Monday, August 16, 2010

Holden's Hope for August

Meet Brianna. Isn't she just gorgeous?!? She is such a beautiful little girl inside and out. But she has a big problem and needs some extra prayers! This is just a little of what her sweet Mommy Tiffany told me about Brianna...

Brianna was born completely healthy baby but a few days after they got Brianne home, they started to notice that she was spitting up a lot. She was spitting up so much that it was coming out her nose and mouth and even choking her. Her doctors continued to think it was just reflux so for her first year she was on reflux medicine and slept in a bouncer for 6 months. The reflux even got so bad that she would aspirate into her lungs and had bronchitis a few times as well as many ear infections and even tubes.

At the age of 2, they noticed that her speech was very delayed. Her whole family could understand what she was saying but it was hard for others. They took Brianna to several speech therapist and no of them seemed to help.
In February of 2009, at the age of 3, they finally took her into a hospital speech therapist. Within minutes she knew what was wrong with Brianna. She was diagnosed with Sub mucous Cleft Palate. They then were refereed to a surgeon with the Craniofacial team. The doctor ran some test and concluded that Brianna did in fact have the Sub mucous Cleft Palate.


{Brianna with her two little sisters}
What does this mean? This means that Brianna's muscles in her soft palate in the roof of her mouth did not fuse correctly and makes speech hard for her. Some letters such as D and G are harder for her.
Last September, her doctor did surgery to repair her Sub mucous Cleft Palate as well as a
varengealplasty. After her surgery the swelling got so bad that her 2 day stay in the hospital turned into a 7 day stay in the PICU since it was so hard for her to breath. However during the surgery they over corrected her problem so now back to surgery she may have to go.

On August 18th she will go back to the hospital and have a scope with a camera on the end check to see how things are and what kind of surgery she will have on August 25th. They will either repair the first surgery and just be able to fit it or have to do another surgery where the might have to take some skin and muscle from the back of her throat and attach it to her palate.
All of this while never complaining about anything.
Wow! What an amazing little girl!
I think that she was prefect for this month's Holden's Hope shirt!
So with all of that being said, make sure you send me all of your nominations for September's shirt!

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