Thanks to Reese’s aunt Laura for sharing the following update with us:It has been quite a while since we have updated friends and family on Reese and her progress. I assure you, Reese continues to soar and power forward. The last post we made, we asked you all to please consider getting tested to see if you might be a kidney match for Reese. You all listened and clogged up the Johns Hopkins transplant phone lines and made us so proud! So many came forward to start the process – and it is just that, a process. To date, we haven’t yet found that perfect match for Reese. We found many that were close, but not quite close enough for Reese’s doctor team…but please don’t panic! While there was a sense of urgency back in February to find a donor match, we felt that urgency slip away. Reese had to discontinue dialysis and has so far, held her own. She still needs a kidney transplant at some point, but we hope for her to “hold her own” a while longer as further medical advancements are made and Reese gets stronger and stronger. The biggest news we are excited to share…On Easter Sunday, while enjoying the beautiful South Carolina weather, Reese decided to shed her oxygen tube because it got in the way of her playing outside. Often times, Reese would take her oxygen tube off of her
It has been quite a while since we have updated friends and family on Reese and her progress. I assure you, Reese continues to soar and power forward. The last post we made, we asked you all to please consider getting tested to see if you might be a kidney match for Reese. You all listened and clogged up the Johns Hopkins transplant phone lines and made us so proud! So many came forward to start the process – and it is just that, a process. To date, we haven’t yet found that perfect match for Reese. We found many that were close, but not quite close enough for Reese’s doctor team…but please don’t panic! While there was a sense of urgency back in February to find a donor match, we felt that urgency slip away. Reese had to discontinue dialysis and has so far, held her own. She still needs a kidney transplant at some point, but we hope for her to “hold her own” a while longer as further medical advancements are made and Reese gets stronger and stronger. The biggest news we are excited to share…On Easter Sunday, while enjoying the beautiful South Carolina weather, Reese decided to shed her oxygen tube because it got in the way of her playing outside. Often times, Reese would take her oxygen tube off of her trach to go to the bathroom, or take a bath, or for other occasions, so we knew she was building up lung strength and capacity…but we had no idea just how strong her lungs were! Easter Sunday Reese was off of her oxygen support for 5 straight hours!! That’s huge and a first since the fire in May of 2014! The next day she was off and on again for several hours. Then Tuesday she went to school and was off of oxygen support for 9 straight hours and Wednesday she went 14 hours!!! This is amazing! This little girl is so much stronger than any of us realized. Plain and simply; that darn oxygen tube started getting in her way! It would get wrapped around her leg when she walked, was heavy to carry the oxygen tank backpack, always slowing her down. She got tired of waiting on someone to walk along side of her with her tank as she wanted to walk at her own pace. Reese just took it off, and never looked back! Her Dr. Kristen is as amazed as we all are and is planning some trials to see where she is with her night-time vent support and such. We are so excited about her latest advancement we can hardly contain ourselves or our smiles. This little girl just keeps pushing forward and getting stronger. As many of you know, we lost a special family member a few weeks ago. Many of us believe that Melinda (or Nana as the girls call her) marched right up to Heaven, butted in line and got God’s attention and is guiding Him on how to help Reese. We truly believe that Melinda has a hand in Reese’s latest advancement and she will help guide God to further heal Reese…as Melinda loved her grandchildren so very much. Thanks to everyone who continues to follow Reese and pray for her. She is doing so well and enjoying so much of what life has to offer…she enjoyed her first trip to the zoo recently, loved a day on the water via fishing boat, still loves a golf cart ride, enjoys reading and most of all loves her friends, family and cows. Keep praying. Keep moving forward. Stay focused and pray big!
