Well we had a rough night and daddy sleep thru most of it..He snores really loud!!! Anyway we haved an okay we were up and walking however we haven't done some of the most important things like eat more than 3 bites all day and get pain under control. We are going to try again at dinner time to actually eat and get this pain under control and start drinking so we can get discharged tomorrow. And get to go home on thursday.. We are waiting on the phone call to tell us what day we are doing the brain surgery. I will update again tomorrow. Joy

Update: Sorry I haven't done this earleir its just been a long day. Well Mark made it in time to see Anna before she went back to surgery this morning. When she went we thought it was going to be a long time however Dr Kosnik came out 2hrs into and said were done for today we brought in General Surgeons to blow up her stomach and found her catheter kinked adn the valve not working. So they fixed the cathiter and replaced her valve. Then to the brain we didn't do it because we wanted her shubnt to start flowing correctly and she would drain to much csf and have a low pressure headache. So we will probably be discharged on wednesday to the otel then go home on thursday. Sad news is we have to come back in 3 weeks to do the brain surgery. Thanks again for all the encourging letters and notes they have ment the world to Anna.

Just wanted to update. Saturday we just bummed around and Anna had a good day with some exeptions. Today hasn't been so great her pressure is back up and she is very nervous about the surgery. She woke up this morning and said lets go home and not do the surgery but as the day has gone on she's getting okay with the idea. Please continue to pray and I will update this as soon as she comes out of surgery and we have a moment. Thanks again for all your prayers and support. If you would like to give anna marie a word of encouragement you can email her @ annadingess@yahoo.com or leave them on here.

Sorry about the delay in updating however I wanted results before I let everyone know. Anna had said the that her head had been hurting when we went to the Neurosurgeons office they did a ct scan and xrays and said that she was backed up and that was the cause of the headaches. On thursday we went back into Dr Kosnik's office and he admitted anna to have a Lumbar Puncture (LP) and a 3D ct scan. We were able to do the 3D ct scan on thursday and had to move the LP to Friday because she had a allergic reaction to the sleepy medicine. On friday they did the LP and her opening pressure was 30. So finally they just came in and said surgery on monday @ 1:30, they will be redoing her right sub temporal decompresion, replacing her LP shunt and placing a valve in her brain.

I had no idea when we came up it was going to be this intense so please continue to Pray for Anna Marie, the doctors and me..Mark is going to be coming up hopefully on Sunday then going home monday night after her surgery.
Also please keep Alexandria and Austin Mark in your prayers as they don't understand why mommy is gone again. Also childcare to keep them while Im away.

Thanks again for all your support,

Joy Dingess

We went and saw Dr Katz (neuro-opthamalogy) her vision was good and he wanted to come back and see him after our apptointments today. So today our first appt. was with Dr Kosnik (neurosurgeon) and after several xray and a cat-scan we have decided that Anna needs to go see a GI dr. Then we went to see Dr Hardin (endocrinology) and recieved amazing news!! Anna has grown 4.2 inches since January 20,09. So we are continueing on the same dosage and Praying that on thrusday Dr Kosnik and the GI dr will have some answers. Thanks agian for all your prayers and support.

Okay we are going to try this again. I updated the blog the other day and when I hit submit O lost Internet. Sorry about the long delay. Anyway we came home Wednesday after seeing Dr's all day Tuesday. first appt was with the Endocrinologist they are very well pleased on how much she has grown and they upped her growth hormones now on to the neurosurgeon he was very well pleased how well she was bouncing back and that it was an emergency to air lift her..He won't say why it was such an emergency but I am thankful that he takes Anna Marie illness so seriously. Last Dr was the nueroopthamaligist and her eyes looked good.

Good Afternoon,
Anna was discharged this afternoon she has a ear infection not sure how we got this but she is doing good. Her spirits are getting better but she said yesterday that she was done being in hospitals and unfortanitly with psuedotumor cerebri there isn't a cure or a fix it solution. The shunt is only to help the csf drain however because it is csf it has protiens. Prayer Request: That Anna will hold up emotionally and physically and that this shunt will last a little longer.

Anna's surgery went well the shunt was broken. Anna is right every time..She had a hard time coming out of surgery and had to have extra toredol to get stable. We are now just letting her rest. If you want to send anna a card go to nationwidechildrens.org Rm 3019 its still under Smith. We should have had her name change but I didn't bring her adoption papers sorry didn't know we were going to be flown from the hospital yesterday.

Dr Kosnik's sent in his Nurse Practioner to give us the update. Anna will be having surgery this afternoon to replace her shunt. Prayer request: Dr Kosnik and the medical team, Anna Marie to hold her chin up, mommy to be strong, and the medical bills that I am getting a little over whelmed with.

Thanks Again for all you all do for our family,

Joy, Anna and the rest of the Dingess Crew

Update

Last week Anna Marie had started complaining of headaches and stomache pain so we were just medicating her and seeing if it would pass. On Monday her attitude starting showing that her shunt was malfunctioning on Tuesday she said my shunt is broke on more that one ocassion. Wednesday morning @ 5am she woke me up saying mom I threw up and my headache is a 10/10 she continued to throw up until 745ish were she was able to finally keep Zofran down at 8 she passed out. 9 came and she came too and said mommy I wasn't sleeping but were was I so we were off to Scottish Rite after xray's they said her shunt had come apart in one and the other xray it wasn't so clear. We contacted her neurosurgeon in Ohio and gave him the report of what was going on after speaking to him it was decided that Anna Marie needed to be flown by a transport team to Ohio. So we waited for the medic plane to arrive in atlanta and were taken by ambulance to the airplane then another ambulance waited for us at the airport to take us to Nationwide Childrens. We are now waiting for the dr to come in and give us the plan. Anna isn't allowed to eat so I think they are going to do surgery today. Please continue to Pray for the following: Anna Marie's strength, the little people to be okay while Im away, and Mark while he is away at school.