The Longevity Formula

The Miracle Baby Who Shattered Medical | The Longhenry Family

• Dr. Brandon Crawford • Season 2 • Episode 57

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Dr. Brandon Crawford sits down with Bill, Meghan, and Theo Longhenry to share the miraculous journey of their daughter, Millie, who was born with alobar holoprosencephaly (HPE)—a severe, often fatal brain malformation. Despite being placed on hospice and told she had no hope of development, Millie's life is a living testament to the convergence of faith, neuroplasticity, and regenerative medicine.

The Longhenry family offers a raw, faith-fueled perspective on confronting an impossible diagnosis. They recount the emotional trauma of being told by medical experts to "take her home and prepare for her to die" and the subsequent decision to reject a "comfort-only" path, choosing instead to pursue aggressive, unconventional healing methods. The conversation highlights the foundational role of faith, particularly the family's reliance on Psalm 23, which Millie visibly responds to with profound joy.

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Dr. Brandon Crawford: There are stories that make you question what's possible, and then there are stories like this one where the impossible becomes undeniable. When Megan, bill Long Henry were told their newborn daughter Millie had a low bar holo pros celi, a rare brain condition with no medical solution. They were also told to take her home and prepare for her to die.

But they didn't give up and they found a path forward. What followed was a journey fueled by faith, guided by, let's say, unconventional science and grounded in the belief that Millie's life still had a story to tell Through laser therapy, developmental, functional neurology, regenerative medicine, and relentless love.

Millie began doing things that no one thought she could or ever would. This episode isn't just about a diagnosis, it's about defiance. It's about parents who would not accept. There's nothing more than what we can do, and it's about a little girl whose life is living proof. That healing sometimes begins where conventional medicine is.

I'm Dr. Brandon Crawford. This is the Longevity Formula.

Voice Over: Welcome to the Longevity Formula with Dr. Brandon Crawford. Let's explore the new era of wellness.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Well, guys, thanks for joining me. I am really excited to talk to you today. I want today to be a really profound dialogue. I think there's a lot of people that need to hear your story, that need to hear Millie's story.

So I guess my first statement is don't hold back. We're, we can edit anything out. Feel free to, to be as blunt or whatever, you know, say, say whatever comes to mind and let's, you know, really get to the heart of Millie's story, your story, and you know, really share this with the world because it needs to be shared.

Fair enough?

Meghan Longhenry: Yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Awesome. before we really dive in how's Millie doing today? Like really, how, how is she doing?

Meghan Longhenry: Am I mean, amazing. I think that we were told she would have a very short life and that's not even something we question anymore. Like, we know she's gonna live a long, full life and we're just excited to be a part of like each step of the journey.

And I think with Millie, one thing that's really cool is that we really have to stop and take everything for what it is, and we get to count every single blessing blessings that we would maybe overlooked in. Theo and, and nieces and nephews because it wasn't something that we ever had to focus on.

But I mean, we get to focus on every smile, every head control, every movement that she can do, anytime she can move her arm and, and all that, we get to really count those blessings.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah. I think it's easy to take those things for granted, you know, even definitely myself and my own kids.

Right. Even though I, I get to work with kiddos like Millie and kiddos that have struggles, you know, of course that gives me a different perspective. And so, but still, you know, yeah, I, I take things for like that for granted too. Yeah. What is she into these days? Like, what makes her laugh? What makes her smile and interact and like what?

What's she into?

Bill Longhenry: She loves to dance. One of her,

Dr. Brandon Crawford: she loves to dance.

Bill Longhenry: One of her absolute favorite things is when we sing and dance and jump around. And her brother. Just pops around the corner and kind of scares her a little bit. She loves that. It's so weird lately. Lately like just since we've been here her like, it seems like her most favorite thing in the whole world.

Is when her brother gets in the car next to her, like the strangest thing, which she just like screams and jumps and yeah, screams with joy giggles and

Meghan Longhenry: yeah,

Bill Longhenry: not like, just like a little giggle, but like a, a big, a big, like the most joyful little sister giggle just for her brother to get in the car next to her.

It's, it's the weirdest thing. But yeah, she loves that. You love your brother, don't you? And yeah she loves to watch any, any TV and they told us too that because of her brain that she most likely wouldn't be able to like, recognize images or see things, but she's very picky with the TV shows that she watches.

And if we put on the wrong TV show, she yells, she yells at us until we, until we ask her, which one do you want? Do you want this one instead? And then she'll say. Uh Huh And then we changed the, the show for her. So,

Meghan Longhenry: but I think it's funny 'cause even like at church when she has the option to watch the real live thing or the tv, she watches the tv.

Yeah. We're like, it's right there. But I would say her favorite thing of all is Psalm 23.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I was gonna say, come on.

Bill Longhenry: Yeah.

Meghan Longhenry: Anytime, Millie. I mean, we don't only use it when she's upset, but when she's upset she will stop her like hysterical cry and just like burst out laughing.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Mm-hmm.

Meghan Longhenry: And I just think that's still fun to watch the Holy Spirit work in her.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah.

Bill Longhenry: When she was,

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Do you wanna recite some Psalm 23 for me?

Bill Longhenry: Yeah, when, when she was born we knew there were some problems, but we didn't know the extent of the issues. Bless you, you. And once we found out it was that silly, once we found out what was going on and that she was put on hospice and she only had a few weeks to live Millie and I started learning Psalm 23 together.

I had, you know, heard it before, but I had never really learned it. And we, we started reading it every night together and we'd go on walks and I would read it and we would listen to it together. And eventually it just kind of became something that we learned together. And when I say it now, she usually tries to say it back with me.

And it's just something that brings us both so much comfort and joy.

Millie, can you help me say Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me light down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his names sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of doubt, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Amen.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Well, I think we can stop recording now.

Bill Longhenry: Yes.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That kind of summed it up. The interesting thing is that is the least animated I've ever seen,

Bill Longhenry: yeah.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: When you've recited that.

Meghan Longhenry: Yeah. He's usually, he's usually dancing and fully acting it out.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yep. So, you kind of alluded to, you know, a little bit about what was said initially, you know, after Millie was born.

So for those listening that have not heard of this thing called alobar holoprosencephaly, you want to kind explain to me or to the audience what the doctors told you about it initially?

Meghan Longhenry: Could we let Theo tell

Bill Longhenry: we could,

Meghan Longhenry: because I think he'd think that was fun to say.

Theo, do you wanna tell us about Millie's brain? Okay.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: speaking into this little deep,

Theo Longhenry: so Noe was born with a rare brain malformation where part of her brain did not develop, and the part that did, did not develop correctly. She's given four to six months to live, and she is now over two years old, and she's not supposed to laugh, talk, smile, see live, speak, anything.

She's not supposed to do anything. And she's not, she's now doing pretty much everything. If she has, if she could catch her balance, she'll be walking and crawling already. And I would say that we just pro proven the doctors wrong. We've done everything that the doctor said she couldn't do. Pretty much.

She ride, she crawls on one of the scooters. She, she even helped picks the show She wants to watch, like they're just talk, like my parents are just talking about. And, millie's just a miracle. There's nothing that could prove that could prove Jesus as the Lord than more than Millie. She's just a miracle.

She should not be living right now. She should already be. She should have died before she was born. She, she's just crazy. It's just crazy. It makes us all really proud of her and now we've been going to NeuroSolution and that's just been fixing her and it's just, God,

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I think you're the only one that could tell that story with the dry eye.

So when when your sister was born and the doctor said all that stuff. What'd you think about that?

Theo Longhenry: Well, it made me really upset when my parents told me about that because my sis, they told me that my sister was gonna die in a few months, and she was already two months older than we found that she was given four to six months to live.

So we thought that she had two or four more months before she had to die. And then when they said that we had to do surgery, we did not accept it. And then this happened. It's really hard to explain, but it's just crazy.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Did you really, like when they said that, did you, did you know she was not gonna die?

Theo Longhenry: No, I thought she was.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: You thought she was,

Theo Longhenry: they made it really clear that that was gonna happen. Mm. And now she's just, I'm probably saying this so much times, but she's just a miracle. Yeah.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: It's,

Theo Longhenry: it's crazy.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Why do you think God is allowing her to grow and develop the way that she is?

Theo Longhenry: Probably because since there's a few, there's a, a lot of people that don't believe in Jesus and so he's just using her to make people believe, because everybody thought that was impossible for her to live every single doctor.

