March 18 A special note to all of Gracie’s friends either from school or from church.

The following was written just after Grace came out of ICU. I have wanted her to read the content before posting it here. Much has happened since then and now I have the time to add this information to the blog. I hope this may answer some of your questions and give you some understanding as to the limited amount of detail we told you at the time. Please continue to praise God with us for Grace's recovery, and remember "this is the day that the LORD has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it."  Just one day at a time. God bless you all.   :)

This blog was set up Christie mainly for your benefit. We know that you all love Grace and have been very interested in her in her progress.  We will admit that we have tried to keep the details to a level that wouldn’t freak you all out and make you worry unnecessarily or if the worst came to the worst that you would grieve ahead of time.

Now that Gracie is out of ICU and making good progress we would like to fill you in on how greatly God has blessed us and you by allowing Gracie to live.

As you know all this started very suddenly on Wed 15 Feb. She complained of her face feeling numb. She was dizzy and had double vision. As the night progressed she also became very wobbly on her feet.

Thurs 16 Feb

The doctor sent us straight to hospital. After many, many blood tests and an MRI scan we found that Gracie’s brain stem was swollen in the region that controls vital things like blood pressure, heart rate, breathing and consciousness. These vital signs were continually monitored.

Fri 17 Feb

At 3am Gracie was admitted and moved to Neuro High Dependency Unit. Many more blood tests later it was decided to do a Lumbar Puncture. By taking some of her spinal fluid they would be able to do a whole range of other tests. Trying to determine what she was actually fighting. By this time Christie and Jonnie had arrived from Bathurst and Yr 13. (I add this info for reasons you will see later) After the Lumbar Puncture her consciousness decreased and the heads of ICU wanted to become involved so that they could put her on life support. They did this to keep all those vital things working so that Gracie’s body would have time to fight the infection, whatever it was, and once it was beaten she would still be with us to tell the tale herself.

Some time after she had been moved to ICU it was decided that Gracie would need to have a drain and monitor inserted into her brain so that the pressures in her brain could be monitored.  By this stage Greg and Josh had arrived. So off she went and the 5 of us prayed and committed our dearly beloved Gracie into the hands of the loving Lord Jesus.

Sat 18 Feb

Gracie had a CT scan today to check that the drain/monitor was in the right place. Still more blood tests… I’m a bit amazed that she has any blood left!! But it’s encouraging to know that the part of her body that makes her blood is working fine!! The CT scan also showed that the lower part of the brain that sits in a boxish sort of thing seemed to be a bit tight. This area doesn’t really allow the brain to swell without damaging the brain itself. So we had another conference with the doctors. This time all of us were there. Us 5 plus our very special daughter in law, Kellie, and Number 1 son in law, Neil. So the decision to allow the doctors to remove a small part of the back of Gracie’s skull to let the brain have swelling room was made by us all, and everyone got to ask their own questions. It seemed to be such a long operation, much longer than they had said, until we found out that there had been an emergency caesarean that pushed Gracie’s op back. This op went very well.

Sun 19 Feb

What happened this day?

Mon 20 Feb

Now Gracie was back in ICU on life support. The machines were breathing for her and medication was keeping her heart rate and blood pressure what they should be. The monitor in her brain was doing its job and if the pressures got too high they were able to relieve the pressure using the drain. Still more blood tests, still no answers. All this time, really since coming into emergency, she had been on antibiotics, antivirals and steroids just to cover everything they could thing of that might be the cause. At this point Gracie was sedated to keep her comfortable, so she was pretty unaware of what was going on around her. Josh came and got me in the evening and he was able to read Romans 8 to her. One of her favourite passages of scripture and so fitting in this case.

Tues 21 Feb

Today she had a trip out of ICU to have a MRI to check on the swelling in her brain stem. The results of this scan showed that the swelling/infection had spread upwards. It is not known if this was the peak of the infection or whether it would continue upwards. I’m now assuming that it might have been the peak as she seems to have improved since then. Josh, Jonnie and I had opportunity to go to see her in the evening and we were once again able to pray to our loving God asking Him to heal her if that was His will. Above all we wanted His will, as we know that this is always best. But having said that, we also told Him that we dearly want to keep our Gracie here with us. She is such a blessing and God willing she will be used for His glory in the days that lie ahead.

