So tomorrow is the big day!!

Tomorrow, Joy and Anna leave for the University of Columbus in Columbus, OH. We would never wish PTC on anyone, but we are fortunate enough to be going with another mother and son. They are another family in Georgia that have PTC. Fortunately, when Dr. Katz office called, we were able to get them in for appointments at the same time. That made it easier for us to be able to have someone else there that we know.

Anna will be meeting with Dr. Katz and other Doctor's that work with him ranging from Neurosurgeon to Neurooptomologists. These guys and gals specialize in PTC, and as rare as it is, they are a great group to be able to work with. This trip come in perfect timing. The other day, on Anna's field trip with school, she was complaining to Joy that she couldn't see that well. The is one of the scary things about PTC, is it does cause blindness. So being told by your daughter that she is having trouble seeing absolutely terrified us.

We must give glory to God. He has made everything happen, from an anonymous donor donating airline tickets to us from other people helping us out financially, we know that God has his hand in all things. A big thank you goes out to the people that have helped us. A big thank you goes out to our Savior for providing. We will update tomorrow to let you know how this trip goes.

The Anna Update for 27 August 08

Anna has had a fairly good week. By good, we measure good by the severity of her headaches. People diagnosed with Psedotumor Cerebri report of having migraine type headaches on a daily basis. The reason for these headaches is the amount of pressure put on the brain due to CS fluid on their brain. Sad but true. So her "migraines" have not been horrible everyday this week, just a few days. Joy leaves next week for University of Columbus Hospital, where Dr. Katz, a specialist in the field of Pseudotumor Cerebri, will look at Anna along with a Neurologist.

Tricare (our medical insurance provider) has approved this and we are so glad that they seem to care, in an age where it seems medical insurance companies seek to fight patients care. Christian, the only other child in Georgia with this disease, was dropped by his insurance company recently forcing the parents to pay for all his treatment. Please be in prayer for this family as well, we have made really good friends with them. In fact, they will be going up to see Dr. Katz the same time we are.

Also, we ask again that you help to give to help us offset the cost of providing her with the medical attention that she needs. We ask that you consider giving what you can whether it be $1 or $1000. But more importanly than that, we ask that you pray for Anna and Christian to find a cure. Thanks again for your support.

$20 and a Prayer

So, we believe that God has told us, through Dave Ramsey's pricipals, not to go into debt for helping Anna. In response to God's wishes, we need you. We have launched the fundraiser entitled "$20 and a Prayer".

We hope that you will consider this and what we are asking is that you donate $20 and say a prayer for Anna and her mother Joy as we all fight this battle. Prayer is the most important communication that we can have with our Christ. So that is certainly more important than money. Even though, we call it $20 and a Prayer", if you can't afford $20 and still want to donate, then donate what you can. Also, if you can afford more, we ask that you prayerfully consider donating what God leads you to give. We thank you for all your doing in your support for Anna Marie!!

Dr Katz's Office called and wants to see Anna

Dr Katz's Office at the University of Columbus in Columbus, OH, called last week and wants to see Anna the first week of September along with another young man from the Savannah, GA area. So we are going to go with them and share a Hotel room. We have, thank you to the person that donated, airline tickets to go up there. As long as the tickets aren't buddy passes (aka standby), we shouldn't have a problem. If it is standby, with labor day weekend being that weekend, we may consider driving. If you would like to donate money to help with expenses it would be greatly appreciated. More importantly than money, we need your prayers that this visit will be constuctive and informative.

For donations, email us at annadingess@yahoo.com and we will talk to you about how to make that happen. Thanks for your time and concern in helping Anna Marie to fight this disease.

Just an update on the going ons up to this point

Ok, so Joy went to Houston in June and met with the Pseudotumor Research Team. What an informative and great conference they had. She got to meet other parents who go through the same stuff that we do. She also met the few doctors that actually specialize in her disease. They took interest in her case and certainly wanted to meet with Anna.

In the conference, they discussed all the different aspects of Pseudotumor Cerebri. She learned about Cerebrospinal Fluid, Neural Hydrodynamic Disorders, Neurological Shunts, Headaches associated with Pseudotumor and the new research associated with trying to find a cure. It was a very good conference and the contacts that were made there were phoenominal. Thanks to the fundraiser and especially the people involved with the fundraisers for your help in helping Joy to make this conference.

The most important aspect of this whole conference is the fact that Joy met Dr Stephen Katz who is one of the Doctors studying Pseudotumor and wants to see Anna at his offices at the University of Columbus Medical Center in Columbus, OH. They are the leading Doctors in the study of this Disease.

So we know its been a while...

We spent a couple of weeks fighting with Blogger trying to prove that we weren't spam. So they finally gave us the blog back! That took a while and a lot of aggravation and then we just got lazy and haven't been posting like we should. Well we are back and will start blogging every week!!