Abigail's 3rd Time's the Charm Fund
Our daughter Abigail Joy Mizzell was born in 2011 and is the youngest of a blended family. As the meaning of her name holds true, she is the light of our lives. Abigail was born with Semi Hemispheric Poly-micro Gyria meaning that the left half of her brain is not providing function. As a result Abigail's right right side has very limited use and she also suffers from dibilitating seizures. We were told to take her home and enjoy her, but that she'd never be able to do much. Since the speech center and logic center are on the left side of the brain, she was never expected to talk, or even laugh but she does and she has a beautiful laugh.
After testing, second and even third opinions were received the decision was made that the seizures HAD to be stopped and a corpus collostomy with hemispherectomy was Abigail's best chance. On September 8th at 8:30 am her surgeons started the 8 hour procedure while 16 loved ones waited for the longest day in our lives. Abigail again showed the medical community that she is making her own rules when immediately after waking she told her nurses no and then said the works mama and daddy to a huddle of teary eyed overjoyed loved ones. Abigail did encounter a big set back when six days post op she suffered a massive stroke in her left brain. Her left brain has been disconnected and rendered fairly useless so that wasn't really a problem however the swelling caused terrifying swelling caused serious problems for Abigail's speech, and her ability to stay awake the swelling also caused terrible headaches. Thankfully as the swelling went down Abigail's function began to return and broke expectation number 2 she sat then stood unassisted. Then by the end of week three post op she was walking!
As beautifully as Abigail handled her challenges they took a toll on the functionality of Abigail's right arm and note we begin the harking process.
Since years of therapy are in Abigail's future, your help is needed with travel, living, and medical equipment expenses. Our family van also needs some adaptations to suit Abigail's needs. Any help for my family would be greatly appreciated.