Wed 22 Feb

It was now time to reduce her sedation and get her to wake up so that it could be seen if she could hear and respond to commands. At one point Josh said, ‘Mum she’s crying.’ Sure enough there were tears running out of her eye. We asked her she was in pain. She was able to nod ‘Yes’. What is a headache? Shake ‘No’. Was her tummy sore? ‘No’. Was it her throat? She tried to point with her hand and nodded, ‘Yes’. Wonderful we could get her some pain relief and knew that she could hear and comprehend. Very exciting day!! But still we didn’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves. When you don’t know what you’re dealing with you don’t know what it will do. Will she continue to improve? Will she go backwards? We just didn’t know. It was hard not to get our hopes raised and we didn’t want you guys to have the same velocity on the roller coaster as us. Also we are not sure how much Gracie would have liked you to know. She does love and care for you all too. Also today Gracie had a full body scan. This one was to rule out any cancers.

Thurs 23 Feb

Still no idea on what the cause is. The scan from yesterday appears to be clear, but the final results are not in as yet. Hopefully tomorrow will tell us more. We are also waiting on results from places like Brisbane. Sometimes they even send sample off to Oxford for tests. How amazing is all this wonderful medical stuff. Kellie’s sister in law, Billie, also works at the hospital and so she will often get updates that she can pass on to us. One encouraging one was, ‘Please make sure the family knows that just because we haven’t found a cause doesn’t mean that we have stopped looking. We are doing everything we can to find something.’ Also it’s comforting to know that Billie really knows the calibre of the doctors that the Lord has placed on Gracie’s case. They are the best.

Gracie’s sedation has continued to be reduced and hopefully tomorrow she will have her breathing tube removed, as she is mainly breathing on her own now. Praise God for such wonderful improvement. Every time she comes to though she gets agitated to find tubes everywhere and tries to pull them out, so they still have her on some calming medication. But hopefully once the tube is out, it really can’t be too comfortable, she will not be agitated any more and will be able to start to eat and drink by herself again. Also today I was able to start playing her some music. Today is was my playlist. Tomorrow I will take her iPod. J

Fri 24 Feb

March 11 afternoon

Grace has been home for a day or two now. She is walking much better now but she is still speaking in a whisper. Before we left the hospital the Ear, Nose and Throat specialist said that her left vocal cord is paralysed. At this stage they are not sure why, as always seems to be the case. Please continue to pray that we would find out why this is and that the Lord would continue His healing process in Gracie. At the moment we have gone home with Christie for a couple of days, then we will be back and Gracie will be ready for visitors and ready to start going back to school - which she is missing. :)

March 9 7:20pm

GRACE IS HOME! YAH ! PRAISE THE LORD ! Again thankyou to all who have prayed for our Gracie. Praise the LORD for his wonderful love to us!

March 9 Morning

Grace is doing well this morning. The Lord is soooooo good! Our times are in your hands Why should we doubt or fear? A Father's hand will never cause His child a needless tear. Our times are in your hand Jesus, the Crucified! The hand our many sins have pierced Is now our guard and guide. CH Spurgeon

March 8 Evening

Well today Gracie has had a very busy day. She has walked from one end of the hospital and back to the other 2 or 3 times, she has spent some time with the physio and had her dad and Josh visit. All in all she was very tired when I left her tonight. It is so lovely to see her progressing so well. She still has a way to go. We are still waiting on the ENT specialist to see why she is still only whispering... This just seems to go on from day go day. I have learnt that in hospitals you do an aweful lot of waiting. I think the 3 weeks I have sat ith Gracie I havent actually done anything but sit and wait. So hopefully in the next few days we wilkl get the walking and the talking sorted out and then hopefully she will be home. Yah! More tomorrow. :)

