Reese’s aunt Laura shares the following update on our young hero:
So many continue to ask about Reese and truly want to know how she is doing now that she is well adjusted at home…and we think she is doing great! Reese has adjusted to her home schedule which during the summer is ever changing – she is one busy little girl! She partakes in the daily farm activities and chores each day – even in this sweltering heat, she loves to read, enjoys visits from friends, loves to sit on a soft blanket on the floor and watch movies with Regan and Brinkley while eating popcorn and enjoys pulling a quick joke or prank on anyone she can! She has been to the movies, been to see her Uncle Zachie play baseball and visited the pool for the first time just today. She has been to visit Mimi and Gandy at the farm, won several goldfish at her county fair and had a few more interviews for TV. She loves to swing under the big shade tree in her yard, still enjoys a big breakfast and her favorite foods are still cheese pizza and chicken nuggets. Her absolute favorite thing to do is drive the Kubota around the farm – a truly hysterical site if you are lucky enough to be one of her passengers. How much more normal can you be?! Medically speaking, Reese is continuing to heal at home and amazes everyone with her spunk and love for life. On the near horizon, Reese will undergo a cochlear implant surgery. Reese developed a great deal of hearing loss as a result of a very necessary medication to kill a harmful bacterium in her bloodstream while in the ICU. The hearing loss started very gradual but has resulted in 100% loss in one ear and 72% loss in her other ear. While Reese has had several hearing aids, this hearing loss has shielded Reese from so many conversations and real life events. She is a prime candidate for this surgery and we await insurance approval for her to get the green light…it’s an out-patient procedure and will be 4-6 weeks after before she can begin to hear the results. It should be no surprise to anyone that she chose the Bluetooth implant – one she can connect to any phone, any movie player in a car or speaker…oh the fun she will have with that! We are excited for this procedure because we feel it will truly open up her world. Reese has graduated from the vent by day and only needs it at night – which we hope soon won’t even be necessary all night…in the coming weeks, she will be weaned to a CPAP mode which is a closer step to shedding the ventilator all together! Just this week, Reese was transitioned to a speaking valve on her trach and what a difference it has made. Talking and laughing just became so easy and effortless for her and she is quick to tell you stories and daily life happenings that have taken so much effort for her to spit out for months now. All-in-all she is requiring less and less support for example, she was on 6-8 L of oxygen when she first got home and now is on 2-3 L of oxygen…that’s progress! We hope she continues to improve at this rate and can shed the vent all together and can be weaned to nose-canulated oxygen. Reese is still on dialysis at night and will most likely need a kidney transplant in the future, but for now we concentrate on her lung improvements. Reese still has therapy each week and has gained so much strength. She is learning to take long strides with her prosthetic and not the little half steps she is accustomed to. What’s most noticeable to me is her core strength, just this weekend I watched her sit for 3 hours on the floor, with no back support and she sat straight up the entire time – I would have been curled on the floor or leaning against something after 3 hours! The most normal of all things we are focusing on…school. At the end of summer on August 22nd, Reese will resume her elementary school career with her friends at school. She is so excited to rejoin her friends AT school and not through her ipad robot Double. She just had her mom order her a new backpack and lunch box and she can’t wait until August 22nd! Until then, she will visit the beach as she has longed to do, show her calf with Brinkley and Regan at the Clarke County Fair, enjoy a few more summer pool days and continue to laugh, love and live each day to its fullest. If there is anyone in the world who enjoys life and all it has to offer, it is Reese. Thank you to each and every one of you have continued this journey with us all. We consider ourselves so incredibly fortunate to have had your support, your love, your friendship and your prayers. Please continue to lift Reese in prayer and pray that she continues to build her core strength, can have healthy enough lungs that she can shed the ventilator, and can continue to wean her oxygen. Pray the insurance company approves her needed ear implants and that she continues to move forward with a smile on her face. Our steps seem a lighter each day and our smiles just a little brighter for we are so thankful and so blessed.
