A little bit of mystery surrounded by a lot of love!
THE STORY OF LANDON FRANCIS BY ANDREA HURR PHOTOS BY JULIAN CURET
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hat do you do when your child is considered a “mystery boy”? When doctors believe there is something more going on, but they have been unable to figure out what exactly it is? For Ashlee and Jared Francis, this is their reality. Their 3-year-old son Landon is this “mystery boy”. They will not stop trying to figure out his full diagnosis or what is going on with him, nor will they ever stop loving him and being his advocate. A little backstory… At around 6 months old Landon was not meeting all of his milestones. After many referrals to doctors of various specialties, he was diagnosed with severe hypotonia (weak muscle tone), global developmental delay, level 3 autism (level 3 requires substantial support and is characterized by severe challenges in social communication as well as extremely inflexible behavior), obstructive sleep apnea, issues with chromosome 16 (many genetic conditions are related to problems with the genes on chromosome 16), and most recently epilepsy.
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While this list of diagnoses for their 3-year-old seems overwhelming, the most frustrating thing is that Landon’s doctors believe that there is something else going on, but no one can seem to figure it out. The Francis family has even driven all the way to Missouri Children’s Hospital and spent a week undergoing tests and visits with the doctors there, but still have no answers. Landon is in an Undiagnosed Disease Network. Adding to all the question marks surrounding Landon, he is nonverbal and cannot crawl or walk. He is unable to effectively communicate to his parents how he is feeling or what he needs. Despite all of these obstacles, Ashlee says that “he is a happy little guy, and nothing will stop him”. Landon has two sisters, Chloe (7) and Isabella (10). They are a huge part of his life and Landon absolutely adores them. As a family they are doing their best to address his needs with speech, occupational, and physical therapies as well as tackle each diagnosis as best they can while remaining positive. “It ain’t easy, but my motto is: If your kid is smiling,