March 7 Evening

Well some great news today! Grace has moved to a normal ward. She has no morer tubes or canulas or even ecg leads!!! She is free to walk around the hospital. Yah. She is still unsteadynon her feet, but improving ll the time. She will have to have some rehab to get her walking back to scratch and we are expecting to see an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist tomorrow to find out why she is still whispering. Gracie finds this a bit frustrating. So in the next few days she will be having physio to get her walking and we will do lots of practise as she is now allowed to walk out of the ward. This afternoon Jonnie and I walked with her down to the main enterance and had some afternoon tea. This eas actually quite a long walk for her, but she did very well. We are now back to me not being able to stay with her. Tonight when Jonnie and I left she was quite sad but also being very brave. She is looking forward to getting some school work so she can start catching up and then looking forward to getting back to school and to church with all her friends. We know that many of you may want to visit Grace, can I ask that you get in touch with me or one of the family to check that she is up to a visit before going? Thanks, this will just make sure that she has enough time to rest. Again we are so thankful to our wonderful, amazing God who has so graciously answered your prayers in healing our Gracie. Thank you once again.

March 7 Morning

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. As I have been staying at the hospital with Grace I have not had internet. Things seem to be going on from one daynto the next. I have even lost track of what day we are up to. Grace is starting to look very much more like her old self. No tubes anywhere!!! She was very excited when the last tube came out! Hopefully todaynshe will get to more to a 'normal' ward and then the next step will be home we hope. She is still having some problems with her speech. She is only able to speak in a whisper, much to her horror and disgust! And aslo she is still quite unsteady on her feet, although this is getting better day by day. Last night we took a walka around to ICU to see some of the faces who had looked after here there. Gracie doesnt remember them, but they remember her and are thrilled that she is up and about. Anyway, i must get back to the hospital, so I will post more soon.

Monday 5 March 1pm

I must say Gracie is looking better than me today. She is looking almost normal and I have hit a wall. It's now my turn for some R & R, so I am spending a little time with Jonnie to rest and eat well and then back to the hospital. I checked with Grace this morning to see if she was feeling up to visitors today? - sadly she still gets very tired just with walking and showering, but she is improving every day. So hopefully in another few days she may be up to the multitude of visitors that want to come. We will turn that multitude into a trickle, somehow, so as not to overwhelm her. As Christie mentioned she is looking more and more like her normal self. Please be patient with us a little longer.

Weekend Summary

Well, after having a lovely time with Grace Friday night in which we chatted and watched Glee, we started off sleeping well. Our sleep was occassionally disturbed as they needed to do hourly observations of Grace. They tried to stagger these a bit further apart to not disturb her sleep as much. At around 3am, Grace wanted to go for a walk, when I told her it was 3am, she decided she should probably go back to bed.
Saturday morning was good, Gracie enjoyed eating most of her breakfast - her swallowing is getting much better! She is still getting better with her talking, she can speak at a whisper. This should improve over time, as will her eyesight, which at times is a little fuzzy.
Saturday afternoon Grace managed to walk all the way to the shower and back with the support of mum and a nurse - this is amazing! Now she's had this taste of movement, she wants to move all the time! She asked me Saturday morning if she could go for a jog!
The physio should be visiting her daily, developing her strength back up. It so good to see her more and more like herself.
On Sunday, Josh and Kel came in early with Noah and Maddie. This meant Mum could go to church in the morning. Grace was really excited to see them all, especially Noah and Maddie (as she hasn't seen them for a while). I arrived around 11am. As it was the first day in a while without rain, we asked the nurse if we could take her out to the balcony for fresh air. Gracie really enjoyed this, and we ended up being able to feed her lunch out there.
So praise God for lots of improvement, Grace is doing well. Now that she is a lot more with-it she's starting to get a little bored. So lets pray that there will be things to keep her entertained, as she still needs to be in hospital for a little while. Praise God that our Gracie is very much herself.
We can pray that her speech therapy (swallowing and talking) and her physio treatments continue to go well.
Please also pray for Mum as she hasn't had a long decent sleep in a while and is starting to feel the effects of it.
Thank you so much for all your prayers. She told us yesterday she can't wait to get back to church and school :)

Day 17 Morning

Well, Grace and Christie has a pleasant time together. Christie is a little tired this morning though as Grace decided she wanted to get out of bed around 3am. Not a good idea at this stage. On the whole though she was a lot more settled by having a family member there. I think now we have hit the weekend, not much will be happening until monday morning. I will be staying tonight and may not have internet connection. So if there is anything new to report before monday I will make sure someone else keeps you up to date.   Have a lovely weekend all you friends and family of Gracie.   :)