And now Jesus proved them wrong. She's over probably over two years and they said that she was gonna be. And my sisters just makes people believe Mo makes more people believe in Jesus. So I think that's why Jesus let her live so that that could happen.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That's powerful.

Theo Longhenry: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: What's your favorite thing about your sister now?

Theo Longhenry: Well, everything but my favorite. I would say that probably my favorite thing is that she's able to have conversations and listen and talk to us and read some books with when we're together.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah. So

Theo Longhenry: like speaking,

Dr. Brandon Crawford: does she ever get on your nerves like a little sister should?

Theo Longhenry: Well, kind of.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: How many diapers do you change a day? Zero. Oh, okay.

Theo Longhenry: My, my, I would say my dad sometimes does two to three.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Okay. Two.

Meghan Longhenry: Two

Theo Longhenry: to

Dr. Brandon Crawford: three.

Theo Longhenry: One

Meghan Longhenry: more. Tell 'em about, tell 'em about when you read the book to her.

Theo Longhenry: And one of the books that I read to her is Never Touch a Dragon. That's just her favorite book.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: But then in the book, it's like, touch the Dragon.

It's so confusing. I don't get it.

Theo Longhenry: It says, never Touch a Dragon except for in this stuff. Except

Dr. Brandon Crawford: for in this book. Okay. In the.

Theo Longhenry: In the back.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: What does she do when you read the book?

Theo Longhenry: Reads it with Me.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That's awesome. How long has she been doing that?

Theo Longhenry: A few months.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Wow. Is that her favorite book?

Theo Longhenry: Yes, a hundred percent her favorite book.

Nice.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That's awesome. Yeah. Is that your favorite one? Is there anything else you wanna tell me about your sister?

Theo Longhenry: It's kind of funny that sometimes when you go in the, sometimes she will react to something like, when I scare her, she jumps and then laughs about it. I think that's kind of a little, I think that's a little crazy. And I, one thing I really, another thing I really like about her is that she just, she makes us happy.

She makes me really happy when I'm sad. When I'm sad, she cheers my day up. She's just my, she's just my, she's like my best friend I've ever had.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah.

Theo Longhenry: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Where'd all this deep knowledge you have come from?

Theo Longhenry: Mm.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: You're like a old wise man over here. You've got a deeper understanding of all of this than anyone else have ever spoken to.

Theo Longhenry: Oh, that's crazy. It's cool too.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: You know, it would be really fun. What if you had a little brother?

Theo Longhenry: Yeah, I mom is pregnant with one, so I do

Dr. Brandon Crawford: You excited about that? Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Very cool. Well, man, Theo, you, you really laid it out for us. I mean, you're right. No one could articulate that as well as Theo.

I. Good job, little brother. Thanks, big brother. Sorry. Awesome. Say how old Theo is. Oh, how old are you, Theo?

Theo Longhenry: Nine.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Nine. Goodness. Nine. Going on 60.

Meghan Longhenry: He's like, yeah,

Dr. Brandon Crawford: just turned nine a couple weeks ago. Oh my goodness. Okay, so, so you really laid out the whole concept of alobar holoprosencephaly. Right. So this is a condition where the brain does not fully develop.

It's defined where the two hemispheres did not grow together. And I mean, you, you really were very accurate. You know, they, they tell you that the person is not gonna be able to see, they're not gonna be able to talk, they're not gonna be able to have voluntary movement or really interact with people in a meaningful way.

And clearly Millie is. Which is amazing. And you know, part of it, when I, when I talk to colleagues, right, and they ask me about Millie or, you know, they start, you know, we start talking about Millie's case. You know what they always say? Every single one of them, at the end of our conversation, they say they must have got the wrong diagnosis.

I'm like, did, did you see the images? I'm like, it's not the wrong diagnosis. It's just this is what it happen, number one, when Jesus moves through you, when the Holy Spirit moves through you, right? And allows for your life to, to flourish in a way that we don't humanly understand, right? Because she can do things that she should not be able to do because she's missing those parts of the brain, but yet she's able to do it.

So it's a great testament yes to the power of faith, to the power of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit. It's also a testament to the concepts of neuroplasticity, which is telling us that the brain can mold and change and there's a rich history you know, going well, I won't get too academic, but Bach-y-Rita was one of the first, you know, to really use neuroplasticity clinically when he rehabbed first his dad that had a stroke and then he rehabbed a cerebellar stroke using different pathways basically retrained pathways in the brain to do things that the injured pathways, you know, no longer could do.

So. But Millie's story is just to a whole nother level, so quite amazing. What do you, what do you think, Millie, what do you wanna say?

Yeah. So let's go to you know, the first time you guys came into the office, what were you expecting or hoping me to say?

Bill Longhenry: Well, the first time that. We had heard about you, you know, it was, it was through Instagram.

So we didn't really know what to expect and we were considering a couple of different places. You know, NeuroSolution wasn't the only option we were considering. And actually the other, the other place we called was a, a place in California, and we kind of told 'em about Millie's case and we said, you know, we're, we're considering a couple options.

And they said, they actually said You should, you should consider NeuroSolution in Austin. Like, we didn't even bring you up. They, they said, you know, I think you'd be better suited in NeuroSolution in Austin. And we're like, okay, well that is one of the other places. So that kind of cements it. And so when we got there, we didn't, I, I didn't really understand what you guys did very well.

I knew you guys used lasers, but I really didn't, I didn't understand any of it. And, you know, that's why I say continuously that the stuff you guys do isn't, and I, I don't mean to undermine it in any way, but the stuff you guys do is not complicated. Or like, like somebody walking in isn't gonna look at it and think that it's some crazy, like, out of this world thing.

Like it's, it's very simple stuff. You're just helping children move in the way that their bodies are designed and the way that their brains. Are supposed to recognize those signals to those parts of the body. And that, that sounds complicated, but I mean, it's really just a matter of helping someone roll over or helping someone sit up or helping somebody to reach for a flashing light.

And it's just helping to train the brain to be able to do those things and recognize those signals. And there's so much like science behind all of it, but when you're watching it happen, it's, it's really like, oh, of, of course, like this makes perfect sense. And yeah, I think it's a

Meghan Longhenry: lot of things that, that you wouldn't commonly expect to do or think to do.

And then once you explain it, they're like, oh, well, duh. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Let's add vibration to wake that part up or let's, you know, yeah. There. I think it is very complex

Bill Longhenry: ab absolutely.

Meghan Longhenry: But it can be so simplified Exactly. For us to understand. But I think when we first came to NeuroSolution, I, we were just talking about this the other day, how like, so naively we thought this was a one time visit.

Like, I don't know why we thought that.

Yeah.

Quickly we learned that's not how that works.

Bill Longhenry: Yeah.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I wish. Yeah.

Meghan Longhenry: Right.

Bill Longhenry: Well, we didn't really understand that. It was like a, like a physical therapy type of a thing. Like we thought it was like a, like we didn't know really what to expect, you know? We thought it was like a one time thing, you know, do some laser or something.

And

Dr. Brandon Crawford: that's a common misconception, you know? Yeah. People are like, I've literally had people tell me, I vividly remember this, this guy, he was going 90 miles an hour. He ran off the side of the road, flew through the windshield, okay. Massive brain injury. He was probably 30 ish years old, and he's in a wheelchair in front of me.

And I always ask people, as you probably remember, what are your goals specifically for today? And then moving forward, like, what are your short term, long-term goals? And he said, I want you to shine that laser on my head and I wanna walk outta here. And I'm like,

Meghan Longhenry: oh, okay. All right.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Let's back up a little bit.

Yeah. But you know that, that is, you know, largely what I'm known for is lasers and that's good. But at the heart of what we do is developmental functional neurology, so yeah. Yes, it is different forms of sensory motor activities where we're stimulating the brain trying to evoke positive neuroplasticity, growth maturation in the brain.

We have to do that, you know, the concepts of developmental functional neurology is that we want to do everything in the correct order, with the correct timing, with the correct intensity and duration and frequency and everything so that we can do this how the brain was designed to develop. Right? So I always use the example, you know, if you take a, you know, three month old baby and you stand 'em up to walk, or they're not, they're not gonna walk.

You know, they're not ready structurally, they're not ready neurologically. So we have to follow the blueprint, how the brain was designed to develop. And that's true at any age. You know, if, if an adult comes in with an injury, you know, I have to figure out, well, do I need to make a crawl first before they walk?

