Thursday, July 30 - Taylor Whitehead Benefit

Taylor Whitehead Benefit

Saturday, August 8th

Rolling Acres Golf Course, Center Point IA 52213

4 Person Best Shot Tournament starts at 12:00

$40 per player ~ Flighted Prizes

Sorry, the golf tournament filled up fast
and we are no longer accepting teams.
However, please join us for other activities.

After the golf tournament, please join us for additional activities:

Silent Auction 4:00-8:00

Flat screen TV, Autographed Hawkeye and Iowa State Prints,

3 day-2 nights at Hooters hotel in Las Vegas,

Hawkeye rock and many more.

Photos of several items shown below. More items to come!

BBQ pork Dinner-($6 per person) 5:00-8:00

Karaoke/DJ with Jake's Jukebox starts at 8:30

If you are unable to attend and wish to contribute in some way,

we have set up an account at Center Point Bank and Trust:

Taylor Whitehead Benefit Fund

901 Bank Ct Center Point, IA 52213

As you can see from the photos of some of the auction items that have been donated below; we are truly blessed by the people that the Lord has brought into our lives! We can not thank you all enough!

OK, the blog is acting funny, I uploaded 45 photos and they were showing up but now they are not. I will have to load them again and its getting late, so I will get them out here later. -t

~

God Bless

Thursday, July 16

I have an update from Tammy with some pics from a family vacation. But first... For those of you in the Iowa area. Mark August 8th on the calendar. We will be having a benefit for Taylor at the golf course in Center Point. Details to come. Also, we still have Pray For Taylor t-shirt available. See the order form in the previous post. All proceeds go towards Taylor's care.

And above all else... Please continue to Pray for Taylor and her family. With God, all things are possible. God Bless.

- t

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Hello everyone,

It's been a while!!! Taylor is continuing to take baby steps. Since my last entry, Taylor has completed 11 sessions in the hyperbaric oxygen chamber. Jeff and I have noticed Taylor has started making more cooing noises and has cried 3 times now. Personally, I feel the oxygen therapy is working. However, I am trying to stay low key until she has completed all 40 sessions. Currently, Taylor is not going to Wilmington anymore for the sessions. We found out that the longer you go, the more results you see. Looks like, after 40 sessions she would need to take a 3 week break and then do 40 more. Because I will be going back to work in August and the aggravation of trying to travel to Wilmington 3 to 4 times a week, Jeff and I have decided to purchase the HBOT. I know we're taking a huge leap of faith, but I really think this is helping her. We are not expecting an overnight change. But, in my opinion anything that can help Taylor is well worth all the money in the world!!!

Friday, we will travel to Duke for neurology. We are hoping to get another EEG, because Taylor is starting to show signs of having more seizures. She has had 5 seizures that have lasted about 4-5 seconds and 1 that lasted about 20 seconds. We are also hoping to schedule another MRI. We were very disappointed with the neurologist in Greenville, as our last conversation was over the phone in January, in which the doctor told me she thought Taylor's biggest problem would be her vision. Obviously, Taylor has a lot more issues than her vision.

Taylor also has an appointment on the 23rd of this month at the feeding clinic in Greenville. I am hoping they will do another swallow study to see how she can tolerate thin vs. thick liquids. Taylor has had nothing by mouth since we left the hospital in April.

Our nursing hours have been down graded to 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. We also went from a LPN to a CNA. We were very disappointed to lose our awesome nurses we had developed a relationship with. They were great with Taylor and also getting used to our naked boys always running through the house! We have sent 3 letters from our doctors to our case worker explaining why Taylor needs a LPN vs. a CNA, and are awaiting their decision. Although, the CNA's that have been in our home are very nice and good with Taylor, they are not allowed to give any medication via G-Tube and are not allowed to make judgment calls like, giving oxygen or suctioning when needed. Taylor has a strict medication schedule and if we don't get our nursing requirements changed we are in trouble!!!

This experience that has just begun for us and has been so life changing. We all have our weak and strong moments and learn more and more about the system everyday! Please continue to pray for Taylor and for Jeff and me to continue to have strength to rely on each other. Thanks for everything!

Much love,

Tammy

God Bless
~

Now Available!

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pray for taylor t-shirts now on sale!

As a fundraiser activity for the Taylor Whitehead Fund, we have ordered our first production of the "pray for taylor" t-shirts! To reduce production costs, the initial offering will be White shirts only in the following sizes: Child Medium, Adult Medium, Adult Large, and Adult XL. If we have enough interest in a different size we will look to expand. Cost is $15 (s/h included).

(Back Logo)

To place your order today, please download and complete the attached form:

Pray for Taylor

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Brochures & Catalogs pray for taylor shir

All Proceeds go to the Taylor Whitehead Fund to help cover medical and various other costs associated with Taylor's recovery.

