Brian Robert & LCH: A great week!!

Monday, August 6, 2012

A great week!!

Or the title could be, "My girls are here!!!"

Here is a picture of mi familia circa 1995. We are pictured with our dear friends that are like family, the VanMeggelens. My dad, brother and Randall VM were about to leave for Uganda and we all posed for a picture before they departed. We have known the VanMegglen's since 1991, when miss Lillian was six months old and sweet Jocelyn was 22 months old. My sister, Dabney, and I were blessed to babysit for these girls. We watched Hannah and Felicity since they were born. I remember when my mom, sisters and I went to meet newborn Felicity Joy. She was screaming her head off and I remember lovingly holding her and telling her she had to stop crying because her name was happiness and joy.

Dabney and I had claimed them as "our girls."

Not only did we babysit, travel and spend lots of time with the VanMeggelen's, but Randall was my Bible teacher in high school. I remember the first week of my ninth grade year (which was really, really hard on me) he made me cry as he was driving me home from babysitting one night. He still likes to remind me of that twenty years later. :-)

Here we are rockin' the 90's look.

When Fred and I moved to central Florida in 2007 we were just 25 minutes from the VanMeggelen's house. The girls I babysat were now babysitting for my kids, and Randall and Tina had a fifth daughter that is just 11 months older than Ansley. It is SO MUCH FUN to spend time with their family.

Last October Ansley and Olivia had the privilege to be flower girls in Lillian's wedding.

This week Hannah and Felicity are here in P'cola at our house to visit and help us celebrate Brian's sixth birthday on Friday. It is so special to me that "my girls" have my children as "theirs".

Hannah and Felicity playing one of MANY Go Fish or Old Maid card games. My kids LOVE Go Fish and Old Maid.

We love our VanMeggelen family and we are SO EXCITED to spend this week with Hannah and Felicity!!!!

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Brian, BB or "B-ber"

Brian is our seven year old boy. He is the third of four children, all born in just four years. Sept 2009 Brian was diagnosed with Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis. He spent seven months on Chemo and steriods. In April 2010 we had his port removed and celebrated "no more chemo!". His treatment from May forward was oral medicine on the weekends and scans/bloodwork every three months. Brian's firt set of scans/follow up with the oncologist in July were wonderful. We didn't quite make it to his second set of scans three months later in October. In late July/ early August we started noticing suspicious bumps on his scalp and a rash on his private area. On Sept 15, 2010 we took Brian to his oncologist. That appointment revealed the possibilty of more chemo. September 21 we had a biopsy that two days later revealed that Brian's LCH was back. We immediately had surgery to implant a port and in Oct 2010 started a second journey through chemotherapy and steroids for our little Brian. In March 2011 Brian's chemo drugs were changed around as his new protocal was not working. Brian was still presenting symptoms. We went back to the original combination of drugs but this time instead of being on them six months the plan was for twelve months. Brian completed his second round of chemo March 8, 2012. Even though Brian was completing treatment, we started noticing symptoms of Diabetes Insipidus in March 2012. He was diagnosed with D.I. March 22, 2012. His new diagnosis was considered a relapse for his LCH. Brian's third round (or fourth protocol depending on how you look at it) of chemo and a totally different protocol began April 2012. He had chemo five days in a row followed by a three week break for 12 months. He completed that protocol the first week of April 2013. In July of 2013 Brian had his port removed and we were over the moon excited about NO MORE CHEMO. In October of 2013 Brian had a recurrence of symptoms. He took six months of oral chemo. In April of 2014 he had another MRI. It was decided that Brian could stop treatment. By August-September 2014 he started showing symptoms again. October 2014 we are back in Houston to see what the next step will be for treatment of Brian's LCH.