Meghan Longhenry: What a blessing. That we're not left alone. Yeah. Right. Like one visit, we would just be alone. Then when we go home and, and I think one of the awesome things about NeuroSolution is the, the way,

Theo Longhenry: the

Meghan Longhenry: love,

Theo Longhenry: the caring.

Yeah. The everything that they do to help us.

Meghan Longhenry: They feel like family.

Theo Longhenry: Yeah.

Meghan Longhenry: Yeah. And I, they don't just do that for us. They, they do that. I don't know how you built that team so well. But it isn't something that just, we feel it's something that everyone feels when they go there. Yeah. We've gotten to talk to many people and hear their stories and that they all say that too. But I do remember it's, it will forever be ingrained in my brain. The first from the first visit, I remember you sitting in with us. And looking, looking at Millie. And first you assessed Millie. And we talked and then we pulled out the MRI and you walked out. And we were like, okay. But I do remember you saying like, this is the most fascinating brain you'd ever seen. And that it didn't match what she was doing. And, and you said, I know you think you understand that Millie's a miracle, but you don't understand how much of a miracle she really is.

Bill Longhenry: And I think too that there's a lot of parents out there and a lot of children out there with similar cases where it's, you know, very extreme and they've heard, you know, horrible things and they've been given no hope.

And one thing that happened with Millie when we started looking for help you know, we, we didn't find out about her condition until she was two months old. She was almost two months old. And everyone we spoke to said, there is nobody that can help you. There is, there is nothing out there for this diagnosis.

the, the only thing you can do is comfort her in her last few weeks and just try to, you know, enjoy the, these final moments. 'cause she's not gonna continue to develop. So many parents out there that are going to trust that because they are the experts.

They are the ones that we go to for answers. And when they give us answers, like there is no hope. We're supposed to believe that that's, that's what we're supposed to believe, because they're supposed to be the ones that we can trust. Yeah. And it's what, what is hurtful to me is that after we got done going to NeuroSolution the first time, and we came back again, we said, well, we just used these simple modalities and it's making a really big difference.

Oftentimes they'll say, we know about those modalities, we're just not allowed to tell you about them. So they know about these things. Wow. And they know, like you do

Meghan Longhenry: sign an oath or make oath saying Do no harm. How is that not harmful?

Bill Longhenry: They know about these things and they don't tell you about them and to admit that you knew about them afterwards is, is even more hurtful.

But the parents out there that have children with similar conditions, you know, I, I want Millie's story to be an inspiration to pursue treatment and pursue hope because mm-hmm. I think a lot of times hope feels like something that is too far gone and it's, it's not, and it's gotta be something that starts with your heart and you gotta just believe that there's, you know, you gotta believe that there's healing out there that's worth pursuing and yeah. God is

Meghan Longhenry: bigger than the diagnosis.

Bill Longhenry: Yeah. And I, I, I love that. In the, in the. I don't even know what it's called. The, like the advertisement that you put out there. You said hope is more than just a word.

It's a promise or something like that. And yeah, it, when you walk into NeuroSolution, just the feeling that you get when you just walk in the building, it is, Jesus is already like crazy more than words can describe. You just walk in and you're like, I know this is gonna change our life. And you just believe it.

Like, you just feel it

Theo Longhenry: and look what all that has done to my sister.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Mm-hmm. Yep. And she's got a lot of room left to go. One thing. That's the great part. Yeah. So the great part because I, I get to see a lot of patients right, is I don't see plateaus in your sister. She just gets better and gets better and gets better and gets better.

I mean, there's ups and downs. I,

Meghan Longhenry: yeah,

Dr. Brandon Crawford: of course, as with everyone, but she's still improving

Bill Longhenry: We, we just met with a doctor recently and they once again affirmed that Millie was gonna go into organ failure and die. And like, but she not, that just happened. And like, we have to cancel those things out and we have to say like, you know, we, we do not accept these words into our life.

Like words matter and words have a consequence to saying them. And when you use positive words of affirmation, those words matter. And when you speak negative words. Those words matter. And I think that one of the best things we did was we, we stopped accepting all of these words of, you know, she's only gonna do this or she's not gonna do this.

And, and we said, we're gonna pursue hope and we're gonna pursue treatment and we're gonna find someone who can help us. And, and I think that's when her life turned around. Mm-hmm. Like be, even before we got to NeuroSolution, like we noticed a change and NeuroSolution just amplified that.

Meghan Longhenry: When I think you taught us that, I think you taught us how to have those conversations with the doctors and to hear what they have to say and then say, thank you for your opinion and move on.

I mean, I think we go through a six month cycle. Where we, we go to the doctor, we panic, then we, we panic, call you, freak out then, right? Then we finally get back to NeuroSolution. Like it all calms down and then we do it again. And we just finally said like, mm-hmm we have to change that, right? Like, we're not gonna stay in that loop

Theo Longhenry: Everything that my dad just said is literally proof that don't always trust doctors. Always, always believe and trust in the Lord, in the Christ, the savior of, and father of all of us. He made all the animals he even chose to gave to give us the brain injury or.

The stuff that, or when you get hurt or cut, he chooses that to happen.

Bill Longhenry: Well, I don't, I don't think that God ever intends for us to have harm done to us. It is a, it's a consequence of sin. Yeah. And because of sin, our bodies, our bodies are no longer perfect. But we were designed perfectly. Yeah. And then, and then immediately after we fell into sin, our bodies started a process.

Where they were no longer perfect. And I think that that over time continues to get worse and worse and worse. They, they say that there's a concept called evolution, where things continue to evolve and get better and better. But I, I would say that Christians believe in the opposite. We believe in de-evolution that since the beginning we were perfect.

And since then things have only gotten worse and our bodies are consistent of DNA, and that is a cellular structure that our bodies contain. And as we progress, our bodies are gonna get further and further away from that, that state of perfection. And the really cool thing is that we're starting to understand what our bodies need and what our bodies were developed to use for energy and for growth.

And one of the biggest things that our bodies need, that we've been really lacking on is just a concept of light. That's where a lot of these lasers come in, and that's why they're so impactful in Millie's life is because we know that yeah, light has a really big impact on the cells of your body and it's helping to heal the DNA in her body.

Mm-hmm. Which was, which was broken because of sin. Not because God chose that, but because we chose not to obey him.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I know a guy that just lectured on that recently.

Bill Longhenry: De-evolution?

No. Light. Light. Oh, light.

This is not a good thing that Millie has a brain injury, but God can make good things come from it. God can use this for his good, even though God does not intend for Millie to have this. And God does not want Millie to have to go through any of this, but God can still use it for his good.

Meghan Longhenry: He blesses her and us through it.

Bill Longhenry: I love the story of Gideon because I think the story of Gideon is a really cool example for us on how we're supposed to live our lives.

Because with the story of Gideon, he was just this regular guy, and he was hiding in a cave threshing wheat. Mm-hmm. He was, he was hiding.

Theo Longhenry: Yeah. And then God came out, well, hold on. And caught him. Hold on. A mighty warrior.

Bill Longhenry: Yeah. Well, you're, you're stealing my thunder. So he's just this guy hiding in a cave, and God comes to him and he says, he says, Gideon, hold on.

You're gonna, you're not gonna believe this. He says to Gideon, you're a mighty warrior.

Theo Longhenry: That's what I said.

Bill Longhenry: And Gideon said, no, you've got the wrong guy. God says, no, you are who I've called for this purpose. You are a mighty warrior. And Gideon says, okay, well what, what would you have me do?

And God says, I need you to build an army to go and battle the Midianites. And he puts together this huge army. There's so many people that come because it sounds like, you know, a, a good idea. Like, let's, let's do this. But then the first thing Gideon says is, well, first thing God tells Gideon to say is those who are fearful tell them to leave.

'cause we, we can't have disbelief. Our army, we can't have disbelief on our team. So Gideon says, you know, if you're, if you're fearful, you can leave. And over 20,000 people, a third, two thirds of the people left. And that, that is a lot of the healthcare system. They are fearful and they're doubtful, and they don't believe that healing can happen.

They don't believe that we can beat this. They, they do not believe it, and so much so that they actually affirm that it is impossible. And then you have, you're left with one third of the people and then of that one third, they said, okay, now we need people that believe and they're also prepared. They're also, they're also paying attention and they're doing the right things.

