Translate This Page To: Spanish German French Italian Portuguese Norwegian Brought to you From FreeTranslation.com Give a gift in honor of this child. Cassandra If you would like to help with Cassandra's needs, please visit Sponsor Cassandra. Current Page Page 1 UPDATE: 2-2-08 Cassie is now 5 years old! Wow, were does the time go? She is in her last year of PPCD and will start Kindergarten next year. We are still not sure what school/program is best for her, but she will end up in some type of special education program. She has surpassed most of the goals on her current IEP already including being able to recognize her name and walking 300 feet in a gait trainer in under 5 minutes. We have a Rifton Pacer on order for her to use at home. We are also in the process of ordering a SleepSafe bed which will be so great. Her current bed has slates on the sliderails and she has gotten her arms caught before. She has been sleeping in our room (often times between my husband and I) for about 2 years now because we have been unable to find a safe bed for her. We have signed Cassie up for the Miracle League baseball team. It is for 5-19 year old kiddos who have a disability. They play on a fully accessible field with a "buddy." Our 8 year old son, Kory, is going to be Cassie's buddy. He will help her to swing the bat and will push her wheelchair around the bases. Each player bats and scores in every inning so it's all about having FUN! Kory will also help Cassie catch and throw balls out in the field. I think it will be a great experience for both of them. Cassie recently got approved for a Medicaid waiver program which provides 20 hours of nursing care per week. Cassie's nurse, Whitney, comes on Tuesdays and Thursday for 8 hours. Since Cassie is in school half day, Whitney gets her off the bus while I'm still at school (taking a full course load this semester). Whitney feeds and bathes her as well as works on her goals. I will be teaching Whitney the ABR technique in the upcoming weeks. We really enjoy having Whitney, so much that we took her on vacation with us to the mountains a few weeks back. Please pray for us regarding future ABR training. It is very costly and fundraising efforts get tougher and tougher each year. We are praying for clarity as to whether or not this is a therapy we should continue to pursue. Thanks, Jennifer UPDATE: 6-16-07 Cassie's garage sale was a success. We raised $1,500 and still have some big ticket items and some equipment she has outgrown to list on eBay and Craig's list. We have already used some of the money to purchase a Seat-2-Go for her. It has worked GREAT for her. We opted to skip ABR training this summer because of our crazy schedule and inability to really put in the hours. We have a scheduling conflict with the training and the start of school. We are still gung-ho for late October and are so excited about picking up the machine. Cassie is out of school and we are working hard on keeping the skills she acquired this year. We will have refresher courses on colors, shapes, ABC's and 123's. Also going to be using BoardMaker symbols to allow her to answer questions about stories, nursey rhymes and opposites/matching games. I am so excited about the mode of communication for her. It will open up a whole new world. God is great. UPDATE: 4-2-07 Cassie has major oral aversion and has literally scared other patients in the waiting room during her cleanings at the dentist. She has been to see him 3 times previously with each cleaning getting harder and harder. She has some staining on her teeth that they are never able to treat because she bites and hits, yes, my precious little angel bites and hits. So, we opted to find a dentist with rights at the local Children's Hospital so that sedation could be an option. We met with Dr. Doss today and I can not say enough good things about him. He treated Cassie with dignity and respect and not like an invalid. He let her choose which toothbrush she wanted to take home and offered her 3 Beanie Babies to choose from as her prize. He was sweet and put me so much at ease. Of course, Cassie bit him and screamed at him when he took a peek inside her mouth but he was happy to report no cavities. He agreed sedation was the best route for a deep cleaning, X-rays and a flouride treatment which we will do in October. UPDATE: 3-23-07 We are ramping up for Cassie's 4th annual garage sale. We are hoping to raise enough money to pay for a Seat-2-Go ($400) and to cover travel expenses for ABR therapy training for the year (about $1,800 including passports).  In the past 3 years, we have been able to raise over $20,000 through garage sales, candle sales and private donations. I've learned firsthand that God will provide :)   We are scheduled to go to Chicago August 17-19 for additional ABR training and then to Montreal in November for her annual assessment and to pick up our ABR machine. The machine will perform the ABR technique on Cassie's torso, arms and legs while I will only have to do the manual ABR on her head and neck.  We are so thrilled to have the ability to log more hours of ABR so that Cassie will progress more quickly. In 2008, we will continue to do ABR training twice per year as it is more condusive to our family schedule.   We go to Hangar next week to get Cassie fitted for her new AFO's. We've had the other ones for about 2 years and they have just about seen their day. She also needs new shoes but since they are so expensive, we are waiting until we receive the new AFO's so we can measure them before ordering.   