Patrick Family Update

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Abby and Shea are home in Huntsville, Alabama with their parents Lisa and Arthur. They have returned to school. Shea is playing soccer. Abby continues to love school and do her therapies.

Abby had an endoscopy and a colonoscopy in Birmingham after the Huntsville hospitalization. Her endoscopy results were good, but the colonoscopy revealed problems which are not fully diagnosed at this time. She had to got to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville to get a check-up from her transplant doctors.

While in Nashville, Lisa, Arthur, Shea and Abby were given much loving care and hospitality by Shirley and Jim as well as Carey and Chris. Lisa's childhood friend Lisa B. visited the Huntsville hospital. Many of Lisa and Arthur's church friends helped by babysitting and bringing meals. We are so grateful for all these wonderful people.

Papa and Nana had planned for the girls to spend some fall break time with us in a Pensacola Beach condo (we already had it rented), but the hospitalizations caused us to postpone their visit till Thanksgiving.

Hospital Photos

Here is Shea with her teacher from A.A.A. school. The teacher brought school work that Shea had missed. Thank you for the visit.

Here is Abby with dolls brought to her from her friends at church. Thank you.

Papa blows up a rubber glove for Abby. Notice Papa is wearing a hospital gown.

Here is a photo of Shea and Nana in Huntsville Women and Children's Hospital in recent days.

Some health problems

Abby and Shea were recently in Huntsville Children's Hospital; Abby for nine days and Shea for two days. Both girls were vomiting and running a fever and had lost weight. Abby was positive for c. diff., but Shea was not. Abby was put on I.V. therapy to give her stomach-feeding a rest. Abby is now in Birmingham (UAB Hospital) for a colonoscopy.

Both girls missed a lot of school days at A.A.A Magnet School kindergarten. Shea will return to school tomorrow, Monday.

July 19, 2009

Posted by Ronald S. McCuiston, Lisa's father, Papa

Abby and Shea celebrated their fifth birthday on June 28, 2009 at a camp for Abby at Lake Martin, Alabama. Lisa, Arthur and the twins shared a cake with other campers. The camp was sponsored by Lakeshore of Birmingham, where Abby goes for therapy.

The girls, Lisa and Arthur participated in activities such as crafts, boating, swimming and fishing. They all slept together in a cabin and made s'mores around a campfire. Abby can't swim, but loves water activities. Shea can now swim without a life jacket.

Abby and Shea finished their second year of preschool at Chapman Elementary in Huntsville. They both will attend A.A.A. school in August 2009. It is a magnet school for performing arts and has a special ed staff for Abby. They will probably ride a school bus for the first time.

Abby will have surgery at Children's Hospital, Birmingham on Tuesday, July 21. It is hoped that the procedure will cure Abby's regurgitation problem. This is major surgery, so we ask for your prayers for Abby, her family and the surgeon.

Peggy and I will drive to B'ham to be with Abby and Lisa. Shea and Arthur will stay at the home of Lucy Patrick, Arthur's mother.

Easter Report

The twins have had some ups and downs in the last ten days or so. Both girls have been sick and missed school. Abby has been the sickest, requiring an overnight stay in Vanderbilt Children's Hospital (Nashville). She is back at home today.

Shea had a swimming lesson and has made great progress since last summer.  Abby's high point was riding a horse for the first time at Open Gait Ranch, near Huntsville. We have been waiting for Abby to make this move for quite a while. We hope this will allow her to advance to the point where she can benefit from hippo-therapy. Shea does well on the horses, hunting Easter eggs on horseback. Both girls decorated eggs at the ranch.

Lisa, Arthur, Abby, Shea, Nana Peggy and Papa Ronald went to church on Easter Sunday. Papa stayed with Abby and Shea in Children's Church. The girls had an Easter egg hunt in their front yard, wearing their navy blue and white sailor dresses.

Lisa's good friend Jennifer came to eat supper with us and made a cake shaped like an Easter bunny which we all enjoyed after a wonderful meal prepared by Lisa and Peggy.

Long Overdue Update...April 9, 2009

This is Abigail and Shea's maternal grandfather, Ronald McCuiston, a.k.a. Papa. Due to computer problems, Arthur has not been able to post an update lately. Here is some news.

