Brisan and Parker Stults | Living with Niemann-Pick Type C

Archive for the ‘Brisan’ Category

Brisan at CMH 2-18-11

On Saturday February 19th Brisan returned home from Children's Mercy Hospital. Jenn had taken him in on Wednesday evening with concerns form our carousel & his school nurse along with ours that something was going down. He had puffy cheeks, feet were swelling, and his abdominal area was pretty hard. Back in September, these were similar things that took place. We wanted to be cautious and even more proactive to prevent him from going into distress.

Jenn had asked for them to culture the inside of his g-tube hole but at the given time the consciences was that might not be the problem. Over the next day it did grow and sure enough it was another Staph infection. Along with that he has an upper respiratory infection of some kind going on to.

He is at home resting and appears he will be making a recovery with the antiobotics and game plan they've set fourth for us at home.

*Should be posting Parker & Duncan's birthday pictures soon! Also a news video of our family from a few years back.

Hi all, I know normally I am not the one that blogs but today I am. As I am sitting here in this blizzard watching the snow fall, I am thinking about Brisan and Parker. I often think about what they would be like if NPC was not taking them away from us. Would they be begging me to go outside and play in the snow like Duncan? Would they be watching the TV to see if school is canceled tomorrow? While Duncan is excited about the snow and spending time with Mommy and Daddy, Brisan and Parker really have no idea. But that is just our reality. They don’t even know what snow is anymore and don’t say Mommy or Daddy and have not for a long time.

Brisan and Parker Laughing

I find myself having a hard time dealing with this “reality”. I know in my head that everything happens for a bigger picture but when you are in the forest it is hard to see anything but the tree in front of you. But when you take a step back that is when you can see the whole forest and the bigger picture. I was once told that there is light at the end of the tunnel and it is not a train.

As I have been talking with some friends on facebook, I am slowly starting to learn thatI have to ask for help when I need help, I have to allow myself to feel these feelings and I have to rely on those that have sadly gone before me. None of those are easy for me to do. I am a very planned and organizing person. But let’s face it, Niemann-Pick Type C has a plan of its own and is not organized like I wish it was.

On a good note, we have a new member of the family, Jenna. Jenna is our new personal health aid that is working with the boys. I have to say that she is great with the boys and she loves them as her own. That is exactly what we need. She is always asking us questions, wanting to learn more and more about them, their story and NPC. More that I can say for 98% of the ones in the past.

While I am very sad at our crazy daily life, it for some reason makes me want to fight even harder. This is where we need help. We know that we can’t fight this battle alone. We just can’t. We need your help, awareness is key. If we can save one other family from having to even know what NPC looks like then I would feel successful. I have heard several times lately that I am NOT Super Woman and Mike is not SuperMan. (That also doesn't mean I wont try though.) There has to be some way to make Brisan and Parker’s life better than it is already and also find a cure/ treatment for this monster. That being said, I think we may do some finger painting today with all three boys.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Last note, “The King has one more move!” I don’t know what it is but I have to trust in him and know that it is all for His glory and Brisan and Parker will and are making adifference in this fight against NPC!

Last July 2010, my parents (Mike) helped organize a fundraiser for Brisan & Parker. During that time through mutual friends they were introduced to Hazel Kinder who lives in Columbia, MO. That is about 1-1.15 hrs from Kansas City. During the late 80's through the late 90's she lost 3 of her son's to Niemann-Pick Type C disease.

I can't imagine going through this whole situation during that time when the internet was just getting started and networking to find support with other families. We are thankful that she wanted to be apart of our story and journey.

KOMU.com out of Columbia, MO did a small story on the event.

We haven't wrote for a few weeks. I went out of town for work last week and Mr. Parker on the 8th turned the BIG # 5!

The new year has started off well. Things for work (Mike) have been going well and progressing nicely. Jenn has started her master classes for school. I know she is so excited (minus the homework). Still trying to find suitable insurance but the price tag is very scary. It is well more than our mortgage yet we know we have to make a decision as soon as possible.

Brisan has been doing much better but he did develop a rash around his port-a-cath this week which caused us not to be able to access his port for their DDVAP infusions this week. On that note…looks like they have made arrangements to keep the supply of the drug to us :). Thank you for your prayers! The rash is essentially a yeast infection. You don't want to risk injecting that into the bloodstream because of the risk of all kinds of non fun stuff for him. We are applying topical and an oral medication to get through it. Brisan is a funny boy…. cute as well. He doesn't like to take a nap and we are glad he is being  himself since we've got a hold on that previous eye infection.

Mr. Parker… oh Parker! We should be getting his new wheelchair anytime (like six months later). It is identical to Brisan's but his will be blue. Still issues with bleeding but they are much more controlled. Now that doesn't mean we can tame him during the times we need to get the bleeding to stop :(. He has been enjoying school but you can clearly see his struggles walking and transitioning to different services. End of last week I went up stairs to check on them and he was stuck on the floor in between his bathroom door and the hallway.   He doesn't know how to compensate to get up since he couldn't lean forward to gain leverage to be able to do so. Hard to imagine that 5 years ago we were blessed to have him!

Duncan's 3rd birthday is upcoming on the 28th this month! This boy is something else…oh wait, maybe normal for the most part? He never ceases to amaze us. One day I came down from upstairs and he said “Hi Dad, whats up?”. LOL We've been working on potty training with him. I think he owns more underwear than all females combined on our block. It's like he needs to make a fashion statement!

Duncan was evaluated for potentially going into a pre-k class like Parker but the school district is saying he isn't smart enough to be a peer model yet not “dumb” enough to be apart of the program. (No that wasn't there exact words). We felt he should qualify based upon other areas. He especially has two older brothers that are poor models for him to interact with. We would like to get him around other kids his age as much as possible. It would be nice if we didn't have to work to be around him all day and just have a blast with them all!

Thank you again for everything!

[cincopa AwAAEbaOqDwD]

Wow, it's 2011 already. Seems like we just were starting 2010 and feeling funny about writing “10” on the end of our dates. ha

Christmas was incredible this year and we have so many things to be thankful for! Brisan & Parker started school on the 4th. It feels very nice to be back into a routine of some sorts. I can tell they are happy to. We have some new medications to try this month which is always fun. I think they are walking experiment labs…

Duncan still is being a cute little boy. He walked up to Jennifer last night and hugged her saying “your best mommy'! Ahhhhhh We've been potty training him and he is making progress. Sometimes he would rather hold it. He's getting pretty close to the world record I think… JK.

For our non profit Niemann-Pick Children's Fund, we have some lofty goals this year. We also have some projects to help raise more awareness. No matter what, this all benefits everyone affected with Niemann-Pick Type C. So I hope others in our disease community and other groups realize that.

Thank you for a wonderful 2010 in praying, loving, and keeping us in your thoughts. We're humbled each and every day for the support you truly provide for us!

We have much to be thankful for this year. We've been overwhelmingly surprised by kindness this month and without going into detail we'd like to say THANK YOU!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!