TANNER LEE

Tanner is much like your typical nine year boy.  He loves hanging out with his friend, playing with Lego’s, Star Wars and Super Heroes.  He also loves teasing his big sister, Pria.  The thing that is different about Tanner is that he has trouble running, jumping, and kicking a ball.  He falls for what seems to be for no reason at all.

Tanner was born four weeks early in the early part of 2005.  He was welcomed in to the world by his dad Tony, mom Traci and his very excited big sister Pria.  Our family was so blessed and seems to be complete.  The doctors called him a miracle just moment after he was born.  You see I, his mom only felt Tanner kick maybe a handful of times during my pregnancy and Tony only felt him once just a week before he made his big débuted.  Tanner had a knot in his umbilical cord the size of a softball, and if he had gone full term the doctor said we most likely would have lost him.  This is just the beginning of Tanners miracle life.

When Tanner turned one his doctor was concerned something was not right.  So she ran a handful of test on him and to our surprise she was right.  Our happy perfect little boy was not so perfect on the inside according to the doctors.  After an eight day hospital say, a tissue biopsy, a blood transfusion and months of worry we were given the news that Tanner was born with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophies also referred to as DMD. To add to the worries of our family two weeks later Tanners sister, Pria was diagnosed with a very rare condition called Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis, or RRP. 

After coming to terms with what seemed to be the worst news our family could have been given about both our children we refocused and realized our purpose is to give the children the best possible life we could.  We researched and found the best care for Pria was right here in our home town of San Diego.  Unfortunately, that was not the case for Tanner.  We learned that one of the best DMD clinics is in Cincinnati, Ohio.  So we now travel every year to Ohio to give him the best, just as we have for his sister.

Tanners life has been a miracle form the very beginning and every day we see how the Lord has blessed our family with this miracle child.  It is our hope and prayer that someday Tanner will run, jump and kick that ball.  But until that day comes we are committed to giving him and his sister the best we can and pray like crazy for a mighty miracle of healing.

In 2011 Tanner was selected to be part of the GSK Exon 51 Clinical Trail.  We have spent so much time praying for this drug to help not just Tanner, but all families affected by DMD.  After months on and off the “dosage” we learned that Tanner was indeed receiving high dosage of the GSK drug, now known as Prosensa.  We saw the improvement this drug was making in Tanner’s life and are holding onto hope that this drug will be pushed through and be able to be given to Tanner and other just like him.