Lauren and Michael's Page

"Along unfamiliar paths I will guide you, I will turn the darkness into light before you and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do, I will not forsake you. Isaiah 42:16



Lauren and Michael both have several health problems. Lauren was diagnosed in July of 2002 with a very rare eosinophilic lung disease. This is an autoimmune disease where eosinophils (a white blood cell) attack her organs as they would an infection. Over the years we have found these cells are actually affecting four organs now. It has been a very long road that has lead us to specialists in Houston, Denver, Boston, Cincinnati, and now Cleveland. After going to the Cleveland Clinic, her doctors now realize Lauren has an even rarer systemic autoimmune disease called Churg-Strauss. There are only about 4-5 children in the world to ever be diagnosed with this disease, which makes the diagnosis and treatment very difficult. We are all very much walking in the darkness with this disease, but we know with God that the darkness can be turned into light. Shortly after we began finding out about Lauren's disease, Michael began breaking bones easily and getting sick frequently. Within a year we found out in 2006 he had osteogenesis imperfecta, the brittle bone disease and an immune deficiency. The numerous health problems both kids have have been difficult to deal with, but God has never left our side. It has only been by the grace of God that we have made it this far, and we know He will see us all the way through any trials we may face. We are hopeful that Lauren and Michael will find a treatment plan that will be effective, and allow them both to get on with life.

Journal

Tuesday, June 23, 2009 12:54 AM CDT

Wow. The summer is just flying by. I can't believe it is already almost the ned of June. School will be starting before I know it. Speaking of school. I ended up my first year of college with all A's. I have a 4.0, I am so proud. I really did not think my grades would be that good. The kids also both finished off their year with mostly all A's and just a couple of B's each. So we all had a good school year.

Lauren continued having Gi problems and bad blood counts we knew for sure her disease was flaring and Dr. Wasserman put her in the hospital at the end of May. He gave her a TON of steroids 4500mg!! The goal is to blast her and quickly put her back into remission. I think the disease probably is controlled now, but the nerve damage from the flare is slow to heal so she still has quite a bit of pain but it is a little better. The bad thing is with each flare there is more permanent damage and it may not heal completely, so hopefully she will get back to where she was or close to it. She also was found to have a large bleeding cyst on her ovary which has also lead to more pain. So we are going to get it checked again in the next couple of weeks to see if it is going away, and if not they will remove it. She is seeing a gyn tomorrow and we will see what she says.

She will start practice for drill team next month and it will be from 8-12 3 days a week, then in August it is 4 days a week. I am worried a little because they will be on the field the whole time, and from 10:00 on it is so hot. I just don't know how she will do. I may just have to pick her up early if it is too much, I just don't know how her couch will feel aboput it. They aren't aleays that understanding and feel if Lauren misses to much it will make the team suffer if she does not know her part. But she catches on faster than most girls and I just hope they won't complain if she needs to take a break. --She is still with her boyfriend Jacob. They have been together since the beginning of the year, and they seem to really care about each other. He has been so sweet with her being sick, and was determined to see her in the hospital, in fact most of his family came. His family has been great to Lauren too. Then Jacob has even come when she has infusions at home and sits with her while she gets them. We really like him, and they seem to be really serious about each other. So I guess we will just have to see where this goes.

As for Michael, he is strapped to video games all the time. Our house is the neighborhood hangout for all the kids and they all battle each other on the games. I tell you it is never quiet, they are always all yelling about those stupid games. I have to try and drag him off to go do anything. We all got season pasees to Six Flags and Hurricane Harbor. We go every week to give us all something to do. We are not going on vacation this summer which we are all sad about but we will plan on one next year.

Well I do have great news about Aaron. He got a job with Capitol One as a small business lending manager. He loves it. It is not near as stressful as his last job, and they are so big he room to move up. Whereas before he was kinda of stuck being right under the CFO,there was no upward mobility. But here there are so many depts, he can go into many areas. Well I need to run. Have a great summer.

Cindy

Hospital Information:

Medical City -aka our Dallas time share
Cleveland Clinic - aka our Cleveland time share
Cleveland, OH & Dallas, TX

Links:

E-mail Author: smoot732000@yahoo.com

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