Prayer Request for Brailie update

From Brooke's facebook today.


Brailie's MRI results were all normal...no sign of stroke, tumor, blood clot or anything that would have caused this. So, the doctors decided that it was Bell's Palsy. She is the youngest anyone has ever heard of getting it even at Children's in Denver and Children's in Florida. They think Brailie got Bell's from either the hand and foot virus (coxsackie) or fever blister virus (herpes simplex). She had a fever blister outbreak all on her lips and in her mouth back in December but nothing since. The doctors said that it is in your system forever after you get it and you can still get an "outbreak" without the blisters. The way Bell's works (from what the docs explained) is that the virus or your antibodies that are busy from fighting the virus attack the facial nerve for some reason and cause the paralysis. Luckily it isn't permanent, usually only lasting less than 6 weeks. They put Brailie on a corticosteroid and an antiviral. They said we should start to see a tiny bit of improvement by Friday night or Saturday morning!

The only problem is that I have to give her the steroid four times a day and the antiviral twice a day. They are pills so I am going to have to try to sneak the crushed pills into her food. So far she has found them in everything I have tried and then refused to eat it. Guess I will just have to get creative! I don't want to have to force anything else down her after the horrible experiences she had having the MRI drugs forced down and then aspirating some of it. We will figure something out!

Brailie is acting ok. The only real trouble she is having is that her left eye only closes about half way when she blinks. The doctors said that she can develop some eye conditions if it isn't lubricated enough. So we have to manually close her eye and tape it shut when she is sleeping if it isn't closed. It is impossible getting eye drops in it so we are getting pretty good at blinking it for her. Other than that, she is doing fine. She is eating, sleeping, and playing like normal. It is just hard to see only half of her face working. Thank you so much for all the calls, emails, and especially the prayers!!! I will keep everyone updated with her progress.

Prayer Request for Brailie

Brooke wrote this note on her facebook page yesterday. Let's be praying for Brailie and her parents. Brailie is EV & Dorothy's great-granddaughter.


For those of you who have asked, here is what happened and all we know for the time being...Sunday around noon, we noticed that Brailie wasn't using both sides of her mouth equally. As the day went along her face continued to get worse. The paralysis moved upward affecting her mouth, cheek, eye, and eyebrow on her left side of her face. She was still acting fine (eating, happy, playing and running around like a normal toddler). Monday morning Brailie woke up in a great mood but the paralysis had continued to get worse. She couldn't blink her eye and her mouth was much worse. I called her doctor right away and we went and saw her that afternoon. The doctor hadn't ever seen what seemed to be Bell's Palsy in an infant as young as Brailie so she sent us to see a pediatric specialist right away. Unfortunately the specialist hadn't seen anyone this young with it either. She said that she was going to call the neuologist at Childrens in Denver and see what he thought and she sent us home.We got a call back from the specialist right away. The neurologist had never seen or even heard of anyone as young as Brailie with Bell's Palsy. He wanted us to run some blood work and have a MRI done asap.So, today we are scheduled to have everything checked at Mercy in Durango. After the MRI we have an appointment with the pediatric specialist to go over all of the results. The scan is scheduled for 2:00 and they told us it will take about 2 hours since they will have to put Brailie to sleep to do it. We will get the results at 5:00 so we should know more tonite by 6:00.

Countdown...8 weeks

8 Pops...........................................................$8.00
8 Snacks.......................................................$6.00
Trips to the little store with your cousins...........PRICELESS

Prayer Request for Randy

Please continue to pray for Randy's comfort and peace.

I have really been bad about updating the blog from Aunt Lisa's emails on Randy. Forgive me.

Prayer Request for Beth 2 Update

Talked to Diane at noon. Beth was coming out of the cath lab. They were able to remove the blood clot and there was no need for a second stint. Praise God! Continue to pray for healing.

Countdown...9 weeks

What could be better than three days at the lake...fishing, swimming, relaxing?
These 9 people can't think of anywhere else they would rather be.

Come join us at the lake.

James, Megan, Rylan, Danny, Chester, EV, Shai, Gavin, Stephen

Prayer Request for Beth 2

Beth is going back into the cath lab today to put a second stint in. The blood clot has dissolved. Continue to pray for her, her doctors, and her girls and Jimmy.