I am sure you will forgive the delay in posting updated information. It has been a busy week but Mom is handling it all really well. It is hard to imagine that just a week ago, she was on her way to visit her mother who was sick.

Last Wednesday, Mom saw her neurologist who felt like she is doing really well. The doctor is taking her off of the prednisone and putting her on Methotrexate which is a common treatment for vasculitis. Mom will continue to be on Keppra (anti-seizure medication) for the rest of her life. The doctor has decided that Mom will only require physical therapy.

While in the rehab center, Mom played some Wii games and loved them. So, in the name of "therapy," Mom and Dad bought one. I am sure the Wii was not created for therapy purposes but several games really are good exercises for the brain. Mom is even better at some of them than we are. We are all having fun with it and have also enjoyed creating mii characters for everyone in the family.

Grandmother's funeral Sunday was beautiful and she would have loved it. My brother, Ken, did the eulogy, truly capturing the spirit and personality of Grandmother while making us all laugh and cry.

Thank you so much for your continued prayers. We, too, are praying for you that God will bless you as well.

All 4 Kesler children: Phillip, Susan, Joyce and Gary

Grandmother is Home

Mom, Alison & Grandmother, May 2008

Joyce's mother, Margaret Kesler went to be with Jesus while she slept peacefully last night. We know she and her husband, B.A. are happy to be together again. My sister, Andrea, suggested that Grandmother was simply waiting to see Mom as they were able to have a good visit Tuesday afternoon. Grandmother was 90 and had lived a good life for the Lord. She loved her family very much and was proud of us all. We are all handling it rather well, including Mom. Our family appreciates your prayers throughout the coming days and weeks.

More news of Mom's appointment with the neurologist is to come later.

Going Home

Today is the BIG day that we have all been waiting for...Mom gets to go home! It has been a long week for her. Since finding out that she only had more week at the rehab center, staying there has been that much harder. She sees her neurologist tomorrow so they can go over the plan of action.

While Mom is excited about getting to go home, her heart is also heavy for her mother. While she was in the hospital last month, her mother was in a different hospital suffering with a blockage in her gallbladder. The pressure from the blockage was relieved using a stint but Grandmother has also been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and does not have long to live. So, Mom and Dad are going straight from the rehab center to visit with Grandmother at her home. Please pray for Mom this afternoon as she sees her mother who is quite thin and weak these days. Please also remember my grandmother in your prayers as well--pray for her to be comfortable and comforted right now.

Prayer for Patience

Please pray for Mom's patience these next few days. She just really wants to go home and is struggling with depression. We have all been trying to call her through the day and give her encouragement but she just seems to have a negative attitude right now. Also, if you are a close friend, she carries her cell phone with her and I am sure she would love to hear from you.

Meeting with the Doctor

Mom, Dad, Andrea & Ken T met with Mom's rehabilitation doctor this morning. He told them that they believe the vasculitis is a byproduct of the encephalitis (viral infection) she had last year. The immune system was attacking the lesions on her brain and also the blood vessels. She is currently on high doses of prednisone (a steroid) and will be on some sort of strong steroid for at least the next six months, at which point another MRI will be done to see how she is doing. She is also taking aricept (also used to treat alzheimer's) to help with her cognition and short-term memory. She is no longer on the anti-seizure medication as the seizure was a result of the swelling. Now that she is on steroids, the swelling/seizures shouldn't be an issue. The really good news is that she will get to go home next Tuesday. Once home, she will not require home health care as she did last time but will start outpatient therapy right away.

The doctor pointed out one big difference between last time and this time. In November, she had trouble "processing," meaning it was more difficult to make her body do what it needed to. However, this time around, he said she is perfectly fine from the neck down and has little trouble following instructions. One downfall in this is that she "thinks" she can do anything and doesn't like to be told not to. This explains why she is much more frustrated this time around--she thinks she is fine and doesn't like being treated as a child, since she is an adult. She doesn't see that she jumps from topic to topic and can't stay on one task. Her short-term memory still isn't what it should be and her order of recent events is a little off. She speaks and moves very well but will just need more work to get her cognitive abilities up to par.

A Little Background...

Mimi became sick in October of 2008. Her symptoms were flu-like but medicine didn't seem to work because she wasn't getting any better. She went to the emergency room twice in a 6-week period. The second time she went to the ER was for a severe headache (Saturday, November 15, 2008). After an inconclusive cat scan, she was diagnosed with a migraine and sent home. By Monday morning, she was incoherent and was back at the hospital. Her MRI showed lesions on her brain and her spinal tap had signs of infection. The doctors began treating her for a brain infection with steroids. She stayed three weeks at a rehabilitation center where our family spent Thanksgiving together and was home by mid-December.

She received some in-home therapy and then went back to the rehabilitation center for some outpatient therapy. She was released from occupational therapy rather quickly and could handle most day-to-day activities. Mimi's physical therapy was going well, as was her speech therapy. In fact, she had recently been released from all therapy by her neurologist. However, she had been taken off all steroids and other medication and had regressed slightly in those few weeks. The doctor assured us that this was normal because she was "on her own" now but also stressed the importance of taking her off of steroids, as they are not intended to be taken long term.

Mimi enjoyed a nice Valentine's Day weekend with my dad but was once again incoherent Monday morning. While Dad was getting her ready to go to the hospital, she had a seizure. Her MRI showed more lesions but this time, the spinal tap showed NO signs of infection. The doctors were stumped. After much discussion, everyone agreed that a brain biopsy was the only way to effectively figure out just what was causing all of the problems. So, Friday, February 20, the brain biopsy began at 10 am and the surgeon came to talk to us around 11:45. The preliminary results looked good. The surgeon said the brain and its vessels were very swollen, leading him to believe it could be vasculitis--an inflammation of the blood vessels of the brain. If this is the case full recovery can be achieved after 6/12 months of strong steriods and other meds. Slivers of her brain were sent to 7 or 8 specialists and we expect to learn the test results tomorrow, Tuesday, March 10 in a meeting the doctor is having with Dad, Andrea and Ken (Joyce's oldest daughter and her husband).

Mimi has been back at the rehabilitation facility for a little over a week and is doing well. She is walking better and talking well, too. I don't think she fully understands why she is there again and she is definitely beyond ready to go home. I can't imagine how frustrating it all is for her. I keep trying to remind her that she is being taken care of by people who know best how to get her well quickly so that she can go home...so she should just try to be patient with them. She is such a good-natured person, I have no doubt that she IS very kind to everyone; she just vents about it to us. There's nothing wrong with that.

Dad has been so strong through all of this. It has been hard on all of us to see her so close to full recovery just a month ago...just to see her back at square one. But I know it is ten times harder on Dad. I am so blessed to have parents that love each other they way mine do. In fact, they are celebrating 44 years of marriage this summer. They have taught me so much about marriage and just what unconditional love means. I believe that this has made their love for each other grow and will continue to bring them closer together.

Thanks for caring so much about Mimi. Thanks for praying for her and for all of us. God has always been faithful and we know He will continue to be.