Author: kathryn

kathrynhttps://prayforanne.wordpress.comTeacher, servant & child of God
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Pressing forward

The accident was four weeks ago today… Sometimes I feel like I’m in the middle of a dream; it doesn’t seem possible that my spunky, bright Anne has a severe brain injury.

Isaiah 30:21 says, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying ‘This is the way; walk in it.'”So we press forward, with a mix of grief and joy, but forward nonetheless.

Anne’s current phase is challenging. She is agitated and confused, audibly crying most of the time. I find myself leaning on my old ways of self-sufficiency. Thinking back over my day, I realized that I did not ask God for help once, but carried on – essentially alone – trying to care for Anne.

You would think that I would learn to cling to my saviour – to run to Him, cling to Him. This is just as much a “rehab” time for me as it is for Anne :-) May we both come out on the other side more “like gold” (Job 23:10).

Thankful for His grace -kathryn

A little more from Anne

Every day we see a little more from Anne… She’s sitting better and eating better (she ate ice cream today). Her eyes are brighter and more focused and overall she seems more responsive. For example, in addition to smiling more, she laughed out loud for the first time today.

The Speech Therapist and I both think Anne tried to say, “uh huh” when asked if she wanted more ice cream. I just sat and cried, thinking about how thankful I was to hear my sweet girl try to speak.

Please pray:

  1. For God to preserve Anne’s cognitive abilities and ultimately, for her to speak,
  2. For Anne to gain greater control over her eyes,
  3. For Anne’s tremors to decrease so she can have more control using her hands, and
  4. For Anne’s character to be molded into Christlikeness as she perseveres through all her therapy sessions.

Tired but thankful, -kathryn

Anne’s miraculous smile

5-8-10

Anne continues to try to do EVERYTHING her therapists ask of her. She has an amazing will. We are very proud of her.

Today Ms. Debbie (her former Sunday School teacher) came by for a visit. This pic was taken during her visit. Ms. Debbie and Anne have always had a special connection :-)

Please continue to pray:

  1. For Anne’s tremors/neuro storms to disappear, and for God to be close and comfort Anne.
  2. For the whole family to be encouraged to persevere and trust in our Great Physician day by day.

-kathryn

Three Words…

ANNE’S IN REHAB!

Praise God: 

  1. That she is ALIVE
  2. That she is making progress – little by little :-)

Please pray: 

  1. That Anne will continue to progres – little by little.
  2. I just talked with Eric, and she is very upset – crying and tremoring. Pray that she will relax and sleep well tonight. Eric needs sleep :-)
  3. That by God’s grace, we will wait on His good plan for Anne to unveil – little by little.

Expecting a good day in rehab tomorrow :-) -kathryn

Quiet day

Because Anne was up most of last night (poor Eric…) she rested most of today. Her therapists let her rest, so it was a quiet day.

The neurosurgeon said today, “There is an excellent chance that the drain will come out tomorrow.” So we’re hopeful! If the drain truly does come out tomorrow, she could be in rehab as early as Friday – but we’ll wait and see.

I have one funny story to share. Tonight, Eric’s cousin Susan visited. Anne had just had a HUGE bowel movement (yeah!) so the conversation moved to poop. Now – the kids are not allowed to say “bathroom talk” outside the bathroom. They can talk about poopy and tee-tee all they want inside the bathroom – but not outside… So, when I realized that Susan and I were using bathroom talk – I said to Anne (with a mischievious look), “Anne, do you hear us using bathroom talk outside the bathroom? Do you want to do it too?” Then I started singing, “Poopy, poopy, poopy!!!!”

And she smiled – the biggest smile yet. Susan’s husband, Alan, came in and we were all talking about “poopy” and Anne smiled a few more times.

Anne clearly enjoyed breaking the rules tonight :-)

Please pray:

  1. The drain would be removed tomorrow so that we can move to rehab.
  2. Since Canon will be with me at the hospital all day tomorrow, please pray that God encourages him in a special way, and that he will be an encouragement to Anne as well.
  3. That Anne will respond well to rehab (when she gets there).

Gratefully, kathryn

Disappointment & Glory

The past two days have been quite a journey! God has been so tender and gracious to give me a sweet gift of encouragement at the end of yesterday (Monday) – which was one of the hardest days of my life …and then He continued to show me His goodness, as today (Tuesday) was one of the best days of my life!

Where to begin?

Yesterday was hard because of the disappointment over not removing the drain and therefore not moving to rehab. Anne’s tremors increased yesterday b/c they lowered her anti-withdrawal meds… She is having a painful time coming off of all the heavy narcotics that were in her system for weeks. My eyes were focused on what was seen – her agitation and pain – instead of the unseen…

God in his tender mercy chose to encourage me from the most unlikely source… her neurosurgeon! He is one of the best in his field, but has been very frank regarding the severity of her condition. He always chooses his words carefully so as not to give us false hope. But last night, he cautiously offered a morsel of hope as he shared a story of a former patient with injuries similar to Anne’s …She went on to be at the top of her class in college. The poor doc didn’t know how to react when I sat and wept – just out of thankfulness that God knows my heart – and knew that I needed encouragement…

Which leads me to today. It was a glorious day. The Physical Therapist (PT) let me hold Anne. Not like the other day when I just sat beside her and hugged her a little – but REALLY hold her. I sat in a rocking chair and cradled my 5-year-old girl like a baby. I sang to her, prayed for her and cried over her. I felt like all of heaven stood still and watched as I held my precious Anne.

