Jun 11
5
Raffle, Surgery and Updates
1 Comment
This is a little lengthy, but it is worth reading… some of it is a recap, and some is information yet to be posted… hope you are all well!
Happy Birthday to Maggi on 4/18/11, she turned 6 years old and she became a GIRL SCOUT on 4/23/2011 with Troop 28412. The troop came out with Home Depot and they planted trees, shrubs and roses! The day was such a blessing because we had just finished a very heartbreaking week at Scottish Rite with Maggi battling the fight of her life with Bell’s Palsy and an infection she had since February.
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We were planning her funeral as her kidneys were shutting down and none of the specialists knew what to do. So, as you can imagine, the birthday celebration with our Girl Scout friends was such a welcoming event for Maggi, it gave her the stimulation her brain needed and actually woke her up and made her more aware of her surroundings and brought her back cognitively to us and that made us hopeful that she would fully recover from the facial paralysis/infection..
We love our troop and Mrs. Diane has been such a good friend and has held us up through prayer while Maggi has been so sick. You can see qualities in these girls that you don’t see in kids everyday, they are so spiritually grounded, confident, giving and have so much empathy for others. They showed so much attention to Maggi and took to her instantly and cared for as if she were their own little sister. They wrote a poem for Maggi in the big birthday card they made Maggi and put a big cut out picture of a Tagalong cookie in the card! Maggi perked up when she opened the presents and saw the red box of cookies and immediately signed “eat”! We knew instantly we were getting her back.
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Maggi was hospitalized on 4/17/2011 and stayed through 4/21/11. She had been sick since February. We were seeing pulmonology and ENT for a stuffy nose and pulmonary issues. She needed nasal suctioning with the cath through the suction machine daily and she would have difficulty breathing. Most nights she would gasp for air and quit breathing. This went on for two months. Back and forth to the specialists with them treating her for pollen, using Claritin, antibiotics and nothing helped. She just got worse and worse.
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Then, the beginning of April, Maggi began having trouble with eating, not wanting to take her meds, fighting suctioning and every night was a matter of just keeping her breathing by doing cpt…(cupping our hand and beating her chest/back)…we kept calling the specialists, something wasn’t right…pollen is doing this to our child???
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Then, 4/12, she was not making eye contact, lethargic all day and not eating. Later that evening while I tried feeding her, she went limp and her head dropped. I called her name and she didn’t respond. I picked her up and she was a ragdoll. I pulled her forehead back and her eyes had rolled back into her head. I wrapped my left arm around her ribcage to feel if her lungs were expanding…nothing. Her stomach was not moving any regurgitation up…she had quit breathing. I leaned her forward and began cpt. and pulled her forehead back and her eyes were still rolled back. Still no movement in her ribcage. Then, a bubble began to grow from her mouth of something thick…and it grew larger and still, no movement from her ribcage or stomach…she is non-responsive….so, I took a towel and put it in her mouth and pulled this substance from her mouth out…and pulled…and pullled…it was phlegm. Maggi had passed a mucous plug. She had to see the pulmonologist and that is what they called it and YES, she had quit breathing and it probably lasted 3 to four minutes. Afterwards, she screamed and cried.
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The next night, she gasped for air all night long, so loudly it sounded like furniture being moved across the floor. I kept doing cpt. Sunday morning comes and at 5:30am she wakes screaming in pain and I ask the standard 20 questions and finally ask her if she wants me to suction her nose and she got silent and put her hands together for “yes”…so, I suctioned her nose with the nasal cath…she went back to sleep and I realized how much pain she was in and gave her pain meds, I figured it was hospice treatment at this point. Pollen, geeze, the pulmonologist said this would continue until everything green outside died…how could Maggi live like this? She wouldn’t. A few hours later, she woke up with her left side of her face drooping, like she had a stroke. She couldn’t drink from a cup or eat. My God, has she had a stroke? Patrick and I rushed her to Scottish…not only that, she had not urinated since the day before in the afternoon. Her kidneys aren’t functioning. Is she dying?
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CT Scan in the ER…it isn’t a stroke inside the brain, but they will admit to do an MRI to be sure.
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Monday, her birthday, 4/18/11, she turns 6 years old…MRI shows no stroke, nothing wrong with her sinuses, either. It is Bell’s Palsy. Specialists are in and out of our room. Maggi is sitting up in the bed and looks so miserable, on an iv and still hasn’t urinated. Her kidneys aren’t functioning. She is not aware of much. She is trying her best to drink with her crooked mouth, but tries really hard. Maggi is not our Maggi, where has she gone?Specialists still coming in and out and saying it is pollen.
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They have got to be kidding me! When we got admitted Sunday into Scottish, I drove home to get some clothes and ran into our neighbor, Lisa, who has been a great friend and source of support since we moved into the neighborhood. I pulled into our driveway as she was walking her dog by, opened my van door and fell to my knees…all I could get it out was, “my baby, my baby…my poor baby”…I couldn’t grasp what we were about to endure and I fell apart. She called her husband, who is a preacher, and he met us at my driveway. I explained everything to them and they were able to calm me down. He told me to keep listening to the doctors and keep praying. Jim and Lisa, I love you, you picked me back up from my deepest, darkest place.
