HollyAlonzo – Never Giving Up Hope

Hey everyone. Finally time for me to update the blog. I apologize for not updating in several days, but it’s been a very busy couple of days. Well, I’ve got some very exciting news:  Holly was released from the hospital on Wednesday! Well it seemed to take most of the day, but we were finally released around 7:30 that evening. I know she was extremely happy to be out of the hospital, but we still have to stay at the guest center until Saturday but should be tomorrow. But she had an appointment with her doctor this morning, at the clinic, and everything was going well. He said that she looked very good and nice with her makeup and clothes on. But it’s definitely wonderful to have her back to a real person and not a person in a gown, or in a hospital bed for that matter. At least I get to hold her at night. That is something I definitely missed in the last two weeks. Really, but we will be catching a flight out tomorrow morning at 11:50 AM and will not be getting back into Little Rock till later in the evening. I hope everything goes well with the weather in Arkansas. Quite bad right now. They are getting a lot of snow. Well this will probably be one of my last posts in the journal for a while, as I’m sure Holly will be updating it herself. I know she will be glad to get back to her computer and braille display. I look forward to keeping you guys updated and hope I did a good job, I know I haven’t updated as frequently as she probably would have, but I do my best. I know Holly would like me to say this once again, thank everyone for all their support and prayers. It is greatly appreciated and very helpful to all of us as a family. We try to stick together is a close-knit family network, and I know that it helps Holly to know that we love there for her. Well until next time, I hope you enjoyed everything I’ve updated you on, and it has been at least somewhat understandable with this voice recognition software. It doesn’t always get everything correct that I say, but hopefully you will get the gist of it. It takes much more time to go through and edit word by word and character by character, so I figure I’ll try to leave it as it is and hopefully you’ll get the gist of it. Everyone take care, and hopefully the next update will be from Arkansas our hometown. Thanks once again. Take care.

Hey everyone, I just wanted to update the blog and let you know how Holly is doing. A couple of days ago, she was able to be removed off the IV lines and now she has to have an antibiotic. They have her on a nine to lock for. This makes it much easier for her to get around, especially when she is not hooked up tonight
Or this evening too. At least you don’t want to start out. One of the doctors came in today, and said the Holly was looking extremely well. They are going to do a study next week by taking a scope, and looking at her vocal cords to see if they are functioning any better than they were post-surgery. I’m sorry, I meant pre-surgery. I always get those mixed up. Either way, they’re going to do a study on the vocal cords, to see if they are functioning any better than they were before surgery. If they find that she is able to swallow, they are going to possibly remove the trach. This would be exciting news for Holly. I know she will be thrilled when she finds this out. We have not told her yet, because you want to make sure from our regular doctors who come during the week, that this is going to be the case. But it looks like it will be. So hopefully the study will go well. I seem to be having a little bit of trouble with my speech dictation software, it’s making a lot of mistakes. I extremely apologize for that. I don’t know if I put this before, but Holly has been able to do a lot of walking, especially since they have been able to take her off the IV lines. She has walked completely around the nurses’ station, which is quite a trek for someone whoo just came out of surgery almost 2 weeks ago. She is recovering nicely. Well that’s about all I have to say for now, but I will keep you updated as to more information. Thanks so much for all your support and hopefully you find these updates interesting.

Hey there everyone, I would like to apologize for not updating the blog in the last couple of days, but it’s been kind of busy. I’ve got some exciting news. Holly wants to update the blog herself, so I am going to dictate what she says to me from her:  Hi everybody. Edward is posting this for me. I just wanted to let everyone know that I am trying to stay strong. But right now, I am scared. But code, it doesn’t look like there is an end in sight. But please keep praying, and sending positive vibes. But I think that it probably feels like there is no end in sight, because lately, she has been running a fever. They haven’t been doing a lot, because they are trying to figure out where the fever comes from. They’ve taken blood samples, culture samples, urine samples, and doing a chest x-ray. This fever started a couple of days ago, and they’ve been treating it with antibiotics. I think they finally narrowed it down to a bacteria in the blood, I can’t remember the name of it, but they are trying to figure out where it came from to begin with. The temperature has been running somewhere between 99 and 104. Hopefully, they will be able to get it all cleared up with antibiotics, soon as they can finish treating her, and we can go home. I’ll keep everyone up-to-date as much as I can. Thanks so much and hope you enjoyed that bit from Holly.

