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This week, Kami shares her journey as a medical mom to her son Landry, a 28-week micropreemie born after a pregnancy complicated by preeclampsia. Landry has severe BPD and is trach, vent, and G-tube dependent. But none of that defines who he is—he’s been a fighter since day one, and his mom and dad have been right beside him every step of the way.

Kami opens up about the chaos of those early NICU days, including transferring hospitals when Landry was just 3 days old, the devastation of reintubation, and sitting through palliative care discussions. She also shares about the moment she decided to move forward with tough medical decisions:

“It was devastating to have to reintubate him. I saw a part of my kid I’d never seen before with the CPAP mask. I got to hold him and love on him. So when his doctor asked if I had ever thought about him getting a trach, I said, ‘Let’s do it. I’m ready to hold him.’”

Her love for Landry shines through in every part of this conversation. She reminds me so much of so many of our past co-hosts—all of us parents with one shared goal: getting our kids better.

We talk about what it was like to move her son from Florida to Ohio to receive specialized care, and the stress of advocating for your child when everything feels urgent and you’re desperate for answers. We also reflect on the beauty of holding our preemies for the first time, the emotions that come with making high-stakes medical decisions, and how difficult it can be to advocate for your child when they need you the most.

Kami is an honest, tough, and loving mom. And she’s a reminder of how resilient medical moms are—and how far we’ll go to give our kids a fighting chance.

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This episode is all about bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) — not from a medical textbook, but from two moms who’ve been living it for over two years. Tori and I share how we’ve come to understand our sons’ diagnoses of severe BPD: what it is, how it shows up, what treatments our kids have needed, and what we’ve learned from being in the trenches of the ICU for almost 2 years.

We explain things in the way they were explained to us, in layman’s terms. From symptoms and types of mechanical ventilation, to why we both hate blood gases and what we’d advocate for or against, this episode is for parents trying to wrap their heads around this complex diagnosis.

Just because your child receives a BPD diagnosis doesn’t mean they’ll end up trached and vented — there is a wide range of severity, and every child’s path looks different. What we do want to share is hope: our boys both had severe BPD, and we’re so grateful they’ve made it through hospitalization. The good news? These kids can grow out of this disease with time, lung development, and the right support.

We also talk about the importance of individualized care, how to advocate for your child, when to consider transferring hospitals for higher-level care, and what we learned from being at a specialized BPD unit. This isn’t the medical deep-dive — we hope to bring you that in the future — but it is a real and practical conversation from two moms who’ve walked this path.

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When your child is hospitalized—especially far from home—everything changes. Whether your stay is just a few days or nearly 700, you need more than a bed. You need care, consistency, and people who understand what you’re going through. That’s exactly what Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Ohio provides.

In this episode, I sit down with Kate, Chief Program Officer, and Abby, House Manager, at the largest Ronald McDonald House in the world, located right across the street from Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

There are 265 Ronald McDonald Houses in the U.S. and over 385 worldwide. These homes are typically located next to children’s hospitals and exist to keep families close to the care their children need. RMHC of Central Ohio offers much more than housing: meals, laundry, therapy dogs, sibling spaces, art rooms, community events, and even salon services—entire systems of support for both short- and long-term stays.

All of this care is made possible entirely through donations and volunteers. The Columbus community has built something remarkable—and people like Kate and Abby are carrying out a powerful mission every single day.

We talk about what families can expect during a stay, how RMHC helps relieve the mental and financial stress of having a hospitalized child, and the deep impact this support has on caregivers. We also highlight the heart behind the work—why the smallest milestones matter and how celebrating families is part of the healing, too.

This episode is about what it looks like to witness a positive, compassionate charity in action—even in the hardest moments.

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