So then they eliminated even more people and they went from 10,000 to 300. And the 300 people that are left are not fearful. They're prepared, they're paying attention, they're trained, they're ready for action, and they're doing all the right things. And I think that is the team that we found at NeuroSolution is a team that is not fearful.

They believe they trust, they're trained, they're prepared, and they're speaking healing. They're, they're doing the work that they're supposed to do that they know works. And yeah, we've, we found Gideon's Army in NeuroSolution. That is what I believe.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Well, and I appreciate that. And you know, there's several things to break down here.

I love the conversations here because this is a really good thing for people to see where you have a, a 9-year-old right, who's been very heavily influenced by everything that's transpired.

Meghan Longhenry: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: and there's clearly been some very deep conversations that have gone on.

And that's key for his understanding, for his development, for his emotional wellness, for all of those things. And 'cause I see the majority where that doesn't happen. And this is the part of the story that always gets left out 'cause everyone's here. Mm-hmm. Right. And this is the focus and, and this is what everyone talks about and.

This doesn't happen. this is a testament, we're here to talk about Millie, but let's talk about Theo a little bit. the type of understanding and the type of man that this little child is, is, quite remarkable. And it's been shaped yes. By Millie, but it's been shaped by you guys being able to say, look, this, you know, walk this out with, Theo.

It's quite amazing. And I think that, you know, maybe the family's listening, no matter what the situation is. It could be autism, it could be anxiety, it could be whatever's going on in that family, right? There's a lot to be learned here. It's not just about the person that needs help, it's about the family unit.

Meghan Longhenry: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: And how much more powerful you can be when you have these conversations. It's pretty amazing.

Meghan Longhenry: Well, I think that's a really cool testimony because I don't think this was a path that we were ready to walk or that we knew how to navigate either. And God's over here preparing us

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah.

As we go. Absolutely. And you know, just a little side note on, because I, I do get to speak to medical providers of all types, you know, surgeons, gps, endo, gastro, all the things. I guess Reverend Theo's dead, he's done. Thank you Reverend Theo, for your cameo. And so I, I do get a different perspective, right?

And for the most part, all of these providers truly are trying to do the right thing. You know, when you look at what is taught about alobar holoprosencephaly, what the medical textbook says, right there is an obligation to communicate that to the parents, right? So I'm not faulting them for the delivery.

Now, maybe they delivered it poorly. I don't, I wasn't there. And that's a whole nother, I mean, I've been in the ICU when, you know, very, very bad news has been delivered and it, it was like very, it was just horrendous. Yeah. So I think that's there. But the, the problem with healthcare is it's so antiquated as far as what's being taught in medical school and what's being propagated to physicians in the field, all that they get is they get pharmaceutical reps, they get some exposure to new surgical procedures, in conferences and whatnot.

You have to literally, you have to be in the research yourself, but then you also have to be thinking outside the box. Because not everything can be a peer reviewed, double-blind, placebo controlled study. You know what I mean? And so that ability to think for yourself think critically is what's lacking.

And I think that is a huge component of what is separating the 20,000 from the 300 is the ability to think critically, but then also to have hope and to have a faith. 'cause I do think that a large part of our medical system is lacking that faith component. Because if, if you really, you know, you sit down at the end of the day, right?

Not I've done this time and time again, almost on a weekly basis, right? And really think like, what am I doing? You know, like, what am I doing? Like where is this healing coming from? Like the healing is not coming from the laser, it's not coming from, you know, all these things that we're doing. Like I have to understand.

He where healing truly is coming from. And this is a true statement, this is like, like very transparent, Brandon Crawford right here. Because if I think I'm the reason Millie's getting healed, I can't carry that like that. I would fall over with anxiety. There has to be something greater than me doing the healing.

And I, I am solely a vessel. And if I'm a vessel, that means I have to give opportunity to allow that spirit to work, right? And so that's my prayer. What do we need to do for Millie this week? I can do an exam. I'm really good at that, but I know there's gonna be some things that I don't see and I'm gonna have to allow for that to, you know, have room to take place when we're working with her.

So I do think that, you know, that's a big missing piece of healthcare these days.

Bill Longhenry: yeah, I was talking with another parent of a child with something going on and he was saying that one of the first things Jesus does when we read about him in the, in the gospels is he says, you know, do you believe and do you have faith?

And, you know, do you trust this? And like the first thing Jesus does is he makes sure that our head is right and he makes sure that we believe strongly and completely in, in Him. And we believe that healing is possible. And not only is healing possible, but healing is a promise. It's something that Jesus provides and it's a, it's a guarantee and we can read the gospels from many perspectives, but if we read it from the perspective of, you know, what is, what is Jesus doing for us?

And it is getting our heads in the right place. That we're trusting and believing, and it's amazing the power that the brain has over the body. And when we, when we believe, when we believe that we can be healed you know, just that belief on its own has an amazing effect on the body.

Millie, Millie, are you getting sleepy?

Dr. Brandon Crawford: So have there been times when you know, you're in a, you're in a trough, you're in a valley, and you're thinking, I don't know how much longer we can do this day? Yes.

Theo Longhenry: It's, it's rough. Yes. It's hard. And every, every day God just lightens our load. Makes it. That's true. He helps us. He makes it a lot easier.

Bill Longhenry: It was a lot harder at first. When, when we first found out about Millie, I was, I remember like, it was a very traumatic moment for me, and I, I will never forget, I was sitting in front of a window facing outwards so no one could see my face. 'cause I'm supposed to be the father that provides comfort and, you know, affirmation to the family.

And I'm supposed to be the, the strong one that comforts everyone. And I was just completely broken and just devastated. And I was sitting in front of an open window and my phone rang and it was, it was my pastor from Texas and he, he was like, Hey, what's going on? And I think Meg reached out to him, or, or.

Something and like said that someone needed to talk to me. And so he, he reached out and like in that moment and said, you know, what's going on? And we were talking and I just lost it on the phone. And I said, you know, I just, I don't understand. I'm so confused. Like, why is this happening? How is this happening?

And he said it to me then, and then he called me and we spoke about it later as well, like deeper. But he just said to me, you know, bill, do you know Romans 8: 28? And I did at the time, but not as, not as well. And I don't, I didn't trust as much as I do now, but I said, you know, like, yeah. And he said, well, let's, let's say it together.

And we said, you know, for, we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love, who love us, for those who are called according to his purpose. And then he said, Bill. In like sometimes, like in some things I said no, in, in all things. And he said some of the time he said no all the time. And he said some, some things.

I said all things. And he said, God's gonna use this for her good. And God's gonna use this for your good. And God's going to use this for the good of those who are called according to his purpose. That was, that was kind of a turning point for me was after we had that conversation and we had to have that conversation, many times he'd call and he'd say some things and I'd say all things, God works for good of all things

Meghan Longhenry: So that was a huge difference for us when we, when we know that we're coming back or when we're here. And I think. Again, that's just because when we walk into that building, we feel Jesus, and we're just surrounded by prayer and we're surrounded by truth. And people speaking that truth over us and over her that like we get to a point where we're like, it's time to be back.

Like we need to be back there now. It's just a, I just can't emphasize enough like how much the, how much support there really is, and that your cup is just so filled from being there.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: She continues to do things that they say she's ne never gonna do.

Right. She's never gonna do this. Well, she did it. She's never gonna move voluntarily. She did it. She's never gonna see she did it. She's never gonna interact with you. She did it. tell a story about the malrotation of the intestines. Right. So this is something that there's, you know, only a surgical fix for.

Okay. And how was that conversation with your medical team? Well,

Bill Longhenry: That was a, that was a fun one because when she was born you know, she had a, a few things. And one of the things that we found was a malrotation of her small intestine. And it was. It was medium to severe. It was, when you look at the picture of it it looks, it looked pretty bad.

And your intestines I don't know all of the scientific words, but they're attached with, with different parts of your body and two different parts of your body. They're not just free floating spaghetti in your, in your stomach. So it's attached, it's fixed. It cannot be moved without surgical intervention.

And what they said to us was, because your intestines are kind of like a hose, if there's anything wrong with it, as you grow, it will stretch and it will kink. And when it kinks, you can, you can die from that very quickly. And it's very painful. And you, you obviously don't want that. And it's. It's a fairly easy surgery, you know, but it can take a few months to heal from, and it's a pretty intensive surgery as well.

And we have to put her under and all these things. And one thing that people probably don't know is when we did the MRI of her shoulder, we had to put her under for that. And so she would lay still and she coded from that. They had to, you know, call a team back. She was in an MRI, they didn't even have a procedure in place,

Meghan Longhenry: a protocol.

