Well its now Christmas eve I had ran out to do a few erans and Mark (the best dad in the world) had given all the kiddos bath and they were waiting on me to get home to get dressed. Anna had put on her sweats and said Im staying here Im not feeling well. I talked her into going to Christmas Eve service with some pain med's. Then we returned home she yet once again had a fever of a 101' we gave her tylenol and a bath and broke it for a little bit. WE made it thru Christmas with lots of Prayer and tylenol. Then saturday night she went to bed again not feeling great and woke up @ 430 and said mom I have a h/a im nasueated and my eyes are burning. Well thats all I needed to hear and off to CHOA again. Except this time I was leaving till we got answers. And after several test and scans they diagnosed her with Mastoiditis. And attmitted into Scottish Rite, now the fun begins they inform me we will be here 14-21 days. Wow I thought thats a long time so I started talking to all the doctors on anna's team and told them she would do better at home so they are looking into the possibilities of letting us come home and me take care of her 24/7 the next 3 wks. Sorry back to monday I had asked for them to do a LP - Lumbar Puncture - under floroscopy to make sure the infection had not gotten into her CSF and caused menigitis. PRaise the Lord it hadn't. So the rest of the day anna just hung out on her back b/c after an LP you have to lay flat. Mrs Ann Sims from church came and sat with Anna so I could run home and deal with a house issue, love on my babies, take a shower and get a kiss from the hubby. Then back up here I came. WE meet with most of the dr's on Anna's team they have put together up here. Most of her culturals are back and are negative YEA!! They have diagnosed her with Chronis Sinutis (sp) and mastoiditis. Its wednesday now and annas had a couple of headaches that are pretty bad but with the help of tylenol 3 w/codine and Toredol coctailed together we having a smiling girl now.

I am so sorry I haven't been more diligent and keeping this updated. WE haven't had a great month. It started out on Dec. 8th Anna woke up and couldn't move her neck well her neurosurgeon and pediatrician both had a cow and we were brought to CHOA by ambulance. After several hours they said it was a neck spasm. Then the next day we went to see Dr Ashley and she said I think its a neck spasm. Well we went home and doctored this "neck spasm" which to this day I don't think was a neck spasm. And on the 12th we went back to see Ashely to get Anna's stitches out which was an ordeal. Then we came home and that night really late anna spiked a fever of a 102' we doctored till the next afternoon and it came back so we took her to the urgent care center which then they said she has an ear infection. Sent us home on antibioitics. Then on the 18th we ended back ath CHOA b/c her fever had spiked yet once again on med's. This time they diagnised her with a really bad sinus infection and sent us back home on the smae med's. Well anna really never got feeling great and well I start a new blog now.

Anna Marie had a pretty good day yesterday. Her MiMi flew in to be with her so I could go to the hotel and sleep. She had a blast with her and I slept for 12hrs. When I returned this morning she was feelling better and they started her discharge papers. I took Mary Anne back to the airport and when I returned they were ready to take off her bandages and her stitches that were in her stomache. This was a very painful ordeal and it caused Anna to cry for along time. Then to top it all of she went and looked in the mirror and said mommy im ugly now and cried more. Her pain med's had kicked in and started working so we talked her into taking a nap and that worked very well she slept for 2hrs woke up and was feeling much better. We were discharged and came to the hotel and it was time for pain med's again so we took those and watch some tv. Anna fell asleep and sleep for 21/2 hrs and when we woke up I ordered in b/c she didn't want to leave. Anna took pain meds again at 9 she went 6hrs w.o pain meds YEA!!!
We go see Dr Kosnik on tuesday morning and we will then find out if we get to come home.. Thanks again for all the prayers we still need them.. love to all Joy

Is so very thankful for Prayer and friends that you can call in the middle of the night to start praying. Anna's heart rate dropped around midnight and at 1:00 I sent a text out to start Praying. We did everything to get it up and we couldn't get it up we walked, talk to her moved her around. Nothing worked so we started listening to casting crowns quoting scripture and had family and friends praying Finally around 3:ish her heart rate went up and hasn't dropped below 70 anymore. We are now going to try to get her to eat and keep it down then we will go from there. Love to All, joy Ps if you don't believe in the Power of Prayer you need a real come to Jesus meeting :)

Update: Sorry it took so long had some problems with the blog letting me log in.. Dr Kosnik came out around 3:15 and said surgery had gone well and they he thought she was going to be okay. She finally came to her room around 4:20 and we have been fighting to get on top of her pain. As of right now nothing is working and she is throwing up in so much pain. We are giving her Zofran and Lortab and so it looks like we are going to have to give her a cocktail of med's to see if that will help @ 1:30am. She is also having a hard time getting her color back and is very swollen all over her body. I will update again tomorrow Love to All, Joy

We came back to Ohio yesterday for a bilateral subtemporal decompression. This is where they go and cut her skull out to make room for the CSF fluid. Please keep still praying that she will keep her strength and God will be glorified thru all this. We arrived at the hospital around 9:15 because of traffic and Anna was very nervous and was hyper up until they took her back then she was very upset. The took her back around 12. so we will update post surgery once we get into ICU and she gets seddled. Thanks for all the Prayers.

all your Prayer Warriors: Anna Marie cried on the way home from school today and has expressed that she is very scared b/c of the upcoming surgery. Pray for Peace that passes all understanding, God's love to shine thru her now more than ever. I know that this isn't going to be her last surgery but I do know that God has called us to ask and we shall recieve. Thank you, Joy

Update: We have been home for 11 days and its been pretty rocky. We have been going day by day. Some have been better than others. However Anna got stung on her hand on Thursday and didn't have a reaction Praise the Lord! We go back to Ohio on Nov 12. to have surgery Nov 13. We will be doing a double sub temporal decompression. (yes we are doing it again). Please be in Prayer for Anna has we she is getting over having all these surgery's. And for the finicially aspect as is gets very exspensive going back and forth however we know this is where God wants us to get anna's treatment and has allowed us thus for to be okay. Thank you for your continued support thru all this. We love you all, Mark,Joy, Anna Marie, Alexandria, Austin Mark. :) John 10:10

So we went and saw Dr Big Guy this morning Anna wasn't feeling to hot. He said her pressure is trying to balance out and thats what I kind of figured. So we are coming home for couple of weeks and will return Nov. 12 and have double subtemporal decompression on Nov 13 @ 8am. This will allow anna's body to heal and her shunt to work properly. Thanks again Joy.

Ps. We are getting a dog:) His name is Champ and is a goldendoodle. We are very excited about this adventure in our life.

Well they discharged anna to the ronald mcdonald house. We go to clinic @ 10:30 am to find out our next step are we doing the brain surgery now or later. Anna has only eaten maybe 10bites of food today so that was another reason he wanted her discharged to see if leaving would encourage her to eat and help her diziness. So everything is up in the air and Im not sure about anything right this moment. Please continue to pray for anna's body to heal and for Dr Big Guy. After clinic tomorrow I will update the blog and let everyone know the next step. Thanks again for the support. Joy