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Monday, Tuesday, doctors, specialists, nurses, tests, no one is making any sense. I kept listening to them and they kept talking in circles. I kept praying. I kept remembering what my neighbor, Pastor Jim had said, “keep listening to the doctors”.
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What they said really was, ‘We don’t know what is wrong with Maggi”. So, I grabbed the general practitioner and told him we wanted Maggi to have her nose suctioned, then taken outside into the elements to breathe in the pollen, bring her back into the hospital room to sleep all night, then the next day, let’s suction her nose again. Let’s see if she reacts to pollen. Maggi was not gasping for air at night in the hospital since she got there and her nose was not stuffy needing to be suctioned. She had Bell’s Palsy and kidney issues. What if it wasn’t pollen, we better figure it out. I thought it could be our house making her sick. The doctor agreed. We did what I suggested and she had no reaction to the pollen. NONE.
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An allergist was called in. She met with Patrick while I drove home to meet with some friends in the contracting business to look at our house. We found out the problem and we know what it is that was making her so sick. I can not reveal it now because we are going to be fighting this legally. Let’s just say that Maggi has almost died 3 times in the last 7 months. 3 times. Can any parent imagine almost losing a child even one time????
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We have a lot of support already and I am very busy researching and gathering documentation. We are in an apartment now and it isn’t easy trying to carry the mortgage and now rent, but we will find a way. Maggi is doing 100% better in the apartment. She is actually feeling so well that she has gotten very aggressive with everything because all she wants to do is GO GO GO. Her breathing is so much better, we suctioned her a few days when we moved in, just to clear her out. It was a life or death situation and it took us about a week to gather up money to get into the apartment. So, while we were waiting to do that, we were in the house and she relapsed and began choking and gasping for air again and it freaked us out…put us in a panic. The allergist said if we hadn’t figured this out and met her, Maggi would have not lived much longer…she was dying.
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So, turning 6 years old and becoming a Girl Scout means more to us than you will ever know. Looking back on the last 16 months in this house has opened out eyes to so much that we overlooked and now really shocks us.
We will be holding some fundraisers, some of Maggi’s meds and doctor’s visits aren’t being paid for by insurance. She needs a new hospital bed, too. We couldn’t take this one with us to the apartment. Please visit her website to see the link for the story FOX5 News did on her becoming a Girl Scout!!! Mrs. Diane and Home Depot really did a great job. Just go on Maggi’s site to see both stories from the paper and Fox5.
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A Snapper lawn mower has been donated to raffle for a fundraiser, isn’t that awesome!!! You can email for tickets or call me and Patrick. We’ll put more detailed information on Maggi’s website. Also, Patrick has picked up doing web design again to start earning money from home (our computer is up and running better). We have learned in the last two months that Maggi will never qualify for a home nurse under her insurance so that one of us can at least try to work out of the home. We tag team her care, I do nights and he does days. My days I spend handling the admin care for Maggi. IT IS A LOT!!!
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Keep her in your prayers that she can hang on until spine surgery on Tuesday, June 7th. It was postponed due to her hospital stay in April and her back is really hurting.
RAFFLE
SNAPPER 28″ Deck, 12 1/2 Horsepower Engine
Rear Engine Rider Lawn Mower, Electric Start
Valued at $1700
Donated by Briggs & Stratton Yard Power Group in McDonough
Tickets are $5 each
Drawing is July 3rd @ Peachtree Peddlers in McDonough
do not need to be present to win
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Special Thank You to
Jason Betsill with Green Forest Construction, LLC, for coming out to our home and helping us out after Maggi got home from the hospital. You really made us feel so much better during an incredibly scary time. Check out his website, he has an outstanding contracing company that builds beautiful homes that are GREEN…he also is a board member of The Hudson Family Foundation,www.hudsonfamilyfoundation.com, which also has been so good to us. Check out some of Jason’s amazing homes @ www.greenconstructionllc.com
Michele Bowden and her church, East Newnan Baptist Church, for their donation to help us get into our apartment after we got home from the hospital. Maggi began relapsing and it was a life or death situation and they jumped into action and truly saved us.
Jerry Wilkes for his furntiure that we needed for the apartment. Also, thank you for helping us move it in.
Haylee, Katie, Mom and Lisa for helping me clean the apartment and getting the little things moved in so it would be Maggi ready!
Phyl Hilton with Hilton Service Co., for meeting me at our house while Maggi was in the hospital, he’s a longtime friend. Also, for the book and cd you gave to Maggi! Phyl does great work with HVAC…www.hiltonhvac.com
Brian Blackmon, owner of QLC Landscape and Design, for maintaining our beautiful yard with Home Depot and for continuing to do so for us. We can’t manage our own yard work with the demanding healthcare needs of Maggi right now and he has taken it on as a gift to our family in exchange for Patrick building Brian’s company website! www.qlclandscape.com
Joni, thank you for visiting Maggi in the hospital and for your prayers, McDonough Road Baptist Church.
Curtis Petty, www.findmeaninspector.com, for assisting us with questions about our home situation and Maggi. You have more knowledge and certifications than anyone I have ever met!
Love to you all, keep praying for our miracle girl, she is something else! We are so proud of Maggi, there is no way we could have handled what she has been through. You can send her Get Well Cards, she loves them, we can decorate her room with them!!! 205 DeWinter Court, Stockbridge, GA, 30281
Donna