Day 16 Evening

Well all you wonderful praying friends and family of Gracie,good news today... She is finally out of ICU !!! Now dont go planning a visit just yet, she is not up to it yet, but we will let you know when she is ready for visitors. :) She has had a very busy day, what with moving into new premises and decorating. Yes, we now have pictures of friends and family on her walls. If you would like your pic there send it to us and we will add it to the wall. Also if you want to send her a paper note, as opposed to face book, send us a postit note and well put that up too. Anyway, so after decorating and entertaining the doctors and new nurses she finally had time for a refreshing shower. Gracie decided to walk there, which to you and to me might be nothing, but to someone who has been in bed for 2 weeks solid, it is a huge thing. She did very well. As I went out to lunch I asked if she would like me to bring her back anything special. She said, 'a slushy!' well she isnt allowed those yet but I think I brought her back something even better because Christie had arrived from Bathurst. (thanks once again Heather). Christie is having a sleepover with Gracie tonight. The doctors in this new area are very happy for Grace to have a family member stay to help keep her comfortable. For this we praise God with all our hearts. So all in all tonight is a night of praise and thankfullness to our wonderful God for working wonders and bringing Gracie to this point. She has. Long road ahead and it will be some time still before she is out of hospital I think. We will continue to pray and to take one day at a time and praise God fornthe many blessings of each day. Please join me in doing so.

Day 16 Morning

Sometimes we don't understand the way God does things.   I have been in touch with the hospital this morning and have found that Gracie has had an unsettled night again.  I am not sure why we keep going up and down on this settled/unsettled roller coaster. Please pray for her that this will all be in a slowly upwards moving way despite the frustration. We are still waiting on a bed in another area, which really is fine as while she is still in ICU she still gets 1 on 1 care. The Lord is good in all His ways. Even when things may not go the way we had anticipated.  Ps 25:10 'All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth to such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.'

Another example - Christie is catching the train down today. When she got to the station this morning they were told that the bus from Bathurst to Lithgow had been cancelled due to flooding.  :(  She messaged her friends to ask them to pray that Country Link would sort something out. One of her friends offered to drive her to Lithgow, which is only about 40 min, but now Christie will have lovely christian company for the first leg of her journey. Christie's mum thinks Heather is absolutely wonderful !!!  Thank you Heather  :)

Day 15 Evening

Well I must say I am a little put out by the hospital sometimes. They do a great job caring for Gracie, but tonight they wouldn't let me stay!  :(  As soon as she knew I was heading home she wanted to hop out of bed and come home with me.  :)  Obviously she is much more settled when I am there. It frustrates me that the nurses can't just go with this and push policy aside for the well being of the patient.  Anyway... 

Gracie had been very busy today. After staying last night I headed home for a shower and a nap before going back around lunch time to find Grace eating pureed meat and veg for lunch. After lunch she had a shower, did some exercises, had a couple of tubes changed, (she coped with this much better than her brother - not telling you which one!) and also had a Nerve Conduct Study, (I think that's what it was called). So for someone who hasn't done a lot in the last 2 weeks she ended up pretty tired, so hopefully she will sleep well. Before I left we read from Ps 4:8 'I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety' and committed her into the Lord's hands for the night. Please pray with us that she will have a quiet and peaceful night

Day 15

Hello all,
Mum apoloises for not posting last night or this morning. As Grace has been unsettled overnight, Mum decided to stay with her at the hospital to see if this would help. It seems to have helped a little, but we need to keep praying that Grace will be settled enough to sleep overnight so that her body gets back into a good sleep/awake pattern as this will assist in her recovery.
There's not a lot to update but that she's started to talk and move a lot more, which is good. It will take a while for her muscles to get back to what they were, but this initial movement is good. We need to keep praying for her speech. While it is improving, she's finding it difficult to speak and there's a lot she wants to say (no surprises there! :P) So we can keep praying for that.
It will still be a little while before you can visit, so please wait for the go ahead from the family.
Continuing to pass on your messages to Grace, so please keep sending them :)
Thanks so much for your love and support for us and for Grace through all of this.
xo