Brian Robert & LCH: Back to School 2013

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Back to School 2013

Here's our crew posing for our back to school 2013 picture.

Ansley 4th grade, William 2nd grade, Brian 1st grade and Olivia Kindergarten
Both of our boys have summer birthday's and we chose to have them be the oldest in their class rather than the youngest. I polled no less than 38 mama's of older boys and THEY ALL said the exact same thing...give your boy the extra year. We've never regretted that decision. I often get asked why it matters if we homeschool. It matters because we like to keep our children in line with tradition schools if for some reason they should have to be enrolled. We have learned from our experience with Brian's illness that you do not know what the future holds.
Our kids get excited for back to school time. Yes, we homeschool, but we are a part of a community that meets once a week. If you ask our kids Tuesday's are our "real school" days.They miss our Classical Conversations community during the summer and wish we met year round. We do school year round at home. Because of life the last four years we really can't take a traditional summer break. This past year we did our school week along with Brian's chemo schedule. Three weeks of school and then one week off during the chemo week. It works for us, but I must say I get burn out and want to take a traditional summer break. So even though we school during the summer, it is very relaxed. Here you can see Brian working on some math during the summer.

Woody from Toy Story

Buzz Lightyear

Turbo

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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.