They had to put a protocol.

Bill Longhenry: They called it the Millie protocol.

Meghan Longhenry: Yeah.

Bill Longhenry: Really.

Meghan Longhenry: They didn't have one. And, and I remember being like, we are at this big name hospital. You don't have a protocol, but they all know who we are now because when we go, they're like, oh, you are the one that you're, wow,

Bill Longhenry: you're the Millie.

Meghan Longhenry: Yeah.

Bill Longhenry: And so she coded during that MRI. So we're, we're thinking to ourselves, well, if she only has a few weeks to live because she's on hospice, and if she coded during an MRI of her shoulder. Why would we risk this surgery that like, it's never gonna, we're never gonna like, live long enough for this even to be an issue.

And they also said to us, you know, there are people who live with mal rotations that we don't even know about because why would you ever do a an MRI of someone's intestines if they're perfectly healthy? So there's adults that they get these pictures done and they find out that they've lived their whole lives with mal rotations.

So, it, it's not necessarily something that could, it's not necessarily something that will king, but it's a possibility. Well, anyways so we didn't do the surgery and recently, years later,

Meghan Longhenry: recently she was having some complications that we thought were maybe an indication of the malrotation tightening.

And closing off. So they said, I think we need to go back and do another, do the imaging again and see where we're at.

Bill Longhenry: And we said, we wanna do imaging at a different hospital. And they said, no, it needs to be the same people, the same tools, the same machine, the same radiologist. We need everyone, we need it all to be the same so we can have consistent data.

Meghan Longhenry: And I'm just a mess at this point 'cause I'm like the, it was emergent back then. There's, they say it's impossible for it to change. So if anything it changed for the worse. But even if it didn't change, there's no way they're not gonna say This is still emergent. So I'm packing hospital bags. A mess. I'm crying.

I can't handle it.

Bill Longhenry: There's a lot of trauma from the conversations alone that we've had to go through.

Meghan Longhenry: Yeah. And just even the thought of going back to that hospital that we switched from because of all the trauma that happened there that alone was very traumatic. But that night Bill put us all to bed and then he went and prayed and he, he prayed about it.

And is it okay if I tell this part? Yeah. And when he does his journaling, he writes his prayer and then he writes, what do think how you feel? The Holy Spirit is responding to him. Yeah. And so he wrote his prayer asking for God to heal Millie and, and asking all these things. And he said, I didn't wanna write down.

I felt like God was telling me, I'll, I will, and this is Don. I've already taken care of this.

Bill Longhenry: No, I, what, what happened was normally, I, I, so my, my per my goal is to grow in a deeper personal relationship with God and to try to recognize when he's speaking with me. So when I write the perspective from the Holy Spirit, I'm always conscious that, you know, there's a, a human element to it and there's room for.

There's room for error. And you know, I'm, I'm trying to understand, you know, God's perspective better. But I'm always careful of that. So when I wrote this really big prayer asking God to heal this, I didn't want there to be any room for error. I didn't want to misspeak, I didn't want to speak on behalf of the Holy Spirit and, and be wrong.

I I wanted to leave that blank. I didn't feel like God was answering that strongly enough to write anything down. So I, I left it blank and I closed my journal.

Meghan Longhenry: I think he was answering it pretty strongly or just had a lot of fear. I,

Bill Longhenry: I closed my journal and I walked away, and then I strongly felt led to turn around and go back and open my journal.

And the only thing I wrote down was what the Holy Spirit put on my heart. And that was, I will. And my prayer was that he would just heal this impossible thing. And I, I felt God put on my heart. I will, and I didn't understand what that meant, whether like, like she's gonna be okay. Like, you know, I, I never really like took that as I've healed it.

I took that as like, she's gonna be okay. She's gonna be okay,

Meghan Longhenry: so she can still be okay through a surgery. But so then that next morning when we woke up, so

Bill Longhenry: then we woke up early and we went to the MRI when,

Meghan Longhenry: Then when we woke up that morning bill told me about the, the prayer and he said, I don't know if you remember this, but he actually said, we're not bringing the bags.

And I was like, you're insane. And I'm like, I'm still a mess. And, but like, God told me it's taken care of. We're not bringing the hospital bags. And I was like, you're crazy. Like, they're not gonna say we're not having surgery. They're not gonna let us leave.

We left the bags and we went to the appointment. And then when we were at the appointment, I won't say it, you'll get to say that part. When we were at the appointment, I couldn't go in 'cause I was pregnant and it's, it's x-rays. So, bill went back with Millie and he what took five and a half hours the first time, took five minutes and he texted me.

Bill Longhenry: I texted Meg and I said, you already know what I'm gonna say. And she said,

Meghan Longhenry: I'm like, you're making me. I'm like, surgery, you're making me

Bill Longhenry: nervous. What's going on? Imagine how well that landed.

Yeah, yeah. Like you have

Meghan Longhenry: to say more and faster.

Bill Longhenry: Like, all I said was, you already know what I'm gonna say and that. Then she's like, what? And I said, it's healed. It's, it's fixed.

Meghan Longhenry: And he said that the, the doctors in the room stopped and they said, you're here for a malrotation. And Bill was like, yeah. And then they said, we've never seen this before.

And they said, I need you to help. Like, I need to pull up the original imaging because something's wrong. And then they said, never in medical history has this ever been documented. This has never happened. This is impossible.

Bill Longhenry: They said, this is, this is impossible for something like this to happen. And the people taking the images were just.

Like you could, you could see that they were like, filled with like encouragement and hope and like you could see like they were happy and like

Meghan Longhenry: I think they knew they saw a miracle.

Bill Longhenry: Yeah. You could tell that they, there was just a light in their eyes when they looked at Millie and when they looked at the pictures.

It was, it was such a cool moment.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I'd say so. Yeah. I don't think the cool moment lands it very well. No, that's momentous. That, that's like, yeah. it's miraculous. Yeah. I can understand the, the radiology techs or whoever was in there going, oh, I don't know. We, we must have got the wrong Yeah, kid.

Like, this isn't what we're looking at here. I remember that when I was working with Dr. Donofrio as an intern, and it was progeria, which is a genetic brain disorder where the brain doesn't develop properly. And we started using laser therapy on them and we weren't there, but when the neurologist came or they went to the, you know, neurologist to get a, a checkup or whatever, and the neurologist walks in, looks at 'em, he walks out and they're like, that was weird.

What's going on? And he came back in and they were like, what's going on? Like, well, I must have the wrong patient because I, I'm looking at the diagnosis in the chart, but this, it, it doesn't match. I'm like, no, this is, this is us. This is my kid. This, you have the right patient. This similar scenario.

Right? Yeah. But again, those are things that we've, we get to see. But the traditional healthcare system doesn't get to see it. Yeah. And so this is the importance of what we're doing is bringing this to light. You know, medical professionals need to listen. Families need to listen. Like these things do happen.

Meghan Longhenry: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Unfortunately they don't make it into textbooks. Rarely do they get written up as case studies either. Right. So, you know, my goal is to write a case study on, on Millie every year. And so that's, you know, what I want to continue to do.

Bill Longhenry: Well, can I, can I ask you a question?

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah.

Bill Longhenry: So one thing that they did when Millie was first diagnosed was they said, we need to,

we need to test her for genetic disorders and we need to throw the book at her and just see what sticks. And they tested her for every genetic disorder that they could find, and they determined that her case is not genetic. But from my, my understanding and my research, everything is genetic. So what they're really saying is they were testing for commonly like grouped together like genetic disorders, and they weren't able to find like a well-documented genetic match to her condition.

But her condition is still. I mean, every condition is genetic. They just haven't been able to group it with another matching case in a sense.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Right? We, we only have a limited amount of knowledge on genetics. And of course there is a human genome project that tried to map out so much, and they, they did a lot, but they also didn't do a lot.

A good example that I can talk about is spinal cerebellar atrophy. SCA, so almost every year there's a new form of SCA that is found, right? And so, I remember working with one patient where he, it looked like, smelled like, everything, you know, everything was like SCA, right? Spinal cerebellar atrophy.

But then when they ran the panels, they're like, well, no known form of spinal cerebellar atrophy exists. Like, you, you know, this isn't the diagnosis. And I was like, well, maybe it's just not found yet. You know, maybe they just haven't uncovered that genetic marker or whatever it is in. Sure enough, a couple years go by now they did.

