God Has Bigger Plans!!!!

Just wanted to update a quick note (though it never ends up being "quick") on my blog for everyone. But first and foremost I want to say a GREAT BIG THANK YOU for all of the phone calls from all of my friends and family! It is so great to know I am so blessed with all of you! You have helped out in your own ways and every single way has been such a blessing and exactly what has been needed on that particular day!!! SO THANK YOU!!!!!

I have had a couple really good days. I even did my first spa 2 days ago with mom. It went really well, it felt good to be back to "work" , if you can call "spa...ing" work??? LOL ! ! ! I have been making it to sleep curled up in the bed about half the night and then back to the recliner for the remainder of the early morning hours. I had my stitches taken out yesterday and that in itself felt great to get those itchy things out! Overall I feel pretty good. I am only taking minimal Ibuprofen for pain and an occasional muscle relaxer. I have started neck therapy which seems to be progressing well. Today I even went out of the house ON MY OWN!!! Well sort of......Of-course, I had Jazzy telling me that the road was clear... and "no cars are coming mommy!!" What a big help she thinks she is....gotta adore her efforts!!!! Everyone here at home has been a big help!

I am limited by how much I can lift, maximum of 20 pounds for the next 3 -4 weeks. My other restrictions....work, driving, exercising, etc is all "begin as tolerated."

The rest of news here at home is great. Jazmyn is doing wonderful. She tells everyone that her mommy had brain surgery like it was just another day in her life.....and hopefully that will all it will ever seem like to her. She is looking forward to her Easter party at preschool. I am so excited to get to go with her to all of her school events now and I no longer have to work around her precious schedule for my work, (although I did love babysitting). This has in the long run (LONG RUN) been a blessing in our life! She is first and foremost and I now feel like she is getting what she deserves of her mommy!! I am now beginning to see me living the life I have always dreamed....a stay at home active mom, loving housewife, and a woman's life changer at night with my SPA business!!! So, don't feel sorry for me, God knew what he was doing all along!!!! He just LITERALLY had to drill it into my head to get me to see the full picture!!!! Life is good and getting better everyday.

I hope you all have a great day.... and I hope to see many of you at Jodi's "going to Italy" party this coming Sat April 4th at 2PM!!!!!!!! I am looking forward to a good time with friends that afternoon!!

Keep the calls coming, and prayers are always welcomed!!

God Bless,
KIM

Ups and Downs...

My sweet angel baby!!!

Just a sweet snapshot to bring some life into this posting!!!

She has been my inspiration over the past few days and week. She is such a pure joy and such a little mommy! Jazmyn truly enjoys helping me out with anything and everything that she can possible do, including dressing me. She says she wants to be a teacher someday but I can already see a wonderful nurse in her as well! Whatever her little heart desires.

Today has been a little down with the healing process. Not sure if I pushed too much yesterday with being up for around 3 hours or if this is just the normal 2 steps forward....1 step back deal. Either way, I'm looking forward to a better tomorrow and thus forward. My family and friends have been terrific, someone is always here with me and someone is always helping out with Jazzy. Leslie took Jazmyn home yesterday and her and Marilyn had a fabulous first "sleepover". It was a good experience for them all I believe. Annie, another one of my dearest friends has been here almost daily spending time with me and keeping my spirits up. Jeovany has been outstanding, he has taken over all of the housework, pet care, and has been quite a grand caregiver! I am so blessed by them all!!

We continue to thank you for your cards, calls, thoughts, money, visits, food, and most importantly the all-sustaining prayers!! You have been wonderful! Thanks so much!!!

God Bless you all, Kimberly and family

The healing process....

Hello everyone,

This post will be short and sweet and I will try to not let the narcotics take over my spelling...lol! I am home from the hospital and beginning to mend. I never anticipated the amount of pain and just sheer discomfort that I would have with this, but I am told that the surgery went very well from the dr's perspective. My incision is about 8 inches long, from top of my head down to middle of my neck, pretty swollen and bruised. The worst of it has been the muscle pains. I guess they had to move and cut a lot of muscle to get to the bones to do the surgery. I had a lot more muscle mass in my neck than the average person because I had built up muscle dealing withe the headaches and tension from the Chirai over the past years. I mainly hurt where the "halo"wholes are from where they anchored my head during surgery. I am on plenty of medicines though so I do get some relief.

I want to send out a HUGE Thank you to all of you who have sent MONEY (which has been so helpful at this time for bills!), FLOWERS, CARDS, and for those of making meals and bringing it nightly so we have one less thing to worry about it. It has all been so helpful. We also very much appreciate all of your prayers, the good Lord certainly saw me through this surgery. Thanks to all of you who spent time at the hospital during my surgery and my following days in the hospital. It meant a lot to me to have you there.

