Dear Praying Friends,
First of all, thank you so much for your prayers and love. This has been a horrific week that has been more than bearable because of your love and prayers. The Lord allowed Cassie to have many seizures beginning just a few minutes after being admitted. The seizure activity was intense and very difficult to watch and be powerless to stop. However, the Dr.'s got the information they needed in 3 days instead of 6 days and we were able to be released early. The Dr.'s will need about 3 weeks to process all the information they were able to acquire. We will have a follow-up appointment with Cassie's neurologist in Anchorage once he gets the recommendations from the staff here at Harborview. If Cassie is a good candidate for the surgery we will be making another trip to Seattle for one more test that will take a couple of days. Depending on what they find out, they would go a head and do the surgery and keep Cassie for about a week for recovery-for a total of around 10 days here at Harborview.
The Dr.'s at Harborview made it very clear that there are no guarantees that the surgery would take care of Cassie's seizures completely. Depending on the area of the brain that would need to be operated on, Cassie COULD lose her fine motors skills completely in her right hand (the side impacted by the cerebral palsy), and/or some of her speech skills. And the surgery could only decrease the number of seizures she is having, but not all of them. At the same time, the surgery could take care of her seizures completely. Only God knows.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we hear the results of her testing and move forward with her treatment. So far, medicaid has covered all of Cassie's expenses and we are very grateful. However, as we anticipate the next trip to Seattle there will be expenses that medicaid will not cover. Should our next appointment lead into surgery for Cassie, Gary needs to be here as well.
God has graciously provided the means to fly Gary here and home but we will have the added expense of housing and meals during that 10 days since only one of us can stay in the hospital room with Cassie. We appreciate your prayers regarding this, as well, as we look to the Lord to give us direction and provide for Gary to be there with us at this next appointment.
I am sending this update from Seattle as we had a little mix up on our return flight. Since medicaid is paying for this trip we had to have prior authorization (PA) for everything. The orignial PA had our return flight set for May 31st. I do not know why, as we were originally suppose to be at Harborview Hospital until Monday the 6th. I called the airline office as soon as I knew we were being released on Friday and thought I had everything taken care of. We were suppose to fly out today (Saturday) at 1:30. About 4:30 Friday I found out that I couldn't get the return flight because our PA had us returning on the 31st not the 4th. By the time I found out I needed to contact the PA office they had closed FOR THE WEEKEND. So here Cassie and I sit in our little hotel room in Seattle until Monday! Lord willing, we will be able to settle everything first thing Monday morning and be well on our way back to Kenai sometime Monday. Once again, your prayers are greatly appreciated!
After such a grueling time at the hospital we have actually really enjoyed just laying around, watching old movies, taking long walks around this very historical part of Seattle, eating and sleeping. We believe God has a purpose in everything-so we are thankful for the "lay-over" and enjoying it the best we can. Though we are homesick and ready to see family & Kenai again! (-:
Love to All of YOU,
Kris and Cassie
