and dad have both just gotten back to work after multiple hurricanes and flooding events, in addition to the pandemic. One of them will have to take a leave from work to stay with Milania while she’s in the hospital, while the other works less to care for Milania’s three siblings. 

Thanks for helping us these last 10 years, it’s definitely made this trying time a little bit easier