Brenna update-- PRAYERS NEEDED!!

Saturday Evening 12/19/09

Posted 14 hours ago
In some ways it is harder to see Brenna now than when she was peacefully sleeping in a drug-induced coma. Her breathing is irregular and jerky at times and her eyes twitch and flicker half-open. When we talk to her, she looks like she wants to respond but can't.
We haven't seen much movement today, just some in her legs when the head of her bed was quickly lowered, almost like a startle reflex.
The EEG leads were removed and her hair was able to be washed for the first time in quite a long while. It was so nice to be able to remove the glue stuck in it.
We had a long consultation with one of Brenna's neurologists today. He continues to believe that she is not having clinical seizures although she continues to experience what he calls PLEDs (periodic lateralized epileptiform disharges). These are neurologic disfunctions in the cortex of the brain due to injury suffered from the pressures her brain was subjected to from the bleed and lack of oxygen to it during the event. To what extent her brain has been injured is not known. This is different than the injury suffered to her brain stem. These PLEDs may get better in the future, with time, or they may not. He cautioned us that statistics are not on her side for a "meaningful" recovery.
We know that Brenna's human doctors have done as much as they are able- first to save her life and now to give her the best chance they can for recovery. They admit that it is now mostly out of their hands. Brenna's future is held in the hands of Almighty God, and only He is able to give her the miracle she so needs. We continue to pray that His will would be done, and we surrender Brenna and her future into His hands

Brenna update

This was sent via email from my aunt--Brenna's neurologist again turned down her coma medication by a slight bit this afternoon. We still have a ways to go, but we're heading in the right direction.
We thank the Lord that Brenna's body continues to function well even under the coma medication. Her lungs appear to be healthy even though she's still on full vent support. She continues to tolerate her feedings so she's getting the nutrition she needs. She received a unit of blood today just to give her a boost. Every time they give her a unit (this is her third) she seems to perk up some.
Seizures remain the biggest concern right now. Even though she is not currently having seizures, there are some occassional patterns in brain activity that could potentially turn into seizures as her coma medication is decreased and the brain is less sedated. The doctors continue to closely monitor her EEG and are attempting to find the right kind and dose of anti-seizure medication to prevent them.

Prayer Chain Request!

My Aunt Patti has a friend at work named Lisa-- Lisa's daughter has a friend named Brenna-- the prayer request is for her:

Brenna is 18 yrs old and a student at Calvin University. She was outside November 18th watching the meteor shower with friends- Brenna complained that her head hurt and she wanted to go back to the dorm to rest.

Enroute she collapsed.

School security/EMS acted swiftly and Brenna was resuscited but did not fully regain consciousness. Brenna remains in a coma. The doctors are very concerned about brain stem injury from inital bleeding. We are believing and standing on God's word for her full recovery and healing.

That was an email from Lisa-- please add her into your prayer list and any prayer chains you may be a part of!!

Thank you so much!!

Prayer Chain

Ok, so lets try and get some prayers on our prayer chain (I know its not something we WANT a big list of but there are some out there)

Ok- here's a few of them- (feel free to email or comment with your prayers- gigisgang08@gmail.com (will not post name is you dont want me to)

~ Aunt Laurie (shes been through so much with all of her surgeries. I just talked to her last night and she said she needs to start eating more and things like that before she can go home)

~ Gram (she's getting better and the physical therapy is working for her- so she (hopefully) won't be in the nursing home too much longer)

~ Grandpa Jones (along with tumors on his kidneys- they found one on a lung and they can't operate on him. He will be starting chemo 3 days on/ 3 days off and hopefully that will shrink everything)

~ Aiden (obvious reasons- he has another MRI coming up to see about the "ants biting his legs")

~Dima (they still have no idea if what they found on his leg is cancerous or not- they will find out next week)

Any others?!

Food for the poor

Hello all!! Hope everyone had a great weekend! When we went to church yesterday, there was a priest there from a non-profit group called "food for the poor". He was telling us about all the different things that your money goes to- like:

$21 will provide a meal for 420 children!

$36 will feed 3 families for a month!

$50 will help provide medical and nutritional aid for severely malnourished children!

$90 will provide a goat to supply milk!

$205 will provide a water pump for a village!

$2600 (or a pledge of $174/month for 15 months) will provide a needy family with a home!

There is also a bank in FL (where the company is located) that - if you want the house built in Nicaragua they will match your donation and build a 4 room/2 family house!! If you donate to build a house you can have a plaque put in front of the house with a name on it and you will receive a picture of the house, plaque and family!

So, this got my mom and I thinking-- can we raise $2600 and have a house built?!? I think we can!! I know its a lot of money and its close to the holidays so it may take some time to raise but WE CAN DO IT!

We wanted to have the plaque say Grams name (since shes the reason we started this group) and under it put either GiGi or GiGi's Gang.

If you would like to donate- PLEASE let me know and I will let you what needs to be done!

(if you would like a envelope kit to donate something on your own- let me know as well- I took a few of them and I can give you one)

"better is one day in Your courts than thousands else where"

COMMENTS NOT WORKING

Hello everyone!

This is not todays post- just a notice that as of right now the comments are not working. I am trying to get them to work- I've got a few people helping me to figure it out. Please bear with us! If you wish to leave a comment- for right now- we will do it the same way as the prayer chain- email them and I will copy and paste them in (let me know if you don't want your name included) gigisgang08@gmail.com!

Ok, now on to the post for the day.... stay tuned!

Pregancy & Infant loss Rememberance Day

Today is a very special day for a few friends. Its a day to remember miscarriages or stillborns-- or even infants that became angels too soon! Being a member of a discussion group based around children-- I have had the pleasure of knowing 2 very strong ladies- Beka and Tina that have both lost children.

Tina's daughter Alyssa was born around the same time that Caleb (and all the other JJBs) was and passed away in her sleep a few weeks before Christmas.

Beka just lost her second son this summer- a few weeks before he was born.

I also worked with a women who had a miscarriage.

These are very stong women and they lost something that is more precious than anything I can imagine.

Please keep all of these families (and any families you may know affected by this) in your prayers today!

Please also, where ever you may be at 7pm (if able) please light a candle for all of our little angels and keep that candle lit for an hour.

Thank you so much and have a great and blessed day!

"Blessed be the name of the Lord- He gives and takes away! Blessed be His Glourious name!!"

Description of site

Ok, so as many of you know (but some may not) we do chairty work for our team "GiGi's Gang". This is our 'website' (we don't have the money to pay for one right now so this is what we're doing!)

I will post different events that "GiGi's Gang" will be taking part in/starting and feel free to join us!

Here's a look at GiGi's Gang's track record so far:
~ Walk Now for Autism 2008 & 2009 (http://www.autismspeaks.org/)
~ Aiden Cross benefit (with more to come) 2009 (http://www.aidenscross.com/)

I also want to do a prayer chain as well. Please e-mail me your e-mail address if you would like to be included (gigisgang08@gmail.com)!! If you have a prayer request- either leave it as a comment or e-mail it to GiGis Gang and we will forward it to everyone else (if you would like to remain annoymous- please let me know in the e-mail and I will copy and paste).

Also, if you know of anything going on-- let us know!! We would LOVE to take part in it!!

Thursday is "Pregancy & Infant Loss Remeberance Day" please take a moment to light a candle @ 7pm for all those infants and pregancy losses (this is close to me as a few friends from Ivillage have lost their little ones).

Thank you all for visiting and make sure to make this a favorite!!