Our Heroes



Trip with Dr. Lauren Pachman, Pediatric Rheumatologist and Director of CureJM Program of Excellence in Juvenile Myositis Research at Children's Memorial of Chicago.

Trip with our local Pediatric Rheumatologist, Dr. Jason Dare.

Trip with his regular nurse at ACH's Day Medicine clinic, Henrey Van Lierop.

Through this JDM journey with Trip, a few people stand out as our heroes. He wouldn't be in such great health today if it weren't for their passion and dedication to helping kids like Trip. First is Dr. Pachman in Chicago. This fine lady is well passed retirement age but nothing seems to be stopping her. She is very passionate about research and children with Juvenile Myositis. I am also so grateful for her timeliness. When I called her office in desperation on a Friday last June, she called back by the very next Tuesday asking if we could bring Trip to her the following week. She's a very busy, high demand doctor, but she recognized our concern and the possible severity of the situation. Once we were in her care, my nerves were calmed and I was confident that she would take care of our Trippy. And she indeed has! Trip is symptom-free and in remission!

Next and equally important is Dr. Dare at Arkansas Children's Hospital. I've been so very impressed with his patience and humility along with that of his staff. When he learned that we were, apparently, not completely confident in his plan of treatment and were taking Trip to a world reknown rheumatologist 10 hours away, things could have really turned nasty. But, they didn't. He humbly agreed to cooperate with Dr. Pachman's course of treatment and order anything that she requested so that he could be treated here in Little Rock. That's a good doctor! ..... and I have to mention, he's very easy to like since he reminds us so much of my brother Jeremy!

And last but certainly not least is our now good friend, Henrey in Day Medicine at ACH. When Trip's 4th Solumedrol infusion was administered by a 4th new nurse, I became a little frustrated. Having a needle poked into your chest is not easy on a 3yr old, especially when the person doing it is a strange new face every time. I had noticed Henrey working in the clinic every time we had been there so, when our nurse of the day had stepped out, I signaled Henrey over. I asked if he was a nurse and he proudly said "I'm an R.N." I explained that he was going to be seeing a lot of us and we'd love it if we didn't have a new nurse every single time so "Why can't you be our nurse?" He immediately kicked Christy out (who we now are also friendly with) and was our nurse from there out. I think the baked goods I took him every time helped too. ;) Henrey and Trip became buds and he became a reason to look forward to going to the hospital. Now that Trip is off Solumedrol, we just go to Day Medicine once a month for a port flush and labs. When we found out that Trip didn't need anymore Solumedrol treatments it was bittersweet- thrilled to be finished with IV meds but sad to not see Henrey and all of our DayMed friends: Katie, Christy, Gena, Gloria, and Courtney.

Thank you Dr. P, Dr. D, and Henrey! We love you and have been blessed by knowing you! We have you to thank for Trip's returned health.

Trippy Goes to the Hospital

Feeling well enough to visit the playroom on our floor.

Enjoying his new color changing cars brought by NeNe.

Enjoying games and crafts at ACH's Camp Wannaplay.

Leaving ACH with a traditional wagon ride.

Last winter, once in November and then again at New Years, Trip came down with a stomach bug that put him in the hospital a few days. For a healthy child, these illnesses wouldn't have been too big of a deal. But, if you have a port and are on immune suppressing drugs, minor illnesses have to be taken seriously. Since he has a port, if he runs a fever he has to be seen by a doc and have his port cultured to make certain it isn't a port infection. Port infections are rare but can be catastrophic, especially with a child that's already weakened. The port cultures take 48 to complete so they always go on and admit and begin antibiotics in case the culture comes back positive. Luckily, both fevers were just a result of a stomach virus and dehydration and he's been perfectly healthy since the last episode at New Years. I'm hoping that he'll be out of the woods enough by this winter to have his port removed before sick season sets in.

A Tangled Thanksgiving



Ruby, D-Daddy & Trip

YaYa & Ruby

We went to visit my family in Memphis over the Thanksgiving holiday and one of our highlights was going to see Tangled. 

6 Years Ago......



5 days old

3 years

6 years



Since today happens to be a very special day, let me pause briefly in the blog "catching up" and fast-forward momentarily......... 6 years ago today, also on a Friday, my water broke around 9 am, and we knew July 8th would be the day our first child entered the world. Happy Birthday to a little girl with a most fitting name- the brilliant and beautiful precious gem of our life, Ruby. You are indeed adored and treasured like a fine jewel that always brings a sparkle to our lives. We love you and are blessed beyond measure to share our days with you. Happy, happy birthday!!

Whit Pics 2010

 For the past several years every October we've had the pleasure of having annual family pictures taken by Whitney Loibner. Here are my faves from this year (ok, last year!)

Fall 2010

Memphis Zoo with YaYa

Mayflower Pumpkin Patch

In our fall tradition, painted pumpkins.

The kids were precious for Halloween- Ruby as a retro Strawberry Shortcake and Trip as a puppy.

Boo at the Zoo!

Alright, Alright Already

With 3 hospital stays, a sick son and hubby, having the house on the market, moving, the Holidays, becoming gluten-free, and going to Disney, a ridiculously annoying computer that never works just to name a few, the blog has been on the very far back burner. Now, with life finally settled down and a new computer, here is my first attempt in 9 months to bring this blog up to date......please, bare with me. This will be quite an undertaking.

In this post are some final pics from September 2010. Rex and I spent our 7th anniversary at Chuck E. Cheese south of Chicago on our back home. Good times!We enjoyed seeing Veggie Tales Live with Danny and Drew Mayer.