Family Stories
Respite Spotlight: The Campbells Find Freedom at the House on the Bay
It’s Friday morning, five days into the Campbell family’s week at the Believe In Tomorrow House on the Bay, and Jessica Campbell feels no need to rush out the door and jump into the wealth of activities offered to families who stay at Believe In Tomorrow beach respites. Instead, she explains, she’s taking the morning slowly.
Just yesterday, she floated down Frontiertown’s lazy river with her son, Tayshaun Campbell, propped on her lap to keep the water from getting into his central line. Before that, she brought Tayshaun, almost 3, to chase the waves at the beach and ride on a boat for his first time.
“If you want to hang out on the beach and not be bothered or if you want to be as busy as you can, you can do all the activities that they [Believe In Tomorrow] provide,” says Jessica.
For the Campbells, a U.S. Air Force family originally based in New Mexico, this freedom while staying at Believe In Tomorrow’s third beach respite facility in the Ocean City, Md. area allowed rejuvenation in the midst of restrictive moves and hospital arrangements while doctors tried to diagnose and treat their son.
Jessica says that as a military family, “You move around a lot, but it’s not always places you want to go, so you kind of get stuck. But being here … we were kind of able to do something out of our normal routine.”
The family’s “normal” routine involved a move (again) from their new home in Washington State across the United States to Frederick, Md., Jessica’s hometown, so her family could help her care for Tayshaun for four months while her husband, Taurence Campbell, was deployed in Kurdistan. Tayshaun has severe combined immunodeficiency, a disease commonly referred to “bubble boy disease’, where the immune system is suppressed. This can result in serious infections early in life.
When Tayshaun was diagnosed at almost 2, doctors recommended a bone marrow transplant.
“That would be the way to cure it, to kind of replace his immune system,” says Jessica.
Tayshaun received the bone marrow transplant in June 2008, just two months after his diagnosis. The actual diagnosis didn’t happen so quickly. The Campbells began taking Tayshaun to the hospital for tests in June 2007.
“We would hear about tests and go research it on the Internet and start crying because we would see they were so bad – and then we would find out that wasn’t it!” says Jessica of the emotional roller coaster the family rode while waiting for test results.
When their New Mexico hospital couldn’t come up with a diagnosis, the Campbell’s looked to move to an area with a more advanced hospital, where Taurence could continue his work with the military. They hoped to end up on the East Coast, where both parents’ families live. But soon they realized a move to Washington State for regular visits to a Seattle hospital was the only answer.
In addition the sacrifice of moving further away from family, Taurence, who was looking to make a career move after previous time served, reenlisted in order to ensure medical coverage for his son.
After the June transplant, Taurence received orders to deploy January 2009. He could have chosen to postpone the deployment, but considering the short duration of assignment and location, the Campbells weren’t sure they wanted to try their luck at another assignment. Plus Tayshaun was doing really well, well enough that when social workers at Walter Reed hospital approached Jessica about respite, she took them up on the offer.
“It was a well-needed vacation from just the doctors,” says Jessica, still impressed by the week’s activities. “We can’t forget about the medicines, but it’s just nice to forget about the other stuff.”
Jessica says she started the week with a barbeque at the Believe In Tomorrow House By The Sea, where she and Tayshaun connected with the Reid family from New Zealand while mingling on the back deck.
The water is too cold for Tayshaun to go in due to his weak immune system, but he still spent days at the beach, running from the ocean’s ebb and flow and playing with his cousin, who came as a companion since Tayshaun is an only child.
Tayshaun also enjoyed the wind in his face as he took his first boat ride to fish and sightsee. Fascinated by the boat, he climbed right into the chairs on the bow and took in the breeze.
While Jessica and family still have a few more days to go before they head back to Frederick – and eventually back to Washington State to reunite with Taurence, who is recently back from duty – they already feel the benefits of a beach respite, benefits they never could have imagined while on the roller coaster of treatment and diagnosis.
Says Jessica: “I never would have thought of doing anything like this with him. It’s a getaway we would never have done without Believe In Tomorrow. Everyone is feeling the economy right now. And with all the activities, it’s been a great opportunity for us.”