Happy New Year!

The last 6 months of 2010 were quite a challenge for the Hall family. Jessie's hydrocephalus and increase in seizures really threw us for a loop. But now it's 2011 and time for new beginnings! Time to put all all that behind us and look forward to bright and promising opportunities!

Jessie has been doing very well since she came home just before Christmas. She still gets tired in the afternoon but is getting stronger every day! She is going to start school with everyone else, so she hasn't missed a beat.

Matt, Jake, and Josh are all "excited" about starting back to school as well. I think part of it is putting away all the video games - time to earn them back in 6 weeks with good grades!

Cris and I are rejuvenated. I think we needed the Christmas break just as much as Jessie did to rest and catch up on a lot of things that were neglected the last few months.

Happy New Year! Here's to new beginnings!

Jessie is Home !

After a nice Christmas Concert at Cook Children's Medical Center with Randy Travis, Charlie Pride, and some other Country stars, Jessie was released and is now home.

Pictures below, including one with Jessie and Randy Travis.
http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/12/22/2723369/country-singers-entertain-patients.html

So, Jessie is beginning to feel much better and we feel blessed to have her home. On the down side, she has had 3 seizures since surgery. That really bites. It is too early to call the surgery unsuccessful. We'll give it a few months, and give her brain time to heal from the trauma of brain surgery, and then we will know for sure.

No need to speculate until then. One Day at a time and Thanks to God ! Thanks to you all for your prayers, emails, Facebookings, Texts, Calls, Gifts, Visits. We Love You.

Blessings to all for a Merry Christmas. Cris

Things are Looking Up!

Hi All,

It looks like we have turned the corner on Jessies' Redo surgery. Tomorrow will be day 6, and she is turning the corner and beginning to feel pretty good again. She still has a few more days in the hospital, I'm certain, and the swelling is still pretty bad, but we are seeing smiles again.

For those of you who are not aware, 5 days ago, Jessie underwent a redo hemispherectomy surgery to battle returning seizures from her original Hemispherectomy in 2008 for Rasmussen's. Her original surgery was at Johns Hopkins by Dr. Ben Carson, and the Redo was performed at Cook Children's in Fort Worth, Texas by Dr. David Donahue.

Even though her original hemispherectomy was anatomical, there was some tissue and connections that were remaining and seizing. Dr. Donahue retraced a complete Corpus Collosotomy and disconnected some other tissue in the frontal lobe that was remaining.

I can't tell you if this surgery was successful yet, and really shouldn't try for months...and even then, it will be an optimistic guess. All of you know who have Hemi Kids know what I mean.

Jessie had a really rough time over the past few days, but is now starting to "turn the corner", and finally ate today and even held it down. She has been plagued with nausea, headaches, and lethargy since surgery, most likely from Chemical Meningitis. This is fairly common for these type of surgeries.

I continue to update regularly on Facebook.

Thanks for all of your support. I think that Jessie will be home for Christmas...hopefully seizure free for good.

Kind Regards,

Cris and Kristi Hall

To Learn More about Hemispherectomy, see http://www.HemiFoundation.org

Post Surgical Trials

Quick Update on Jessie. I am mostly doing my updates on Facebook now, so if you are looking for more up-to-date status, please send a Friend Request to Cris Hall.

Jessie had 104.2 fever earlier. This sounds bad, but after brain surgery, this does not indicate a bacterial infection like it would in you or I. Basically, the spinal fluid has so much debris in it, the body goes into an immune response with fever. Hopefully over the next few days, this will get better.

She is still unable to hold food down, and is mostly lethargic, not drinking or eating.

She is out of PICU, and we are in a private room, which is nice. Kristi’s mom and dad are here now, and that made Jessie smile this morning. She has not had any more seizures, since the one immediately post surgery. Hopefully, that was just due to post-surgical irritation.

Thanks for all of your prayers.

Kind Blessings to all of you.

Cris and Kristi
http://www.HemiFoundation.org

Surgery Tomorrow

Today, we will be at Cook Children’s Medical Center for Pre-Op, Registration, and all the other pre-operative stuff that you have to do. Jessie’s surgery will be Thursday (tomorrow). I will try to keep everyone updated, probably on Facebook, as that seems to be the most used media these days.

The increase in Tegretol has kept Jessie’s seizure to only a couple a day, and not very intense, so she has been able to continue in school this week. Her seizures look something like a combination of a complex partial, and simple partial seizure, beginning with a tummy ache, then staring, and some twitching in her right eye. They are mild, but they continue to break through the Tegretol dose. It is just a matter of time til we would be back in the ER like last week.

The saddest part, is that yet another year, she misses her class Christmas Party. This is pretty important to a 2nd grader, but she hasn’t complained one time. Kristi and I were looking at our vacation spent this year, and over ½ was spent for hospital time. Really, this has been a harder year for Jessie than her 1st complete year after surgery. We pray that this will be the last one.

So, Dr. Donahue will be going after some tissue and connections that are firing up on the SPECT Scan when Jessie is seizing. It is small amounts of tissue and two connections that need to be severed. Unfortunately, It is full-open, brain surgery just like her 2008 Hemispherectomy. Fortunately, recovery shouldn’t be as long as the first surgery. If all goes well, her stay at Cooks shouldn’t be over a week….God willing less.

On the bright side of things, if Jessie feels well, Christmas time at Cook Children’s is magical. They really spoil the kiddos there all the time, but Christmas is over the top.

Kristi and I once again ask for your prayers. It seems like every time we turn around, we are asking everyone to pray for Jessie. We are not too proud to keep asking, so please pray for Jessie and her doctors and for a quick recovery.

Blessings,

Cris and Kristi Hall