Friday, November 28, 2014

A Promised Update

Update:
OK, I promised frequent updates, so here goes. On Wednesday night, Haley was in agony with a severe headache. At 11:30, when Larry could no longer take it, he put her in the car and headed to the ER. Dr. Henderson was called in the middle of the night, and he said that we should call him again in the morning (Thanksgiving day).  She was discharged and they got home at 3:30 am.


We spoke with him on Thursday and he was asking a lot of questions. He said that it is probably more than one thing going on with her. He wants us to take her blood pressure every 4 hours and also to check her blood sugar daily. He suspects that her spine bones in her neck are unstable, which is causing her fainting, but he wants a special MRI done in Washington, DC, to know for sure.


Meanwhile, she is fainting more and more. Just today, I think she has fainted 10 times. Folks, this is so, so hard. Tonight I asked her if she thinks we should rent a wheelchair again (I do). She shrugged and said, "maybe for when I'm out of the house."  I think she should be in one in and out of the house. The stress level in our house is HIGH!!  When she faints, she goes down hard and usually awakens crying in pain from whichever body part was the latest casualty. She has hurt her nose, the orbit of her eye, her head, her arm(s), her shoulders, her knees, etc. from the fainting and subsequent falling.


It is so hard to believe that just a few short weeks ago she was driving herself to work and working up to 9 hours at TJ Maxx!! How did we get here again?


Thanks for your continued prayers. God answered the one about Dr. Henderson calling Dr. Marsh back. (That happened on Wednesday afternoon!)


Please pray for Haley in her discouragement. As you can imagine, it's very difficult to be so debilitated once again. She's getting cabin fever and would love an occasional outing if anyone wants to come by and take her out. If that's something you want to do, just contact her through FB.


Also, I am two weeks away from finishing my semester in grad school. It's hard to think about studying for a final exam and also wondering when we need to go up to Maryland to see Dr. H. We so appreciate all of your kind words and prayers. They are our sustenance.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

A Bump In The Road

So Sad To Write This...

Well, friends, I am sad to say the Haley has suffered a recurrence in her fainting. She had gone for more than a year without fainting, and about two weeks ago she began fainting again. She has also suffered from headaches (likely from hitting her head while fainting), and her usual nausea and vomiting. 

ER Visit


Last Wednesday night we took her to the ER for these symptoms plus she had partial vision loss in her right eye. The ER doctor was very kind and compassionate, but he really didn't know what could be causing the symptoms. He ended up calling Dr. Henderson, the neurosurgeon who did the brain surgery on Haley in June of 2013. Dr Henderson wanted him to do a scan of her head to make sure she didn't have a rare type of blood clot in her head, which, thankfully, she didn't. She was put in the neck brace again because they think the fainting may be due to instability in her cervical spine. (We knew shortly after her surgery that she had a good bit of abnormal movement in her neck bones, and we were told that it would probably progress.) Also, she has been put off of work until at least December 1st.

Our sweet pastor, Burress, came to the hospital to comfort and pray with Haley (and us). I snapped a quick photo of him encouraging Haley. Even in the most difficult times, we are blessed with faithful friends who watch over our souls!

Will you pray?

Please pray for Haley in the following ways:

  1. That her fainting and pain will go away very soon.
  2. That she will be able to endure the discouragement of going "backward".
  3. That Dr. Henderson will return the phone calls our family doctor has placed and that he will have a plan to help her.
  4. For safety and protection for Haley, who is fainting (and falling) all over the house. It's so scary to watch her fall hard and we worry that she may hurt herself
  5. For Haley to be able to tolerate the neck brace. For some reason, this time around it makes her feel like she can't breathe. 
  6. For endurance for all of us. It is incredibly stressful to watch this happen.
  7. That Haley will soon get back to her job at TJ Maxx. She loves working there and has made some sweet friends there. She really misses it.
Thanks so much in advance. I have not kept up with the blog because there wasn't much to report, but I promise that I will keep you all posted from here on out!