Praise GOD we just received a call from the Dr. in Ohio. And Anna's blood work came back fine. So we will go back to Ohio in November to get checked then we will start growth hormones. Thank you for your PRAYERS. Love you all The Dingess Crew

We are back from Ohio and are resting. We will post more info on Monday after we speak to the doctors. Thank you for your continued prayers.

Team Anna Marie

OK, so most of you know by now the disease of Pseudotumor Cerebri and the battle we have been fighting to get her better. Now to add a little bit of fun to the mix. Anna Marie's dad, Mark Dingess is in the process of organizing Team Anna Marie. What is Team Anna Marie? It is a team designed and inspired in dedication to Team Hoyt. We are athletes dedicated to spreading awareness of Anna Marie and Pseudotumor Cerebri. Mark is currently training to run in the ING Marathon in Atlanta in March 2009. In 3 weeks, he is running the Peachtree City Classic 15K (9.3miles) and intends to run in the Atlanta Thanksgiving Day Half Marathon (13.1) miles. At these events, we will have volunteers passing out fliers, soliciting donations and making people aware of Pseudotumor Cerebri and Anna Marie. This is your chance to become a fan or participating athlete from the ground floor. Please support Team Anna Marie. Team Anna Marie merchandise may be added in the future. So if we can work out those logistics, make sure to order and become a fan. Click the link on the left side of our home page or you can click here and go to the site. Please let all your friends and family know about Team Anna Marie and participate as a fan.

Bad News

Today, we got a call from Dr. Katz's office in Columbus, OH. Anna had some blood work done and the results were that she failed every test that they ran on her. Anna will need to go back on Thursday to Ohio to see Dr. Katz. Just when we thought we had her back for a while, back she goes. Please be in prayer for Anna and family as we have to make the venture back. Also, this being very unexpected, we hope you'll be led to contribute financially. Just click on the donate button and contribute any amount you feel led to. Mainly, just be in prayer.

WE ARE HOME!!! Praise the Lord!! Dr Kosnik released us to come home, we will take Anna to Dr Ashley O'Shields on monday for a follow up to check on her stiches. Then we will go back to Ohio in 2-3mths. We will start growth hormones once we go back in a couple of months. If you would like to come see Anna on saturday she will be able from 3-6. If you have any questions please call 678-201-3989.

Thank you and we love you
Joy & Anna Marie

We've had many emails wanting to help with the mattress,sheets and donations. Please take all your questions to Lisa. She is going to be our point of contact. Thank you for all your help. Lisa # 678 201 3989 or lsgr18@yahoo.com.

Anna and Christian were released from the hospital and now we are resting at the hotel. We go to the neurosurgern's office at 2:30 then we will update and let yall know when we can come home. We will update tomorrow :}

We moved out of PICU to the neuro floor last night around 7. Anna's blood pressure has been stabilized since about midnight. Praise The Lord.. Anna's only issue this morning seems to be her pain is really high. However she is doing good other than that. We might get to come home on friday :}. And if you did ecards and we get discharged they will mail them to our house... Well thank you for your contiued prayers and we will update tomorrow after the doctor's appt.

We love you all,
Joy Anna Marie

Please send a card to Christian

Hey all,

Thank you for the response to the ecards that have been sent by you. To date, Anna has received 105 ecards wishing her get well sentiments. Thank you so much for all of your support. Anna absolutely loves getting cards and it has certainly brightened her spirits despite the pain.

Now I have another request. Christian Newell is a young man from Savannah, GA. We have made really good friends with them. He is also in Columbus, OH getting the same brain surgery as Anna. To date, he has only received 8 cards. What a ministry and friend we can be if you all could send him a card. I know that we have already asked a lot from you all, but please step up and do this for us as well and help brighten his day. Once again, you can access the website by clicking on here. It is free and takes 5 minutes of your day. Please do this for him and his family and brighten his day.

Name: Christian Newell
Ward: PICU (He is probably not in PICU, but they will send to his new room.)

Once again, thank you for your continued support and God Bless.

They moved anna out of PICU and down to the neuro floor. Her blood pressure seems to fluctuates when her pain is increesed. We haven't seen the dr yet b/c he is still in surgery. We will update again later and if you did an ecard they will bring them to her new room and when we leave if there are any left they send them to your house?

Please continue to pray as Anna blood pressure doesn't seem to want to be normal it keeps going up then dropping. We are staying in PICU and will be here till tomorrow or until her blood pressure levels out.

Christian is doing great and his website is www.Caringbridge.org/visit/christiannewell
Thank you all for praying for him too.

Thank you for your Prayers. Anna is doing much better, her blood pressure came up and now she is sleeping. Which she has done alot of today!! We will see how she is doing tomorrow to see if they let us go back to the hotel. We will update you all tomorrow and let you know how she is doing. Thank you for your continued prayers.

IMMEDIATE PRAYER PLEASE

Anna had surgery again today and even though she is out of surgery, her blood pressure has just started falling at a rapid pace. They are currently trying to stabilize her, please be in prayer for her. Remember to please send her a e-card. It's free and takes 5 minutes, you can send her one by clicking here.

