Jun 23, 2010

Alicia and Avalon

This is a guest post written by Lindsay Kolk.

This is the Caring Bridge site to an AMAZING family..... an amazing Mom, Alicia, and her equally amazing husband and children.  One of her children, Avalon, is a whole lotta amazing packed into a tiny 7 year old body.  This little girl has been through so much in her lifetime........ ALL leukemia at 17 months old, years of chemo...only to be saddled for life with pseudotumor cerebri. 

In a catastrophic shunt surgery, an unskilled surgeon dropped a catheter through Avalon's brain stem.  Miracle of miracles, she survived, but the catheter still sits in her brain......and because of that surgery, she was robbed of her memories, and a lot of abilities. 

Avalon's pseudotumor cerebri is extremely difficult to treat, because of the catheter in her brain, and because her shunt doesn't like to behave itself.  She has had 4.... count them, 4 brain surgeries in her kindergarten year, and is now facing a surprise 5th brain surgery. 

This amazing mom faces such difficult things with such love, humor, and faith..... I get teary just thinking about this families courage.   Right now, they don't know what they are facing...any surgery is dangerous because of the awful surgery, and they didn't see this coming.  I know their family could use some extra shoulders to lean on right now.

Please take the time to leave a comment on their site (not here!!) and let them know that you're thinking of them. In case you're not familiar with Caring Bridge, you'll need an account to leave a comment, but please take the time to do so in order to be a blessing to this family.