Right? And so it's like, oh yeah, this is spinal cerebellar atrophy. It was a new variant that, you know, we now discovered and you know, that kind of thing. So that, that's true for almost everything, right? There's so much about our genetic code that we don't understand. But there's also a lot about the mitochondrial DNA that we don't understand.

There's a lot that we do understand the mitochondrial DNA act as like air traffic control and the airplane is the genetic code, right? And so while there's a lot of research going on, on the genetic code, there's not a lot of research going on in regards to the mitochondrial DNA. And then to go even further into that, you know, if we start talking about the bio photon field, right?

Because those bio photons that are produced within us, largely within the mitochondria, but really within every structure within us, that's the information. That's then talking to the genetic code. So the information is actually the light within us. And this has been pioneered by Fritz Pop and Roland Van Wick among others.

So this is not like conjecture, like this is true. So light is the information. So that bio photon field for Millie had to have been abnormal or altered in some regard, and then that set in motion a series of events that then influenced the epigenome and then the genome, and then that gave way to the phenotype that she has where, you know, she was lacking some brain structure, et cetera.

Right? So, when people talk about genetics, it's like, yes, but we have to understand there's a lot governing those genetics. The good part about that is that we can influence, that. We can influence the bio photon field. We can influence the mitochondrial DNA. our mitochondria turnover every 10 days. Right. So we can have an influence on that. And again, that's air traffic control. So then we do have a lever to pull even for genetic disorders. Wow. Which is really exciting. Yeah. And obviously there's just, there's still a lot that needs to be understood about that and researched about that.

But, but here's a great example of that. For parents out there right? That are struggling, maybe it's a, a similar condition, maybe it's something less severe, maybe it's anything.

Right. What, what do you want their takeaway to be from this? What is, what is the overall message? What, what do you want to drive home for these people?

Bill Longhenry: I have something that I would like to share I would say that if, if I was the only one taking care of Millie and making her decisions, I, I don't think that we would be here today.

I don't know if Millie would still be alive. I am very thankful for my wife because I am a realist and I think that I am like probably 95% of parents out there who say we can't make this happen. This, this is, you know, either it's too expensive or it's too far away, or it's, it's been too long, or we have waited too long, or it's too early.

Or like every excuse in the book, right? I mean, you name it, I've said it and Meg said. We're gonna make this, we're gonna make this happen. And I know it seems like there's, there's an impossible mountain to climb to, to get there or to afford this, or to do this. But we're gonna, we're gonna climb that mountain.

And I would say that we've moved it and it's not even an obstacle anymore. And that's only because of her and her faith and her trust in, in the Lord, because she said, we're gonna do this. And I said, that's impossible. And here we are on our fifth, our fifth visit to NeuroSolution. And I never thought we would, would've ever made it to one.

So if you think it's impossible or if you think it's too much or too far listen, I, I've been there. I, I felt it. But you just gotta have hope. You, you gotta, you gotta just do it. Just do it. And you know, we're, we're happy to try to help and there's so many people that are happy to help make it, make it happen.

Meghan Longhenry: The first thing I always say is to pray. Pray big and pray boldly.

And then you have to really listen when he tells you what to do. 'Cause he's not gonna bring you to this and then just leave you. So I think God continues to guide our steps and he can, continues to he continues to make more promises and there's so much hope in that. Mm-hmm. And that you're not alone and it feels really lonely and it's really scary, but tough.

It's very tough. But that he just, he gives you the right people at the right time. We were just talking the other day about our seven years of infertility between Theo and Millie and how had he answered our prayer for Millie seven years ago. You wouldn't have been ready for her.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Nope.

Meghan Longhenry: And how he was preparing you and your heart and your team.

Yeah. And their hearts. So

Dr. Brandon Crawford: yeah, I was seven years ago, I think. Yeah. I was going through probably the, the largest case of my career at that point in time which was Ford, Ford Velazquez. And he taught me more than any textbook, than any neuro course, anything, right? Mm-hmm. I would say he taught me as much as Millie's taught me thus far.

Right. The, there's several of course. I get to learn from every patient I work with. But you're right, had Millie come onto the scene back then, I would've been ill prepared. I would've been very ill prepared. And, and I would've been scared outta my mind probably. But because of, you know, the work that I was able to do with Ford and everything that he taught me in other similar cases, you're right.

I mean, I was when I saw Yes. So, you know, first I was like, this, you know, this isn't right. The, the, these pictures don't match this kid. But then when I was like, okay, no, this is what's going on, well that means there's something going on here that just not, is not fully explainable, but that's okay. I'm okay with that.

'cause I've seen this before. It was quite interesting. And now, you know, I get to learn from Millie. I get to learn that structure does not always equal function.

Meghan Longhenry: Yeah.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: That, that is. I mean, if we learn anything from a medical perspective, we have to understand structured is not always equal function. Of course there's very well mapped out, you know, studies and everything showing that this part of the brain does that and this part of the brain does that and whatever.

But we don't always get this type of information. Whenever a structure doesn't equal function, function is still there, but the structure isn't well, that means that that's occurring somewhere else. So is her visual processing happening in part of her temporal lobe, or is it happening more in the frontal lobe?

Is it, you know, what's going on? It's not all in the occipital lobe because that's a large part missing. Right. So that's so, so interesting to me. But then also it, it truly, It's showing. Well, I mean, I can't go through everything that she's taught me. We'd be here for an hour. But the other part of the story is the true power of neuroplasticity.

And the true power, not just neuroplasticity in the brain, but plasticity in the body, right? Because our brain, of course, has the ability to mold and change. But I mean, the story about the maur rotation of the intestines, I mean that, that. That's plasticity in motion, right? And just being able to witness and, and fully be immersed in a story like Millie's, where we literally get to see this concept that goes all the way back, in my opinion, yoga is all the way back to 1932.

Like, Millie's story should fall in this timeline of events, you know, with Dr. Sherrington's Nobel Prize and then Dr. Heb, you know, neurons set, fire together, wire together, and Bach-y-Rita's work and then Ted Carrick's work. And you know, like Millie's story goes in that timeline. And my opinion, in fact when I teach it.

That's how I teach it. So Millie's in that timeline now. So if anyone learns functional neurology from me, they get Millie's story. So it's just, you know, it's a true testament to the ability of you know, neuroplasticity. Obviously it's a very faith led testimony as well, which is what we've been able to hear from Reverend Theo and you guys today is there anything else that you'd like to convey?

Any other topic you'd like to discuss or anything else you wanna tell the world?

Bill Longhenry: Well, I think there's something special about Millie that can't be explained, and I think there's, I think there's a lot of children like that. It's not just Millie, but what I'm referring to is the energy that she puts off.

And when Millie walks into a room, she just makes. Everyone in the room smile. She does. And she just makes everyone happy. And honestly, just her energy that she gives off is so positive and just, I, I mean, it's optimistic and it's energizing it. She just has something unexplainable about her. And I think everyone knows, you know, at least somebody that they've walked into a room and they've felt the draining of energy.

Like, oh, like I don't feel good walking into this room. But Millie's the opposite. And again, I think that just comes down to, you know, you want to have people in your life that energize you and that give you hope. And when I was talking to my, my new friend I met recently. He was saying that those people that drain you you need them out of the room.

Yeah. Like, you can't, you cannot have them as part of your story. Very true. And I, I just, I think Millie is, is such a miracle in that sense that she has taught me a lot about people. She's taught me a lot about my faith. She's you know, without, without Millie, I mean, there's, there's just so many things.

Like I, I thought that I was on one track with my life and then when Millie was born, you know, I, I quickly realized like, you know, I'm, I'm going some, some other direction. And it, it's, it's fun. You know, people think this is really scary, but I mean, it's so fun. It, I, I love her story. Her diagnosis is not scary to me.

It was, and I told you about the time I sat in the hospital facing a window just losing it. But it's, it's so fun. Now, you know, the, the hope that we have, the hope we've been given,

Meghan Longhenry: we get to see miracles firsthand.

Bill Longhenry: I, I'm, I'm so excited to be part of her story. I'm so excited to be here and I'm so, I'm so excited to, to share her story until she can share it herself.

Meghan Longhenry: A lot of people say to us, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry you have to go through this. I'm so sorry that this is what your life is, that this is what her life is. They just, they say, I'm so sorry. And I mean, for a while now, we've been able to stop them and say like, we're not sorry about this. Like, God told us that she was gonna have a big purpose, and we're honored to be a part of it.

