About Us
Tom is a former U.S. Army Officer whose call sign was Sabre Red Tango.
Tom served with 2/2 ACR and 3/4 CAV in Germany before he got out in 1995 and we moved to the U.S.
Claudia was born and raised in Germany, and was a registered florist before she became a German - English - Spanish translator for the Adidas shoe company.
She worked on the Soccer shoe design team and translated as soccer stars would describe their perfect shoe.
We have four children, Tommy(16), Melissa(14), Christopher(8), and Nicholas(7), and enjoy gardening, soccer, and eBay.
Tom works as a Computer Systems Engineer while Claudia chases kids and has taken over most eBay responsibilities.
We really enjoy the freedom and excitement that come with selling on eBay.
We've got to meet (some personally!) many great people as our lives and theirs cross, if only for a single transaction.
Since 2006, our selling on eBay has taken on a more serious tone.
Outside of our immediate family, very few people know that Christopher was diagnosed in August of 2006 with a horrible debilitative disease called
Hunter Syndrome.
Rather than going into the details of his disease, we’d rather talk about his treatment over the last year.
About 1 week before he was diagnosed, the FDA approved Elaprase, a synthetic form of the enzyme that Christopher is missing.
So in January of 2007, Christopher started receiving weekly Enzyme Replacement Therapy infusions at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
As part of his workup for treatment, he had a series of baseline tests at Children’s that included a full body MRI.
The MRI showed that Christopher also suffered from compression of his spinal cord.
According to his neurosurgeon, they rarely are able to diagnose this problem until after permanent damage has been done.
Typically a "normal" child will simply start to trip more often, which the parents will attribute to clumsiness or growth spurts.
When the problem continues to get worse the parents finally take their child to their pediatrician, who refers them to the neurosurgeon.
But at that point, the spinal cord has already been irreversibly damaged.
In Christopher’s case, there was just the slightest bit of compression on his spinal cord and he had yet to demonstrate any symptoms.
In early February, 2007 Christopher had surgery to implant a catheter port under his skin to aid in his weekly therapy,
and then three weeks later he had surgery to remedy the spinal cord compression.
Specifically he had a posterior fossa decompression with a cervical laminectomy.
A posterior fossa decompression is the removal of the bone from the back of the posterior fossa, called the sub-occipital bone.
This helps make more room for the brain and the spinal cord.
A cervical laminectomy involves the removal of the bone forming the back of the vertebra or lamina.
Both procedures are done at the same time, through the same surgical incision in the back of the head and upper neck.
To say that his surgery went well would be an understatement; within 2 days he was back home,
and much to the chagrin of his parents and neurosurgeon, was performing headstands against the wall.
Christopher’s weekly infusion treatments have also been going well.
Each infusion takes about 3 hours, as 100ml of saline with 9ml of Elaprase is slowly pumped through his port and into his bloodstream.
In November, 2007 we were able to transition from Children’s Memorial to our home, so Christopher no longer has to miss school on Mondays to go to the hospital.
Instead the nurse is waiting for him when he gets off the bus, and he gets his treatment in our family room.
He has responded well to the medicine, and his liver, spleen, and kidneys have shrunk in size;
his facial features have also softened, and most of his skin lesions have disappeared.
One of the shortcomings of Elaprase is its inability to cross the blood-brain barrier.
Researchers are currently working on ways around this barrier, but in the meantime the medicine is unable to stop further mental impairment.
Another large issue is the cost of Elaprase, which is currently running in excess of $400,000 per year.
Our insurance is currently covering most of the cost, but at this rate we will meet our lifetime max of $1 million on this policy soon.
We use our eBay income to help cover our portion of the cost of his treatment.
We’re not sure where Christopher’s treatment is heading for the future; for now the plan is to continue his infusions indefinitely.
Christopher has been a fighter from the day he was conceived, overcoming obstacles along the way to lead a very happy, enthusiastic, and loving life.
And the Lord has given us all what we needed along the way,
from the courage to get up and continue each day in spite of his illness,
to a dramatic new treatment that was approved days before he was diagnosed, to a very lucky break with a potentially paralyzing spinal cord problem.
Here is a picture of Christopher (right) and Nicholas (left) all decked out in their Hannas for the first day of school:
Thanks for taking the time to read about us, and thank you for shopping with us!
Tom and Claudia
sabreredtango
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