Hello all, Anna and Christian had a good day! We went to one of the nurses parent's house for a dinner, it was nice to have a home cooked meal.

Please if anyone has Marriott points (we are staying at Towne Place Suites in Gahanna, Ohio)or wants to donate room cost for us let me know, we are charged only $49 a night but it adds up when you are being charged for (currently 13) nights. The hospital is no longer comping rooms for us.

Surgery is tomorrow, 12 for Anna and 2:30 for Christian, Please pray for them, the surgeons and the staf that will be caring for them.

Thank you and we love you all
Joy & Anna Marie

We are having our second surgery tomorrow at 12. I think she is getting nervous because her behavior tonight is not the ordinary. Her right side is swollen and her eye is black and blue but other than that she is doing good. Please continue to Pray for Anna and Christian. Thank you for helping us out it is very expensive but God is providing and showing me not to worry because he is the one to worry not me.
Remeber you can make Anna ecards by going to Nationwidechildrens.org or you can send her an email at Annadingess@yahoo.com

Just wanted everyone to know that Anna was released last night from the hospital and we are back to the hotel they have moved her surgery from Wednesday to Monday so all the cards yallsent she will recieve on Monday!! Thank you for all your prayers and support.

Good afternoon, Anna has had a pretty good day. She is now finally sleeping PTL!! I just wanted to let you know that you can go to the hospital's website and make ecards and they print them and bring them up at 9:30am every morning. Here's the website to create a card for her, its a completely free service. We are still in the ICU but only b/c there a no rooms on the neuro floor and Dr Kosnik only allow's his patients to be in the ICU or on the neuro floor. WE will update again soon

A New Matress and White Sheets

I know this is completely random from the updates we have been giving. The Doctor has informed us that we need a new matress and white sheets. The reasons being that having had brain surgery, old matresses literally have bed bugs and the dyes from colored sheets can be harmful. This is an expense that we also obviously need help with. Thank you to everyone that has already helped us both prayerfully and financially. If you know of a matress outlet that will donate a matress and white sheets, or can give us a really cheap deal, or if you feel led to help us financially with it, we would really be appreciative.

Just wanted all to know they put Anna in ICU just so she can have one on one care. However she is doing great!! Praise The Lord!! God is so GOOD! Please continue to PRAY for Christian he is not handling the pain very well and had to keep him in recovery longer. We thank you for your continued prayers as today is the first surgery and next week they will do the other side.

Well we are out of surgery doctor just came out and said that anna did well during surgery and he put a little more numming cream on there to help with the pain. We are now waiting to find out if they are going to put her in ICU or a regular room. They just took Christian back so it should take about 2hrs for him. Thanks for all the PRAYERS and support you can email annadingess@yahoo.com

Good Evening,
Well Anna just went to bed! Wow was it a day we stayed at the hotel and relaxed. Then about 1:40 we decided to take a walk we went down to the strip then we returned Ann Sims had arrived from the airport. So we set around and talked for a couple of hours then we went outside to play. At 7 we went to dinner then after dinner guess what we did we went swimming till 11:45. Then we came back to the hotel room let anna have a brownie and chocolate milk. Special night!!! Well I will update after the surgery tomorrow. If you would like to email anna you can @ annadingess@yahoo.com. Thanks for all your prayers and support. love you Joy

Yesterday's Dr visit and Surgery Change

Good morning sorry I didn't get a chance to write this last night. Well our first Dr's appt was with the Encrin. As most of you know Anna doesn't have any human growth hormone b/c the fluid flatten her putarity 2 yrs ago and it caused it to quit producing HGH so we did a ton of blood work to see what other hormones are not working and to find out what step we should next. However post surgery once we figure out how she is doing we will start growth hormes (HGH) on a very small dose. So it looks like we will be coming to Ohio allot. Also as most of you know Emory wont touch Anna that's why we are up here. So we can get her the treatment she deserves and needs. Okay so that was the first Dr. Then 2nd was the Nuero and they are now saying she could have secondary migraines b/c of the psuedotumor. So after 1month after surgery we will wean her off of the Topomax (Praise the Lord)! And see if she does have headaches or if it was just the pressure. Then we headed back to our "quarterback" Dr Katz. Wow is he the man, he has contacted every Dr we have been to and discussed our plan to make sure it the plan he wants for Anna Marie. So he is on board and will keep going. Well to call our night we went to Dave and Busters for my birthday and one of the lady's from the office made me a chocolate cake (wow) and then she came and celebrated with us. Well that was our day in a nut shell. O yes the moved the surgery tomorrow b/c of an emergency that came in. So surgery will be at 1200 tomorrow.

My Quiet Time this morning

Well I was reading Romans 8 and I was reminded once again how Great our God is. And how he knew there would be times when we would go before him and didn't know what to say so he sent the holy spirit down to intercede and go to the father and tell him our heavy hearts. Wow I needed that this morning.

