Hanging Low and Invisible: A Busy Day...

What a day!!! Where to begin… First a update on Miss Holly!!! These are some posts from Holly’s mom, Renee:

~ Holly has had a goodnight! All stats have remained good and she has been alert and telling us what she wants/needs. Her nurse last night was five stars all the way. Defiantly couldn’t ask for any better.

~I have to say that we have been nothing but impressed with this entire experience. I have sooooo many improvement ideas for our local children's hospital. This is NOT a children's hospital but they are doing an outstanding job handling peds and making sure the parents understand and are involved with the whole process. I was scared about being so far away from our friends and support people but the staff here really have made us feel so at peace. God is so good and has made sure every need is being met. Thank you to all for your continued prayers and support. Each of you are special to us!

~Holly is doing very well. They have removed the artery line and the cath. Right now she only has one iv line, pulse ox, drain tube and some sticky monitors on her chest. It is great to see tubes and wires removed. She yells the whole time but afterward is glad to have a free arm and hand. Holly is still going in and out of sleep but is very aware and vocal which is GREAT!!

~OK!!! So Dr. Rekate just came in and spoke with me about her procedure!!! I miss understood some of the things he said yesterday and now I will correct myself. He said that before they begin they do electro observation while changing the angle of the head and watching the monitors to see what changes/improvements they see. They removed about an inch x inch square of her skull. That still did not improve the flow of spinal fluid or the electro signals. So they had to open up the dura and do a patch. That opened up the flow and the tech saw GREAT improvement in the electro signals. Dr. Rekate said that was a real hooprah moment in the OR. Then he assisted Dr. Insigna in positioning her head in the vise to get the best angle to do the fusion. He was excited to hear her speech improvement that we heard even while in the recovery room Dr. Rekate said he was looking forward to hearing how much she continues to improve! From what I understand it sounds like Holly had a BONE poking her BRAIN!!! That is the part of the skull he removed! Praising God for his miracles and blessings

So it sounds like she is recovering well!!! I cant wait for us to meet Dr Rekate! Keep praying for her!!!

So Kay had an eye appointment today. Her vision has just changed a smidge; he said not enough to even change her script. But, he asked if she still had her symptoms when she did wear her reading glasses, i.e.: headaches, I said yes… he thinks possibly her vision change this past November is due to her Chiari. As for all her eye pain… its all pressure related from her brain on those nerves, so that’s why she has the eye pain. But, he said that the actual organ (eye itself) is very healthy!! We will see him again… sometime the end of Sept or Oct., depending how the summer goes.

~ Kaylie at the eye doctor ~

After that we wanted to take her by the police department, to thank all her dad’s co-workers for all the support, donations, and prayers. We walked around to all the police admin offices, and the detectives. Handed out little “Thank You” cookies and a chiari bracelet. We also went by City Hall to see our friends and supporters there, then to the Fire Department & Admin building at Station 1. They let Kay see the fire trucks and gave her VIP treatment!! Tonight we are going to go back by the police department to give cookies to her daddy’s shift and midnight shift officers. We can’t thank everyone enough!! Its not just about the monetary donations… but the fact that our community pulls together in such support and the prayers that are said for her means so much to us! We can never thank yall enough!!!

Kay had a really good day… the only thing that she continued to complain about is her ear pain. We ran by her school for her end of the year class party… they made ice cream sundaes… YUM! Then she went over to her Best Friend’s house for a play date!! Brin is such a good friend to her!