The twins are in the public school pre-K program, which they both love--perhaps Abby more than Shea. They have other activities such as church, soccer (Shea), day camps and horseback riding. Shea has taken to the riding very nicely. Eventually, Abby will warm up to the horses and will benefit from this form of therapy called hippotherapy. Abby has sat on the pony a couple of times.

Shea is like a fish in water and is now a swimmer. Abby also loves to be in a pool and receives pool therapy; she also has a tricycle which she is learning to ride at school.

They have a dog named Lucy, given to them by a next-door neighbor. The girls love her.

Abby and Shea have a lot of colds, coughs and 'viruses,' probably due to a lowered immune system. Just recently, Shea missed a couple of days of school. Now Abby has been sick. This episode caused her to miss an Angel Flight trip to St. Louis for an appointment with a C.P. specialist.

Arthur's mother, Lucy Patrick, continues to drive from Tuscaloosa to Huntsville to help with the girls. The twins also go to her home in Tuscaloosa when possible. We greatly appreciate all that she does.

Peggy and I drive to Huntsville from Pensacola about once a month. To be with Lisa, Arthur, Abby and Shea. We recently installed Web cameras on my and Lisa's computers so we can talk to and see them quite often. They are a joy to be with.

December 27 2008

Hello all! Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year! The girls had a great Christmas and are now being royally entertained by Meemaw, Nana and Papa! Arthur and I are on a much needed respite break to Nashville. We are staying with friends tonight and heading home tomorrow.

My primary purpose of this post is to encourage everyone to go and see the movie "Seven Pounds", starring Will Smith. I (Lisa) had no idea what the movie was REALLY about until about halfway thru-when it hit me that this might not have been a good choice of movie for me to see-especially alone! Anyway, without giving anything away, the movie hit very close to home. I have never had such an emtional reaction to a movie-EVER!! Please go see it. And, add to your new years resolution list: sign your organ donor card, and /or discuss your wish to be an organ donor with your family. Look at www.donatelife.org or www.cota.org for more information.

December 10, 2008

I have added some new pictures of the girls from Halloween and a trip to the Opryland Hotel in Nashville.  We have had a fairly calm period since the last posting.  Shea did come down with a bacterial infection recently and it required a visit to the ER but she is ok now.  She had a very high fever (104) and had to have an IV at the hospital.  Both Abby and Shea have had a cough lately. 

We had a nice Halloween.  Shea dressed up as a mouse and Abby was a pumpkin.  We trick or treated in the old town area of Huntsville where all of the old homes are and got a lot of candy.  Shea is still working on her candy stash.

We all attended a charity fund raiser at the Vanderbilt University Children's Hospital in early December.  We were given a wooden model of the hospital logo to decorate and it was used in the fund raiser.  They also give models to celebrities to decorate and they auction those off to raise money for the hospital.  Ours was given to one of the sponsers of the charity event.  Our sponser was a Nashville bakery.  Lisa came up with the idea to put angels on our logo and it just so happened that the bakery uses an angel in their company logo.  I put a picture of the model on the photo page.  Since the fund raiser was in the evening, we spent the night with our friends Jim and Shirley, who live in Nashville.  The next day we took Abby and Shea to the Opryland Hotel to see all of the Christmas deocorations.  If have never seen or heard ot the hotel, it is huge and there is a maze of gardens with a flowing stream throughout the area and it is all under a glass roof.  They decorate the area up for Christmas.  The girls really enjoy it.

Lisa's parents, Ron and Peggy, came to Huntsville to have Thanksgiving with us.  We had a nice holiday.  I spent most of the holiday weekend raking up leaves.  Now we are gearing up for Christmas and both girls are exicited.  We went to a Christmas tree farm and cut a tree.  Shea really enjoyed that and also liked decorating it.  Neither girl has shown much interest in talking to Santa.  They are both scared of him. 

That is all for now.  Have a Merry Christmas.

October 30, 2008

I have added some photos from our trip to White Oak South Carolina to visit Patrick relatives, some pitures from the Salon Allure fund raiser, and some photos from our trip to the pumpkin farm.

October 27, 2008

We had a VERY successful fund raiser this weekend, thanks to Michelle McGough and her staff at the Salon Allure.  We also had a great weekend.  There were several news stories about our fund raiser and I have attached a link to a news report in the press releases.  As soon as I get some pictures down loaded, I will add new photographs.