For Starters....

This blog was created to record the progress in Jessenia's recovery. Jessy is a fun-sprited twelve year old whose life changed on Monday, June 28, 2010. Jessy went in to an Urgent Care Center with complaints of a headache, and was rushed to the local hospital after having a Cat Scan which showed a shadow in her brain. That same night, at the hospital, they did an MRI on Jessy (she asked for them to play Y-100 in the MRI machine.. NO JOKE!) which showed that she had a tumor in the cerebellum part of her brain. On Thursday, July 1, 2010 Jessy went into surgery for a Craniotomy to remove the tumor. Jessy's spirits were always high before the surgery, joking and making us all laugh to release the tension, and she was sure that she was going to be okay. The hospital staff was so impressed with her attitude about all of this, considering her age and the severity of the surgery. Before surgery she gave us (her family) a code for when she got out of surgery, she would say something so we know she is okay. Her code sentence was “Nicky boo-boo, where are you?” (Talking about Nick Jonas). After her surgery, we asked her for the code sentence, and she said it, and gave me a thumbs up. During her second MRI, only HOURS after her surgery, she asked the MRI technician to please play Drake for her inside the MRI machine. This showed how high her spirits were even just HOURS after brain surgery. She was then put in a recovery room, where she was monitored and began therapy to gain back the fine motor skills she lost during surgery. Jessy was later transferred to the Rehabilitation center, where she had three different therapies everyday (physical, occupational and speech). She is now working on gaining back sensation on her left side, ability to walk, patching her eyes to strengthen her vision, working on the movement and coordination of her left hand, her balance and so many things we think are easy for us, that are now difficult for her to do. Jessy was just allowed to go home on Saturday, but she has a long road ahead of her to recover. She will be attending numerous costly therapies throughout the week as well as being home-schooled until January. Jessy has had such a great attitude throughout this whole process. She has kept her family strong and united. She is always joking around and making us laugh when we think things are the toughest.

Stay tuned for more on her recovery and how you can help!