For Josie!
Donation protected
Josie Ann MacKinnon is a beautiful and bright 5 year old girl who lives in Whitecourt, Alberta. While on a family vacation on BC this summer, Josie, being a typical 5 year old, took a tumble and hit her head while playing with her brothers on a tire swing.
It was clear to her mom and dad that this was not typical fall and they took her to hospital. The doctors told Josies parents to keep and eye on her and that she might have suffered a concussion. As time went on and Josie continued to have headaches and dizzy spells, her parents once again took her to the doctor to further investigate why she was not healing. They returned to a local doctor a third time when Josie started displaying symptoms of double vision and then her left eye started to cross.
The doctor ordered an MRI straight away, and Josie and her parents made the trip to the city to get some answers. The results of her MRI provided none of this. They followed up with their local physician and he went over the results with them. The diagnosis was that Josie has an Arachnoid cyst, that she was most likely born with it, but that her symptoms were not related to the cyst. Thankfully their Doctor was not happy with this result and referred her to a neurologist. It wasn't even 9 am the following morning when they got the call!! Dr.Mehta needed to see her the following day. Josie meet with Dr.Metha and his Nurse Practitioner Wendy and they went over what was happening with their baby girl. The cyst she had so harmoniously lived with for 5 years had ruptured and the cerebral fluid that was inside had become trapped in an area of her brain that was making her sick. Her official diagnosis was : Arachnoid Cyst with Subdural Hygromas. The treatment: to drill two holes in the top of her hear to allow the fluid and pressure to escape, and hope that in the time after that the tear in the cyst heals.
Josie had this surgery on Aug 4th. Her poor little head was under tremendous pressure, the reaction of her surgeon was pure awe that she has been as functional as she had been and that no further damage was caused. She seemed to be in great spirits and it seemed to have done it's job. Josie got to go home on Aug 6th, the day after that Josie's eye started to cross again, and she developed a bump on her head where one of the holes drilled were and they noticed her squinting again (she had done this when her double vision appeared the first time) so Josie's mom called Wendy and they were on our way back into the Stollery.
Her CT scan showed that the first operation didn't work and in fact could have been a little bit worse. On Aug 10 Josie went in for brain surgery #2!! This time they had to do a Front Temporal Craniotomy and they went in to open the cyst and drain it to an inside part of her brain that can use and circulate the fluid. When they went back in they were once again amazed at how quickly her poor little head had built up pressure again. The surgery went very well, it took them about 4 hours. They install the hardware for a shunt (Cerebral shunt: In cases of hydrocephalus and other conditions that cause chronic increased intracranial pressure, a one-way valve is used to drain excess cerebrospinal fluid from the brain and carry it to other parts of the body. This valve usually sits outside the skull, but beneath the skin, somewhere behind the ear) in the event that Josie is part of the 40% that this won't work for to save them from having to open her brain up a third time.
Her recovery is going to be a long 6 month process before they know if this has worked for her. Josie's life and her family's lives have been changed so much from this. She is strong and will prevail.
As any parent with a sick child can contest to, nothing else in the world matters. Josie needs her mom and dad by her side through this difficult time. Unfortunitly life doesn't stop. If you have the means to help this family through a difficult time I encourage you to donate. No donation is too big or too small. At a time when all these parents should be concerned with is the health of their child, lets help to eliminate a big stress. Thank you to everyone in advance. On behalf of the MacKinnon Family
Sincerly
Randi Rusnell
It was clear to her mom and dad that this was not typical fall and they took her to hospital. The doctors told Josies parents to keep and eye on her and that she might have suffered a concussion. As time went on and Josie continued to have headaches and dizzy spells, her parents once again took her to the doctor to further investigate why she was not healing. They returned to a local doctor a third time when Josie started displaying symptoms of double vision and then her left eye started to cross.
The doctor ordered an MRI straight away, and Josie and her parents made the trip to the city to get some answers. The results of her MRI provided none of this. They followed up with their local physician and he went over the results with them. The diagnosis was that Josie has an Arachnoid cyst, that she was most likely born with it, but that her symptoms were not related to the cyst. Thankfully their Doctor was not happy with this result and referred her to a neurologist. It wasn't even 9 am the following morning when they got the call!! Dr.Mehta needed to see her the following day. Josie meet with Dr.Metha and his Nurse Practitioner Wendy and they went over what was happening with their baby girl. The cyst she had so harmoniously lived with for 5 years had ruptured and the cerebral fluid that was inside had become trapped in an area of her brain that was making her sick. Her official diagnosis was : Arachnoid Cyst with Subdural Hygromas. The treatment: to drill two holes in the top of her hear to allow the fluid and pressure to escape, and hope that in the time after that the tear in the cyst heals.
Josie had this surgery on Aug 4th. Her poor little head was under tremendous pressure, the reaction of her surgeon was pure awe that she has been as functional as she had been and that no further damage was caused. She seemed to be in great spirits and it seemed to have done it's job. Josie got to go home on Aug 6th, the day after that Josie's eye started to cross again, and she developed a bump on her head where one of the holes drilled were and they noticed her squinting again (she had done this when her double vision appeared the first time) so Josie's mom called Wendy and they were on our way back into the Stollery.
Her CT scan showed that the first operation didn't work and in fact could have been a little bit worse. On Aug 10 Josie went in for brain surgery #2!! This time they had to do a Front Temporal Craniotomy and they went in to open the cyst and drain it to an inside part of her brain that can use and circulate the fluid. When they went back in they were once again amazed at how quickly her poor little head had built up pressure again. The surgery went very well, it took them about 4 hours. They install the hardware for a shunt (Cerebral shunt: In cases of hydrocephalus and other conditions that cause chronic increased intracranial pressure, a one-way valve is used to drain excess cerebrospinal fluid from the brain and carry it to other parts of the body. This valve usually sits outside the skull, but beneath the skin, somewhere behind the ear) in the event that Josie is part of the 40% that this won't work for to save them from having to open her brain up a third time.
Her recovery is going to be a long 6 month process before they know if this has worked for her. Josie's life and her family's lives have been changed so much from this. She is strong and will prevail.
As any parent with a sick child can contest to, nothing else in the world matters. Josie needs her mom and dad by her side through this difficult time. Unfortunitly life doesn't stop. If you have the means to help this family through a difficult time I encourage you to donate. No donation is too big or too small. At a time when all these parents should be concerned with is the health of their child, lets help to eliminate a big stress. Thank you to everyone in advance. On behalf of the MacKinnon Family
Sincerly
Randi Rusnell
Organizer
Randi Rusnell
Organizer
Whitecourt, AB