Cassie will be seeing a new dentist new week. He has rights at Cook Children's so she can be sedated to have her teeth cleaned. She's has calcium deposits for about 2 years that her current dentist could not scrap off because Cassie screamed and flailed around. It was not fun. I am hoping the sedation will make for a much more pleasant experience. Her consultant is on March 29th and then we'll schedule the sedated cleaning.   Cassie will see her neurologist April 25th. We are asking for a prescription for a gait trainer and new feeding pump. I am hoping that insurance and Medicaid will cover the cost of both. Insurance has only rented a feeding pump in the past and we are now hoping they will buy one. We have purchased several off of eBay in the past (3 to be exact) but they have all broken and are quite costly to fix. A friend has loaned me her daughter's pump for the time being since she is completely orally fed at this time.   Cassie had a bad sinus infection a few weeks ago. She didn't even smile for 5 days. It was so sad to see she so miserable. The upside in that while we were are the doctor's office, I got him to approve her paperwork for the wish granting organization, the Sunshine Foundation. We got denied by Make-A-Wish since Cassie's condition in not considered life-threatening. Sunshine Foundation accepts anyone will a physical disability so now that we have the medical approval, we can submit our paperwork to be processed for a Wish. Since the Sunshine Foundation is much smaller than Make-A-Wish, it will probably take 18-24 months for Cassie's wish to be granted.   I think that's about it! Pray for God's hand on our garage sale and that we would raise what is necessary for Cassie.   God bless,   Jennifer UPDATE: 1-7-07 Cassie had a blast seeing Barney Live! We weren't able to bring the camera in but here is a shot of her after the big event. She was just beside herself when Barney walked on stage and she immediately began giggling and wiggling with the music. It was a sight to see! Cassie celebrated her 4th birthday on December 5th. I can not believe my baby is already 4. Where has the time gone? We took her out to look at the Christmas lights because she really enjoys that. We also went to a restaurant with an indoor playground so she could go down the slides with Daddy. Afterwards we had some ice cream (she will actually eat a tad of it) and let her open gifts. Christmas at our house was phenomenal! We submitted a Christmas Wish to our local Christian radio station for a special needs swing for Cassie. Only 3 days after submitting the wish, I received an email from a family who said they would be blessed to grant this wish for Cassie. By December 15th, Cassie's new JennSwing had arrived. We still need to purchase the frame for it but are waiting until March as the weather has been too cold to enjoy being outside right now. We did put her in to and held the chains to swing her and she had the biggest smile and belly laugh. We are so blessed to live in such a generous community. In addition to her new swing, Cassie received lots of Barney books, DVDs and educational toys. Cassie's school year in half over and we just got reports from her therapists about her success on her goals. She is now rolling consistently and on command, her head control has increased, she can move her gait trainer 8+ feet, she can prop sit with lower hip support and she is learning Boardmaker symbols so she can begin to communicate with people. We are so pleased with the teacher, aide and therapists this year. She has really blossomed and everyone who we saw over the holidays comments on how well she is doing. That about catches ya'll up on everything. Thank you for the prayers... we continue to pray for total healing and restoration and know that it will happen in due time. We are faithful! ADDED: 3-26-03 Cassandra was born on December 6, 2002, at 8:44 am. She weighed 6 lbs., 4 oz. and was 19.5" long. Due to decelerations in her heart rate during contractions, Cassie was born via emergency C-section. Once she was born, they saw my placenta had partially ruptured, the umbilical cord had a knot in it and it was wrapped around her neck three times. At the time of delivery, she did not have a heart rate and was not breathing. After 20 minutes of CPR efforts, we were informed that she did not make it. Upon declaration of death, a faint heart rate was detected. Resuscitation efforts were restarted and my little girl pulled through. Due to the amount of time Cassie was without oxygen, the decision was made to transfer her to Cook Children's Hospital where they had a neurological staff to review her condition. Within 24 hours of her birth, Cassie was breathing on her own, had a stable heart rate and a high oxygen saturation level. After several failed attempts to get Cassie to bottle feed, we opted to have surgery to place a G-button. She was discharged shortly after the surgery and spent exactly 3 weeks in the NICU. Since arriving home, Cassie has shown interest in the bottle (taking 3 oz. each feeding). We are hoping she will be able to have her G-button removed soon. Cassie has a therapist come to the house once a week to help correct behaviors that are a result of her birth (arching) as well as help her maintain a normal progression towards milestones. We see minor improvements (she can now focus on toys/faces & has started to coo) each week and know she will continue to do well as time goes on. Thank you for all your prayers for little Cassie. We will continue to update you on her progress.