A Day in EMU

This morning, we checked Jessie into the EMU (Epilepsy Monitoring Unit) at Johns Hopkins. She has been through this routine quite a few times before at Cook Children's Hospital, so she knew the drill. Lots of wires glued to her head with the smell of acetone filling the air. The EEG Tech was quick, and she was all wired in ready to watch TV.

We are staying across the street from the hospital at The Believe in Tomorrow Children's House (Children's House for short). We are extremely blessed to be here. We can be by Jessie's side in 5 minutes easy. Today Kristi went back to Children's House to take a quick nap, while I stayed with Jessie. This was her first nap in a long time...she deserved it.

Children's House is similar to a Ronald McDonald House (I think...I've never been to a RMH). There are only a dozen or so rooms, and it is for parents of kids with life-threatening illnesses. It is amazingly quiet, and the staff is incredible. We share a kitchen with those on our floor, and there are lots of common areas such as TV rooms, game rooms, play rooms, etc.. It is set up for long-term stays, and we are blessed to be back here during surgery and rehab. This is where we will live, receive mail, do laundry, etc... when Jessie is here for surgery and rehab. http://www.believeintomorrow.org/housing_hopkins.html

Last night, they had therapy dogs in for the families, and the local Corvette club brought in a spaghetti dinner. The lady at the front desk even waited to feed the fish, so that Jessie could do it this morning, because she had shown interest the night before. They are all so caring here.

This morning, Dr. Vining (Jessie's Baltimore Neurologist) came in to see Jessie, and Diana Pillas (the counselor and out-of-state coordinator) came in to see Jessie. She spent a solid hour with us, and it was a nice talk. They are both very caring and compassionate people who are looking out for Jessie and our family. I think that no less than 3 other neurologist came in to see Jessie today. They were all nice and had excellent bed-side manner.

Jessie and Miss McGaugh had a nice surprise today when we hooked up a Video Conference between Johns Hopkins and Stuard Elementary. Miss McGaugh, Robin Seay, and I actually set this up a few weeks back so that we could help Jessie to feel closer to home. She smiled from ear-to-ear as she saw Miss McGaugh and all her classmates and talked to them. We plan on doing this each day this week.

She also did video conferencing with Grammie and Grandad, Matt, Jake, Josh, and Gramm, Papa, Michelle and Justin from Wyoming today. Ouving and Fonzie sang to along with Papa to Jessie. We plan to use this to help her feel closer to family during her rehab in June and July. If you could see the look on their face when she sees someone from home, you have to know that it will help her heal faster.

I was told by the local CBS station, that you will be able to see their footage on Dallas / Ft. Worth, Channel 11 at 10:00PM on Monday night. All of you will finally get to see Jodie, whom I have written about several times. She is such a sweet girl.

At the same time, the Baltimore station will be running their story on Jessie. Since you cannot get Baltimore TV, you can catch that on their website if you are interested. It should be posted soon after the broadcast. http://wjz.com/ This should be an excellent piece as they sent out one of their lead anchors to cover it, and covered Jessie and Jodie together, as well as some time with Dr. Carson.

God Bless all of you for your prayers and for being Jessie's Angels.