God Bless

~

June 04, 2009

Update from Tammy

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Taylor has had several appointments since I last updated. Friday, Taylor met with her cardiologist and had another echo performed on her heart. Dr.Hannon felt her heart was still unchanged. She has also seen her pediatrician because of an infection to her G-Tube. We are treating it with silver nitrate and zinc oxide; however it is taking a while to heal.

Today we took Taylor to a neurodevelopment specialist. She was very nice and gave us a few avenues to pursue. One type of treatment she felt would be beneficial and successful for Taylor would be mild hyperbaric oxygen therapy. She said she has seen a lot of success with children with hypoxic brain injuries with this type of treatment. Of course, there are no guarantees but she seemed very hopeful. Taylor had her first treatment today. It lasts one hour and I had to go in there with her. Assuming everything goes well, Taylor will have forty treatments. Around 3 per week...

I'm sure you're asking yourselves, "What is hyperbaric oxygen therapy?" This is an explanation from Dr. Harum's pamphlet...

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) has been used successfully to treat many medical disorders, including brain disorders in children. HBOT is approved by the FDA and acts by enhancing tissue levels of oxygen. Normally, oxygen is carried by the red blood cells alone. Under conditions of increased partial pressure of oxygen, as during HBOT therapy, there is a significant increase in the oxygen delivered to all body fluids, including plasma, intracellular fluids, lymphatic fluids and spinal fluid. This boost of oxygen delivery promotes the growth of new blood vessels, and increases metabolic activity of marginally functioning cells, including damaged brain cells. Many traditional clinical applications use pressures over 2.0 atmospheres (ATA) for treatment of decompression sickness (the bends), arterial gas embolism, carbon monoxide poisoning, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and complex regional pain syndrome. At lower pressures (1.3 - 1.5 ATA), however, clinical success has been reported in the treatment of fetal alcohol syndrome, ischemic brain injury and cerebral palsy, and closed head trauma. We call this mild HBOT.

The only negatives are the cost of treatment and driving to Wilmington 3 times a week. Unfortunately, insurance does not cover this type of treatment. However, because of the generosity of our loved ones, we will be able to pay for all 40 treatments in full! So, once again....THANK YOU to everyone for helping us take care of our little princess!!! It's another reminder that God provides!!!

Tomorrow, Taylor will travel to Greenville for 2 doctor appointments. The first one is a check up at the C-5 clinic, followed by an appointment with her Rehab doctor. Looks like another long day, but you do what you gotta do. :->

Please continue to pray for Taylor's healing and our safety as we travel for her appointments. Sending our love!

Tammy

God Bless

~

Thursday, May 14

Update and pics from Tammy...

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Sorry, I haven't updated on little Miss in a while.  Saying we have been busy is an understatement!!!  We have had so many different people in the home to do an assessment on Taylor, as well has a handful of appointments!  Yesterday, Taylor had two appointments in Greenville.  Unfortunately, because she has had two UTI's in the past 7 weeks the doctors ordered a procedure called a urethra gram.  This was a simple procedure to make sure her kidneys were functioning properly.  Everything looked good, so we can rule out a kidney problem.  Her second appointment was at a specialty pediatric clinic.  Basically the doctors there will work together with our local pediatrician and help us make sure we are getting the services Taylor needs.

 

So far, our private duty nursing has been great!  We have had three different nurses come into our home.  They all have different personalities, but they are all awesome!  They do such a wonderful job taking care of Taylor.  They hold her, stretch her, sing to her, and most of all love on her!  We are very blessed to have such caring individuals taking care of our princess!  Hopefully, we will be able to keep them!  As of last week, our insurance was trying to reduce our hours to 4 per day and then when Jeff is out of school for the summer they are looking to pull all the hours all together.  This is another frustrating part of her recovery.  Anyone that comes into our home can see the whole picture to why we need help.  However, when you're only looking at a piece of paper with a diagnosis of a 8 month old everything is not so clear.  I honestly, only hold Taylor for about 10 minutes while our nurse is here.  The boys are ALL over mommy!  It feels so incredibly great being home, but it is also more draining trying to juggle LIFE!  

 

Taylor started OT today.  Her therapist seems so nice and had some great advice about additional therapies Taylor could be receiving.  One in which is a vision therapist.  We had never even heard of this while in rehab.  PT will start on Saturday.  She will receive each service twice a week. 

 

I have the ringbone on my phone, "It won't be like this for long" by Darius Rucker.  Every time my phone rings, it reminds me that times may be tough right now, but eventually Taylor will get better.  I keep holding on to that!  Thank you to everyone who continues to lift Taylor and the rest of our family up in prayer!  You guys are the best!

 

Much love,

Tammy

 God Bless

~

Happy Birthday Tammy

Just wanted to wish Tammy a happy birthday. You are an amazing women, one of the strongest spirits that I know. May your birthday be blessed with simple pleasures, love, and happiness.

God Bless

~

Monday, May 4

Just a quick note... Taylor was able to come back home on Thursday. On Friday, their in-house nurse started and she has been a great fit, the entire family loves her!

God Bless
~