We had a great weekend

We went to Buffalo to see Christians family. We had a blast, we went to his great grandma's house first and surprised her then went to his aunt's and surpirsed them. O what fun we had. Then off to Aunt Joy's and Uncle TOm's house we went to we were up till after midnight. Then on Sunday we took off and went to Niagra Falls wow what an experience for Anna Marie. She had a blast she wasn't even thinking of the upcoming week. WEll we didn't go to bed until after midnight again Anna and Christian were having so much fun I just couldn't make myself put her to bed. Well today we took the 4hr journey back to Columbus and got back to the hotel and got settle then went and picked up my mom from the Airport. Then guess what we went swimming now we are about to go to bed.

MRI

Well today was an extremely long day. We arrived at the hospital at 845 for an MRI we finished @ 1145 and Anna slept until 130. Then we had to wait for the Dr to get out of surgery so he could talk to us. We spoke with him at 345 and our having our first surgery this Wednesday then the following Wednesday we will have the other side done. We then went and meet with our "quarterback" Dr. Kat and he has been orchestrating us to see all the doctors and has been following up with each Dr after every visit. WOW is he awesome. We are excited that God allowed us to come up here and meet with all these Dr's. We will update you on Monday we are going to have a fun weekend and try to not let Anna think about what's going on. If you would like to email us our email is annadingess@yahoo.com and also I had a few phone calls today on what bank we had set up its Delta Credit Union under the name Joy Anna Smith-Dingess. Thank you again for all your support and Prayers

Well What we've been waiting for!

Good Evening,

Today was very interesting. We saw the Chief of Staff at Nationwide Childrens, a neurosurgeon. He gave us some food for thought, YEAH. Today they did a CT and xray and found out that her shunt is clogged. Anna's ventricles have little to no space for the CSF to flow or drain properly (we knew that but not the why), so...He is recommending a subdural decompression, which means in "mommy speak" that he will cut part of Anna's skull out to give her brain more room to expand and function the way it is ment to. There is also a concern that Anna has Chiari Malformation which means that her cortext is falling out of her skull (the back of her head, neck area). This surgery scares the bleep out of me but I still believe that we are being lead here to these doctors that have worked with other children with this disease, The Chief called a patient who had this surgery two weeks ago and we are meeting tomorrow. I am looking forward to get the pro-cons from her mom. Tomorrow Anna is having an MRI and the first surgery will be Wednesday the 10th and the second the 17 or 22. We will be here for a while. Please if you have anymore points/miles please let me know. Also, we have bank account for donations. I thank you all. Many Blessing to you and your families...Also please pray for Austin,Alexandria & Mark as they are so far away. You can also email us at annadingess@yahoo.com

Today

Today was exhausting. We had our first appointment at 10:30 with neurosurgery. It has been a very long day. The neurosurgeon that we saw thinks that Anna needs to be shunted again. He took his time and read all of the previous neurosurgery notes and reviewed all of her films. When we met, we were with him for over an hour. We had a great meeting. He wants us to have another neurosurgery opinion from the chief at Nationwide Childrens, our appointment is tomorrow at noon, please pray for us. I am guessing we will not be home this weekend as planned do to up coming surgery. Anna is swimming, trying to relax and not think about all of this, me also! I will let you all know how tomorrow's visit goes and what the plan is...We are also here with Christian who we meet last year his website is www.caringbridge.org/visit/christiannewell.
Thank you for all your support and prayers

Dr. Katz

Hello friends and family. We met with our "quarterback" at OSU. He was amazing, he listened to us, as well as, gave some concrete suggestions. He is VERY concerned that Anna has high pressure and is speculating that Anna might need to have brain surgery to relieve the pressure. I was very surprised when he told us that if the pressure is this high non of the medications will work, so surgical intervention is his recommendation.AHHHH. We meet with the neurosurgeon and neurooligist tomorrow, pray for us! We have been exploring Columbus, and having a blessed time. We miss our daddy, Alexandria and Austin. We love you and thank you for your continued prayers and support. If you would like to email Anna you can do that at annadingess@yahoo.com

How Great God is!

Well I thouhgt yall would like to know yesterday we were sitting at the airport waiting on our 1st flight and we started talking to this very nice lady. Well then they annouced that the flight was cancelled so off to the help desk we went. I was on the phone while Wendy was in line to see what went faster and this very nice lady asked why we were going to Ohio, so Wendy explained about our children's PTC and that these are the top of the line doctors. Well we went to the next concourse to wait for 4hrs for the next doctors. Well here came this nice lady again and came up to us and said I was going to find you no matter what it took. And she proceeded to say I live 5minutes from the hospital and next time you come up you can stay at my apartment and I can go stay at my daughters which is right down the road. I would like to have lunch with you ladies this week and thank you for sharing yall's story to me. Well once again God is providing us a way to keep coming up to see the dr's. Don't under estimate the Power of God. He keeps coming thru time and time again.

Finally Here

Well after a long day at the airport yesterday we finally made it. We arrived in our hotel at 7:30 then went to dinner and to target to get groceries. Well Anna Marie had a really bad day yesterday and when we were landing on the airplane she screamed because she thought her head was going to explode. Thank you for your continue Prayers..