We're honored to learn what we get to learn and meet the people that we get to meet. And we're honored that her story gets to touch so many people's lives.

Bill Longhenry: For, for people that struggle with, you know, well, how can you have faith in a moment like this? Or how can you trust that there's a plan? Or how can you trust that, that God is working goodness through this or, you know, I would say at this moment, I would say to that, you know, to not believe that God is working good through this, or that God has his handedness.

That also requires faith. It requires faith in the opposite direction. And I would say it's much easier to trust that there's a plan than to trust that none of this means anything. That, that also requires a strong amount of faith. And yeah, I, I just, I just believe that there's a plan and that he's working goodness through this.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely. I think that's undeniable for sure. And you're right. It is easier to trust that there is a plan because without a plan it's scary.

Meghan Longhenry: Yeah.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: I mean, really what are you gonna trust? Science? No, gimme a break.

Theo Longhenry: Yeah. Science is pretty cool though.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: It's pretty cool. It's pretty cool,

Theo Longhenry: but not always right.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Not always right. So, awesome. Okay, well we're about to close it out. Do you wanna say anything?

Theo Longhenry: I, I would say that pretty much everything that has already been said, I don't really know if there's anything else I can think of has said. Perfect.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Okay. Excellent. You guys have done something that I don't, we don't see very often, right?

You have really, from a rehab perspective, regenerative medicine perspective, like all of those types of things, like you've really solely relied on us. And of course I'm honored. I think that's great. And of course, if, if I ever see the need to refer out, we will, we, like, we will co-manage, we will refer out.

Like that is always how we operate. And of course you have a medical team, you know, advising and doing everything that's needs to be done. But the vast majority that come in, it's like they're seeing a hundred different places. They're going to this pt, that ot, this rehab place, that ra, you know, and it's just like a constant turntable of, you know, different the therapies and different things being thrown at 'em.

And that, and I don't fault those people, right. They want to seek anything and everything that's gonna help them in their situation, right? So I don't fault them one bit. Why in the world have you done this the way that you've done it?

Meghan Longhenry: Well, can I answer that?

Bill Longhenry: Sure.

Meghan Longhenry: I think from the very beginning we tried a lot of things.

And they didn't work.

Bill Longhenry: Like what? I would disagree. Just

Meghan Longhenry: traditional. Just traditional.

Bill Longhenry: We sought guidance. We sought guidance from the medical profession, and they had, they didn't have any answers. So I, I wouldn't say we tried things. I'd say we sought out answers and we didn't find anything.

Meghan Longhenry: And I think that it's always a temptation.

I mean, we're constantly hearing things and new ideas and stuff like that. But I guess don't fix what ain't broke.

We're seeing positive changes and I don't think we could see that faster. Like, I don't, I don't think that if I pushed her further, I think she would just break under that pressure in, in the sense that like, I don't think she can do more.

What you wanna say something?

Bill Longhenry: I I think it's great that you say that 'cause it's, you know, we have very different perspectives on how things have unfolded. You said We tried a lot of things.

The only things we tried we're asking desperately and pleadingly for answers. We tried for answers and everyone said, I think I, there is no hope. And you said we tried some therapies. The therapies were just for quality of life purposes. Yeah. They weren't, they were not for healing.

Meghan Longhenry: I think I make a lot of phone calls You maybe don't know about

Bill Longhenry: again, that never,

Meghan Longhenry: yeah, that didn't go anywhere.

Bill Longhenry: That never went anywhere. So when we found NeuroSolution. That was the only answer. And again, we, we found some other places, but they, they recommended NeuroSolution. The other places did that. We said, we're gonna go to you. And they said, go to NeuroSolution. And, which I think is like so cool that that other medical professions that can make money off of us said, we're not the best choice for your child.

NeuroSolution is the best thing for your child. So we went to NeuroSolution and they said to us like, listen, there is a developmental process that the brain needs to go through and it needs to start. At, at the core, which is these primal reflexes. And you have to develop these and integrate these.

And we're gonna do an intensive therapy. 'cause we need a lot of repetition to get these things to, to start to form in the brain. And then we're gonna go home and we're gonna do these, these home care treatments, and then we're gonna come back and work on the next thing. And I think

Meghan Longhenry: the way that you guys structure things feels very traditional in the sense of how you would raise your typical child.

And that timeline looks different for Millie, but that Millie's still gonna hit each milestone. And I really like that for her. I really like that I get to still watch her grow again at a very different pace. But I still get to see all of that.

Bill Longhenry: I think it's detrimental in a sense, you know, like.

I, I think it's great that parents want to attack every avenue, but I think it can be detrimental for their child to try to work on a milestone that they're not ready for. Yeah. And I think that you guys do a very good job of testing and seeing like, what, where is this child at in, what is our next step?

And you focus on that and you don't try to go further than the child's ready for. And when you do so many different things, I think that why is this so silly? When you try to do too many things at once, it, it can be detrimental to that repetition that the brain needs to integrate these reflexes or integrate these, these, these important things.

Mm-hmm. So that we've considered going other places. And when we talk with them and when we like look at what they're doing, we're like, we're not ready for that. And when we're ready for that, we know that NeuroSolution is gonna do that. Mm-hmm. Like, it's not that you guys. Aren't able to do these other things.

You guys do so many things, but you do it in the right order.

Meghan Longhenry: like I've asked you before, I've brought things to you and said, what do you think about this? And I, and I maybe didn't word it in a way that was like, should I go to this other place? But I asked about a certain type of treatment that you would then say, here's why we aren't doing it that way here.

And then, and it makes sense. I think here's why we're

Bill Longhenry: not there yet.

Meghan Longhenry: But, but just to put, put this in there, someone from the office, I had asked them, I said, why aren't you called NeuroSolutions? Like plural? And they looked at me and they said, 'cause there's one solution. And so I feel like every time I think about doing something else, I'm like, we have one solution right now and we're gonna do this.

Like, we're gonna do this one path and we're not gonna override what she can do.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Well, I mean, you outlined everything pretty well. So when I got to see milli this time, right. The exam process that we go through it's the developmental funk, neuro exam. Her spindle responses have normalized greatly, which is a big deal, right?

Because we, we need proper alpha motor neuron tone in order to properly move, in order to have voluntary movement, all these types of things. And in most cases, you know, there's gonna be a dominant beta motor neuron tone. And so I, that was, you know, one of the first things I'm like, man, their spindle responses are, are much better.

Her primitive reflexes are still improving. Like they're still integrating. There's so much better now. And then started looking at her postural reactions, right? It's like, oh, her parachute's turning on and you know, now we need to start working on propping and head writing and all these things, right?

And so that's been a big focus this time is, is working on postural reactions still working on hand supporting, hands pulling, those types of things. But, and that's a big. Misconception. Misconception out there is that, oh, if you have permanent reflexes, just work the permanent reflexes. But that's not true.

They volley off of the postural reactions in order to fully integrate. And so you have to understand this timing of when to do things. And that's what sometimes is challenging to me is because someone will come in, we'll, you know, get this data, we will start care, we'll send 'em home with home care, and then they come back, let's say six months later or something like this.

And I'm like, you're like where you were when you left. Like, what's going on? Have you been doing your home care? No. What have you been doing? Well, we went to this place and then we went to the that place, and then we did this thing, and then we did that thing. You need the repetition and it's like. Okay. I mean, I get it.

I do. But this is how the brain develops. Yeah. Like we cannot get around this.

Bill Longhenry: And I think something else that maybe parents in this world understand, but you know, this is not common for parents to be in this world. So for all the parents that are not in this world, in order for your child to go to a medical system and speak with all of the departments that your child needs to speak with.

Yeah. For like, let, let me just to build a team. Let me just say this. Your team, you're saying, when we were in the hospital, we, she had an issue with her shoulder, or, or, so we thought likely she did have something going on with her shoulder, but that wasn't the only thing. But what, what the solution was, was to do surgery to remove muscles.

From this little baby, and this was like a year ago, they wanted to do surgery and take muscles out of her back and, and move them to the front of her body and, and or vice versa, take 'em from the front and move to the back. I don't remember the, the exact sequence, but we said, this seems like a, a neuro deficiency because of the brain.