But the blessing didn’t stop there! After I held Anne for 30 minutes, and Anne sat in her chair for an HOUR, the Occupational Therapist (OT) and Speech Therapist (ST) came to work with Anne. They sat her up on the side of the bed. She was able to hold her head up a little; she chewed and swallowed ice – but here’s the fun part – she actually listened to the OT give a command: “Anne, if you want to rest, push back against my hand.” And she leaned back with her body against the OT’s hand on her back. And then the OT sat her up again, repeated the command, and Anne did it again! We laid her down, cheered for her and she smiled the biggest smile I’ve seen from her yet!

Later I saw all 3 therapists in the hall – they were all clapping and pumping their fists (it was quite a scene…) so I walked out and asked, “so, did Anne do well today?” And they looked at me and said, “Well? She was AMAZING – she responded to a command TWICE! – That’s reason to throw a party!!”

Truly, a miraculous day. I’ve cried many grateful tears today. Thank you all again for supporting us as we walk this road. We still have a long way to go, and even though we don’t know what the end looks like – we trust that God has good planned for Anne. Amen? AMEN!

One final note: We think Anne’s drain will come out Thursday – which means hopefully Anne will be in rehab by the weekend. We will pray for just that :-)

-kathryn

Another great day…

5-2-10

Anne  made several significant steps today…

  1. The PT and OT worked together to sit her in a chair.  I think Anne really enjoyed herself :-)
  2. The Speech Therapist evaluated Anne’s swallowing and she did great. The ST put a swab with lemon juice on Anne’s tongue, and Anne swallowed in response to tasting the lemon.
  3. I didn’t see this, but Eric, the PT and Anne’s nurse ALL told me that Anne moved her fingers a little when the PT asked her to. So that’s a big step for Anne!

Tomorrow, they MIGHT remove Anne’s drain – which means, she would be a candidate for rehab. Wee-Hoo!

A few personal notes…

I (Kathryn) went to church this morning for the first time since the accident. It was so refreshing to focus outward in corporate worship. We sang the words, “worthy is the lamb.” Jesus is indeed worthy of our all.

After church, our friends the McKinney’s came to visit. This was the first time the McKinney children got to see Anne. When Canon’s best buddy, Joel, walked in her room, Canon said to Joel, “Isn’t she beautiful?” He’s the BEST BIG BROTHER EVER!

Please continue to pray…

  1. That Anne would progress and we would not grow impatient with the speed of her recovery but instead – remain grateful for every little step God helps her make.
  2. That we would persevere in prayer for Anne’s healing and also persevere in our trust in God’s good plan for Anne and our family.

Still clinging to Jesus – kathryn

Therapy begins

The OT and PT came today and wore her out! They both sat her up and challenged her to hold her head up. She’s doing about 30-40% of it herself! She’s also showing more emotion on her face. She grimaces in pain when the therapists move her in a way she doesn’t like. Any emotion is a good sign at this stage.

When she sat up, the PT let me sit behind her and hug her. I’ve been longing to hold my sweet girl, so I was thankful to hold her – if only for a moment.

Please pray:

  1.  They will be able to remove her drain and move her to rehab;
  2. That her tremors are just a phase that she moves through on her way to recovery – in other words – that they’ll go away completely as she heals, and
  3. For the God of all comfort to be close to Anne and to us as we are tempted to despair.

Clinging to Jesus – kathryn

Waiting…

Today was an eventful day. Anne had three goals to meet before being moved to rehab:

  1. Good breathing
  2. Good eating (via the feeding tube)
  3. Removal of EVD

As of this morning, she met the first two goals. So the plan for today was to work toward removing her EVD. The EVD is what the neurosurgeon inserted into her head to drain spinal fluid out of her brain. In the beginning, this helped reduce the pressure in her brain.

Over the last few days, the goal has been to raise the drain higher and higher so it drains less and less – and then finally to clamp the drain. After they clamp the drain, they moniter her for 24 hours, do a CT scan, and if everything looks good – they remove the drain.

Removal of the drain equals ticket to rehab :-)

So they clamped her drain this morning, but as the day progressed, I didn’t see her making the tiny steps forward like she had been doing the previous days. Her eyes didn’t impove. Her tremors increased and she just seemed more agitated. The neurosurgeon decided to unclamp the drain and wait a few more days and try again…

So we wait… AGAIN!

But, I think they plan to move her to a room on the neurology floor either tomorrow or Saturday. She doesn’t need to be in ICU anymore, so they will hold her in neurology until her drain can be removed – and THEN she can be admitted to rehab.

God’s ways are much slower than I prefer, but given the choice, I choose the creator of the universe and His plan for Anne over anything I might come up with. He is our good Father, and we will trust Him. He has preserved her life. He has a plan to prosper her, to give her a future and a hope. So we wait and trust.

Thank you for traveling this road with us. We are humbled by the outpouring of love we have been shown. Please pray for anne’s healing and for strength for all of us to persevere as we wait and trust.

Good morning

I don’t have an update on Anne. My mom stayed with her last night. I will go to the hospital shortly to relieve her. I won’t have a computer with me, so I won’t be able to update the site…

My prayer for today is that Anne will show us something new. So far, she’s made the tiniest little steps forward. She was swallowing on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I saw the slightest bit of anger in her eyes. So I hope I see a little more of Anne today.

Anne will be a candidate to move to rehab either Friday or Monday. We’re excited to begin this next phase in the journey. From what I hear, they work their patients pretty hard. Anne’s going to need a lot of encouragement from us.

We’re also hoping that Canon and Kate will be able to visit and help Anne when she is in rehab. They miss her terribly.

Thank you for your prayers and words of encouragment. They are so meaningful to us.

-kathryn