I am slowly mending, get stitches out next Monday, and will be starting neck therapy as well. As of right now I have VERy little movement of my neck in any direction. Pretty stiff and sore.

My family is doing great. Jeovany has been a wonderful help as has mom. Jazmyn is going home with mom and dad tonight because Ithink she is tired of me not being able to do a whole lot of anything with her. Then tomorrow night a dear friend of mine is going to take her for the night as well. Jazzy is overall doing okay with it though, just a litlemore emotional than normal.

I will try to update everyone again next week sometime. Until then, feel free to call anytime. Love you all and God Bless!!

Update...

Just wanted to send out an update on today's neurosurgery appointment. I will be having surgery to correct the Chiari I Malformation this coming Friday at Univerisity in Columbia. It is scheduled to begin at 7 am. It is expected to be a 4 hour surgery. I will be in Neuro ICU the remainder of Friday and a portion of Saturday, then placed on 5th floor. I will be in the hospital for about 4 days if everything goes as expected.

The surgery itself consists of going into the base of my skull and removing some bone from my skull base to allow more space for my descending Cerebellum. They will also remove a portion of my first vertebrae as my Cerebellum is also resting on it. Making more space in these areas will allow my brain to no longer crowd my spinal column thus allowing the spinal fluid to flow more freely. I have been telling everyone that my brain is merely too big for my head as I am such a genius!! They will also be inserting Bovine (cow) tissue for support for the base of my cerebellum. Mom says I am going to wake up "Moo-ing" LOL....and I might just have to make a point to do that (if I am aware enough of what I say upon first waking up!)

This surgery will correct the Chiari, and hopefully with the combination of this surgery, my current diuretic, and some major wieght loss in the next 6 months, I will be able to also cut down on the Pseudo Tumor Cerebri (PTC) symptoms. There is a possibility that I could have another surgery (for a shunt) to help with the remainder of the symptoms that I am having from the PTC. Time will tell.

We all thank you for the many phone calls, emails, and especially for the prayers being made! Please keep them all coming. I will not be updating this for a while, but family will be making calls to update many of you after my surgery. It is great to know that I have so many wonderful family and friends thinking of me at a time like this.

Love you all, KIM

Prayers are Welcomed...

Hello everyone,
I wanted to write tonight to let family and friends know about some health issues that I am facing. I have been dealing with some "issues" for about 4 years and have finally went to the right Dr and have some answers. I spent part of last week in University Hospital having tests done and a very risky spinal tap (we later discovered after my complete diagnoses was determined). I went in knowing that I had what is called Pseudo tumor Cerebri, basically fluid around my brain putting pressure on my brain which causes my body to respond as if I have a tumor, but there is no actual space occupying tumor. I had CT scans , MRI's and a spinal tap to measure the pressure and relieve some pressure as well.

When the MRI results were read it was discovered that I also have what is called Chiari Malformation. This is a genetic issue (but thankfully for Jazmyn's sake not always hereditary) that I was most likely born with. Chiari Malformation (Arnold-Chiari) is a serious neurological disorder where the bottom part of the brain, the cerebellum, descends out of the skull and crowds the spinal cord, putting pressure on both the brain and spine and causes many symptoms. I will be going to a neurosurgeon this coming Monday the 16th for my Pre-Op appt. I do not know what next week holds yet. I know that surgery is in my future but as to when I am not sure. I will know more after Monday I suppose. You can visit www.conquerchiari.org for more information if you'd like.

Overall, I am doing okay I suppose with this. I am relieved to finally know what all of my symptoms are from however it is something quite serious so I am also apprehensive as to what my next few weeks and/or months may hold. Jeovany has been by my side the whole time. Mom plans to take some time off of work whenever I do have surgery. Jazmyn has been "taking care" of me quite well also and reminding me of my dr's orders. She's such a sweet little mommy!!! We do appreciate any and all thoughts and prayers!!! I am no longer able to babysit because I am restricted to lifting no more than 15 pounds right now and after surgery it is expected to be even a lesser amount. That was a $1200 pay cut monthly to an already financially struggling family so keep the prayers coming for that as well. Mom and I are really working our SPA business and things are going quite well. I am trusting that this teamwork business will get us thru financially.

I will try to post again in near future...however I may be a bit tied up at the hospital...LOL. You are welcome to call mom 660-221-4816, Jeovany 660-596-2503 or myself 660-221-5366 if you want an update next week.

Take care and God Bless,
Kimberly