One Last Visit to Iowa – A BBS Clinical Trial, and Good Friends

Dave, Lu and I left Dave’s family birthday/visitor week to head out for one last visit to Iowa. For a good doctor who is conducting a pretty exciting BBS clinical trial, and our good friends.

The birthday boy himself dropped us off at the airport…

And us “three musketeers” were off on another adventure.

You see, one of the leading doctors in vision research for those affected with Lucy’s syndrome, BBS, happens to practice at the University of Iowa hospital. Which happens to be about twenty minutes from where some of our best friends in the whole wide world are finishing their three years of mission service as Mission Leaders. How lucky is that?

University of Iowa for Lucy’s BBS Clinical Trial for Vision Research

This is the second time we’ve made the visit for University of Iowa Health Services with Dr. Drack. Lucy is part of Dr. Drack’s clinical study for vision research. And I was even more grateful for all this incredible doctor is doing to hopefully save/restore vision this time around. I’ve been thinking about vision loss and really how debilitating it is. You guys, it is awful. My heart is breaking for Lucy more and more as she tries to finish her senior year. And her vision continues to decline. I see her carrying so much heaviness as she yearns so much to run and jump and even just see the homework that is so easy for her classmates.

Can We Save Lucy’s Vision?

At this point we are grasping at straws to help Lucy’s vision. And to be honest, this research may not come in time to help her, specifically. Oh we are hoping with all that we’ve got that it does!! But we know by this point in the journey that research just takes time. And money. And more time. And more money. There’s so much that goes into it!

But if Lucy’s participation in any type of clinical study can help future BBS kids, even if it can’t help her, we’re all in.

Our Appointments

We had appointments starting early morning with Dr. Drack’s team. It was a follow-up from last year to see how much retinal health Lucy has retained. So hoping that she can maintain enough for possible future therapies. This girl had every test imaginable.

From eye exams, dilation, an exhausting amount of every kind of pictures taken of the eyes, electrodes attached to measure electric measurements, the pressure of the eyeballs… You name it, they did a test on it.

And Lucy was a champ, at least most of the time!

And so was Dave 🙂

We are so grateful for that awesome Dr. Drack and all she is doing to research BBS 10 kids. Not only is she doing incredible research, but she can make my daughter smile like this at the end of a LONG prodding and poking and testing day.

Incredible. We love you, Dr. Drack and team!! Praying this BBS clinical trial will bring great results some day for those suffering from this syndrome.

So grateful Dave and I got a chance to talk with her at the end there and ask all our biggest questions.

Visiting the Barneys

This is the fourth time we’ve been able to visit our friends in the three years they’ve been gone and we feel so lucky about that!

They were such a sight for sore eyes to meet up with for dinner after all those appointments.

And also, I’ll let you guess how excited Lucy was about their choice for dessert:

We loved being part of their world that night and the next day.

Because it was General Conference weekend, the missionaries they lead were busy with their own conference things. So although we didn’t get to see them, we did get a lot of good catch-up time with those people we love for the day we were there.

We mixed in some listening to conference that Saturday, and a little side-trip drive to the Amana colonies:

Can you tell how much Lucy adores these guys? She is picky about who she trusts and lets in, and the Barneys are among the tops. They are so, so good to her.

And to add sweetness to Lucy’s happiness, of course we played some good games the two nights we were there.

We stayed late talking through the world. These guys are among our favorites to do that with.

We love them so much. I wrote all about our history together last time we went to Iowa.

Needless to say, we can hardly wait for their return this summer.

And then we headed on home bright and early the next day, bleary-eyed and full of gratitude, en route back for Sunday General Conference at home.

Thank you, Iowa, for all the grand memories.