And they said, well, we can't speak about the brain, we can only speak about the muscles and this is what we know will work with the muscles. And I said, well, what happens when we fix that part of the brain? And now she needs those muscles that we just removed. Oh, well that'll be paralyzed. Like that will, that function will never come back again once we do this surgery, that's gone forever, but it will help this other thing.

And then he said, well, could we consult with like a neurologist or something? And they said no. And then like when we were talking about the gut, we said, well, you know, we think that these other things are happening. And they said, well, we can't talk about that. We can only talk about the gut. Well, could you guys consult with these other teams, can kind of talk about what you think is the best game plan for Millie's overall.

No, we can only talk about the gut. So for you guys to have several developmental specialists who have degrees and specialized training in the development of a child working alongside, you know, neurologists and functional neurologists and physical therapists and occupational therapists, working with a developmental specialist, like, I mean, all of you guys come together and talk every minute, every hour, every day about one patient.

And I mean, you do that for every patient. You talk about that one patient. And you say, this is what we need to do. This is what I did the last hour and based off of this last hour, we're gonna do this the next hour. And I mean, you talk about it every day, but it, it's also hour by hour. I mean the,

Meghan Longhenry: yeah. I think people are trained to think, I just want one person working with my child.

Yeah. And I think you miss out on so much because all the different team eyes and perspectives. Yep. Looking at your child brings so much to the table.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Absolutely. I don't have the eyes of Kristen. Yeah. I don't have the eyes of Dr. Sarah. I don't have, I mean, you have to kind of hone it in sometimes and be like, I know a lot, but I also don't know a lot.

Meghan Longhenry: Yeah.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: And I also don't think, like, you know, again, Kristen, who's, you know, she's an occupational therapist, she sees things differently than I do and it's humbling, you know, sitting at, at the table in our conference room and you know, having someone say, I saw this and this is what I think and I'm like. I didn't even see that.

Meghan Longhenry: Yeah.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Explain this and, you know what I mean? And so it's, it's learning, it's a learning environment, but then it is, it's a more cohesive environment for patient care, in my opinion. And I have arrows in my back about that, you know, people don't like it. But again, I think it's best for the patients. And I think it's proven time and time again.

So, and I, I love when

Meghan Longhenry: people say it to me though, because I can say things that you can't say, but I love answering that because I just think there's so much value in it. Like,

Bill Longhenry: and I, and I think like that is an another testament that we're not just seeing neuro solution, you know, like, we're, we're seeing pt, ot, you know, neurology, functional neurology, developmental, like we're seeing.

All of these people at one time in one place. Right. You know, we're not just going to this one place. We're seeing all of these specialties. We're, we're seeing everyone we need to see Yeah. In, at one place at one time. But I, and they're all working together for one, for one goal. Millie, I also, and every other patient,

Meghan Longhenry: I also think that like, we really trust you.

And that wasn't just something, say some words. We didn't just give you trust. I mean, we, maybe we did, but I think that was earned. I think that you showed us how you can care for Milli and help us care for Milli and help us navigate all of that. And, and I think the trust goes really far. Like,

Dr. Brandon Crawford: well, thank you.

Come on Millie.

Meghan Longhenry: Just breathe into the life. She wants to,

Dr. Brandon Crawford: she wants to say something, but she just can't do it. So for all of those people out there that are just hearing this story for the first time and they're thinking, who is this Millie kid? Where can they go to learn more about her story and actually see all of this transpire?

Bill Longhenry: Well, we have a website and the website's gonna point you to all of our social media platforms. Moving mountains for millie.org or miracle millie.org. Whatever's easier to remember. That'll all bring you to the same place. And then same thing on Facebook and Instagram moving mountains for Millie.

That's kind of our story. And our hope is that through sharing her story, we can help to encourage patients and healthcare to just have more hope for children and for these diagnosis. Because I really think it, it starts with the belief that, you know, hope is possible and hope is real and, and achievable.

Absolutely.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Well, anything else before I close it out?

Meghan Longhenry: I really wanna talk about our brain.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Let's do it.

Meghan Longhenry: Okay. One thing God promised to me was that I was gonna get to watch what he does inside of the womb. Outside of the womb. And I think everyone thinks I'm crazy when I say that, but

Dr. Brandon Crawford: we're all a little crazy. It's okay.

Meghan Longhenry: But we are watching her brain grow.

We were watching the mass of her brain grow. We got to see an MRI from a year. There was a year and a half between the two.

Bill Longhenry: It's a fast MRI. Yeah.

Meghan Longhenry: And you can see obvious growth in it. Now we don't have the measurements. Bless you.

Bill Longhenry: So cute though,

Meghan Longhenry: Uhhuh, but

Bill Longhenry: bless you.

Meghan Longhenry: The way that it's like filled out in certain areas and the way that it's grown, it's definitely grown.

Yes. Like it's just. Only God. And then we are just so blessed that he has given you the knowledge and the ability to be his hands and feet in, in that process and V cell and, and all the things that we're doing. But we are, we are watching it grow.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Yeah,

Meghan Longhenry: and I, I mean, who gets to say that?

Bill Longhenry: I would, I would say that after our first visit to NeuroSolution there wasn't a lot that changed, but she was only eight months old.

And the way that I like to describe it, and I, I hope I'm describing this semi accurately, is. Is that silly? Is that when you build a bridge, you can't just lay out all the concrete for traffic to get across. You have to first like start with some of the cables and you have to, you have to start this bridge.

And I think when we went for the first visit, you know, there's obviously a lot going on with her brain and we had to start this construction and we had to start somewhere. And then the second visit that we went to neuro solution we, I think we, we laid the pavement because it was the next morning that we were laying in bed.

And Millie, you know, clearly doesn't, doesn't talk much. And yeah, funny. And we were laying in bed and Meg got up to go to the bathroom and I saw Millie get increasingly upset. And I thought, okay, well I better say, you know, mom, you better hurry back. Millie's missing you. And before I had a chance to say anything.

Millie, Millie screamed mama. And those were her first words. And that was after our second visit. And I don't mean like after, like six months after. It was like, while we were still there. We, while we were, it was

Meghan Longhenry: like two days after our fir our second V cell.

Bill Longhenry: Yeah. And we were, we were just like, wow. And then we went home and she said, dad, and she says, Bubba for brother.

And we ask her, do you wanna watch Mickey?

Meghan Longhenry: And we say, do you

Bill Longhenry: wanna watch Bluey? And she'll say, Uhhuh, right now. You,

Meghan Longhenry: you didn't get the right one yet. I think

Bill Longhenry: she's still waiting for her options. Your options are Mickey or Bluey. You wanna watch Mickey? Uhhuh

Mickey. Yeah. So yeah,

after this we'll watch Mickey.

Okay.

Meghan Longhenry: She's like, what?

Bill Longhenry: Yeah. When, how much longer? So she, you know, she talks to us and she interacts with us. And yeah, the second visit was huge. And then we've seen you know, increase increases in strength and voluntary movement and, you know, disassociation of like her legs and arms and stuff.

And I don't know if I'm using those words correctly, but you are like we're, we're noticing the ability for her body to move willingly

Meghan Longhenry: when I love coming back after three or four months and you telling us what you notice, because I definitely don't notice any of it. And then you say like, that's different from last time.

Bill Longhenry: We're gonna watch Mickey. Right. You just gotta give me a minute. Promised Dad, we're gonna watch met you. I promise. Okay. Yeah. That's awesome.

Dr. Brandon Crawford: Well, thank you for sharing your story. I can't just say Millie's story. This is all of your story. I mean, Theo and you guys, and I mean, thank you for not holding back.

Thank you for being vulnerable. Again, that's for the, that's for the people listening 'cause they need to hear this stuff. So I really appreciate that and I truly hope that everyone listening follows you guys on social media. They go to the website, they really dig into the story because this is a very powerful story.

So, for everyone listening, if this information could be helpful to someone that you know, please send it to them. That is why we're doing this. We are doing this to help others. We're doing this to change healthcare. So even if it's your. Medical provider. If, if you think they need to hear this story please send them this information.

So thank you everyone for tuning in. I appreciate all the comments and all the things that you have to say. And until next time, thank you so much.

Voice Over: We hope today's episode has inspired you to take that next step towards your best self. Remember, the path to longevity is paved with small daily decisions. Your journey is unique and every step, every choice brings you closer to your ultimate vision of a healthier, happier life. For more insights, tips, and resources, visit drbrandoncrawford.com.

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Dr. Brandon Crawford

Host
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Meghan and Bill Longhenry

Guest