Hello All.
I wanted to let you know what a wonderfull day Holly had today.
Physical thearpy worked with her on walking, and she was able to walk about 80 feet back and forth up and down the hall.
She also got the new feeding tube, which was inserted through the stomach. I know it makes it easier to have that one versus the one in her nose.
Hey because of that tube she has now, I was able to get my first kiss in over a wwk! Yahoo!
Now back on topic, Holly also walked a second time today, and did just as well, only this second time, she used a 2-wheeled walker which she did very well on.
Today, they also downsized her trach from a size 6 to a size 4, and she is so very happy. She says, “I can clear this one out on my own, without suction.”
So, all in all she’s doning very good and hopefully will learn how to talk with her new trach tomorrow. They are going to have a speech thearpist work with her for that tomorrow.
Everyone take care and we’ll keep you up to date as much as we can.

Hello everyone, I’m just writing to tell you how Holly hass been as of earlier.
Shes been doing fairly well, she’s not too happy about the feeding tube, but I know that it makes it easier for her to eat.
The doctors aren’t sure how soon it’ll be since she is able to get out of the hospital, but I told the doctors, that I want Holly to have the absolute best care she can possibly have. I don’t care what it takes.I’m willing to do whatever we need to do for Holly girl.
I want everyone to keep up all their prayers and keep thinking about Holly.
Thanks so very much for those people that have commented thus far.
I’ll keep you up to date on any new information I find out as soon as I can.

Hello everyone, this is Holly’s husband, Edward. I just wanted to give you an update as to how she is doing, I want to thank everyone for sending all the comments we have been receiving. Everyone has been so nice to us and sending the comments they sent on the post. But I can’t thank you enough for all you guys this support. Call Holly has been doing fairly well with physical therapy, they got her up again yesterday, and she was able to take a few steps towards the wall holding someone’s hand. Unfortunately, she was not able to eat much the last couple of days, so they ended up having to do a nasal feeding tube for a while. They decided that in the long run, they were going to go ahead and put a tube again, that would go directly into the stomach. So now, she has a feeding tube through her nose, and the trach. But the doctors seem to think that she will have to have the trach not permanently, but at least long-term. That may be said for the stomach feeding tube as well. But I think the reason for the feeding tube, is because she is not able to use her swallowing muscles to swallow even puréed food. But she seems to think, that she’s not doing as well as she was in her last surgery, but I think it’s just because she’s had some extra devices that she never previously had. But the doctor came in this morning, and wanted to order an MRI of her head, to make sure that there was no more fluid on the brain. But they said that she had had some fluid on the brain prior to surgery, I believe he called it encephalitis I’m not sure. I can’t remember the actual term, either way it means fluid on the brain. But right now, she is currently in the MRI. So it would give me some time to record this post. That’s all I have for now. I will keep you up today as I find out any new information. Thanks once again for all the comments.

Hello everyone, I would like to apologize for having such a lengthy pause in updates. It has been very busy with Holly lately in the last couple of days. She is doing pretty well, the only thing that seems to really be bothering her, it’s a trach for you. Doctor Mom has been staying with her mostly during the day, and I take the evening and night shifts. Sitting on the side of her bed now, holding her hand, it is probably around midafternoon. But I would say around 4:30 PM. Call yesterday, which is Wednesday, she did pretty well. They had her sitting up in a chair a little bit yesterday, and some again today. Call this afternoon for lunch, she was able to eat a little bit of liquid foods. But not much. I think it’s mostly going to be a fairly slow recovery process, but I know in time, she will get there. It just takes a lot of patience and work. And physical therapy worked with her today, and said she did very good able to stand up on her own, and sit on the side of the bed. But other than that, that’s pretty much all I have to report at this time. I will let you know as I find out any new information as always.

Hi everyone I just wanted to update you on how it’s going now. She’s doing well. They have taken her breathing machine off but still have the trach in. But went to see her this afternoon around 12:30 PM and she was doing well. I’ll be staying this afternoon around 1 PM to around 6 PM but I would like to apologize for the mistakes in this post, but sometimes the voice recognition software did not pick up everything I say correctly. I will be staying with her this evening so will not be able to post, as they do not allow cell phones in the ICU. I will update you as soon as I’m able to. Thanks so much for all the support from everyone.

Hello everyone. I want to apologize for not updating last night, everyone was so tired, we just went to bed after Holly came out of surgery. Probably came out of surgery last night around 1130 or 12. She’s doing well today. Today, they’re going to take her off the ventilator. It was a very long day yesterday. I appreciate all the support everyone has given Holly. Everything seems to be doing very well. She was able to get the auditory brain implant. I know she is extremely glad that. At least she won’t be in total silence. They will not be able to turn the ABI on for at least another month or so. I will keep everyone up-to-date as I find out any new information.

Hi everyone. Yes I know it’s late. But we have still not gotten out of surgery. They say, there will be at least another hour before she gets out of surgery. Then she will have to go to recovery, and then ICU. We are all very tired, but at least we know she’s doing okay. I will let you know when we find out any more relevant information.