Prayers Are Needed

Elizabeth Brian's cousin is in need of prayers and I figured this was the easiest way to let you all know what is going on. She is now 13 holy cow we are all getting old ...most of you remember her from this...

Elizabeth is the one on the right. But this was five years ago she is such the young lady now!!

6/10
Elizabeth's right eye began to stop tracking in the last 3 weeks. Her eyeball is focusing inward(towards her nose), she has been having headaches & double vision. Sometimes the headaches are bad and other days they are bearable. We have taken to for several tests to determine the cause & are getting closer. We took her to the optometrist who referred us to an Ophthalmologist. She has had a brain MRI, bloodwork for diabetes, thyroid, etc and that all have come back negative. Fortunately - no brain issues. Monday we took her back to the Ophthalmologist and they gave us the following information: She has Sixth Nerve Palsy (not weary eye or lazy eye). Why? –don’t know. We will need to go to Children’s Memorial to see a Pediatric Neurologist to confirm that she should have the two tests our ophthalmologist recommended:
Tensilon Test (IV to inject meds to see muscle reaction)
Lumbar Puncture (spinal tap). They want to rule out Infection or Myathenia Gravis (neuromuscular disorder). At this point the doctor thinks it is temporary and will not need surgery. To tell you the truth, we truly do not understand this completely but hope to gain more insights soon.

6/17 Next Update-
She saw the ophthalmologist yesterday and her eye is not getting better. The ophthalmologist had hoped to see some improvement. We go back in 3 weeks.
We cannot get Elizabeth into the pediatric neurologist until July 21. The ophthalmologist is calling them to see if they can push up the date on her appointment.
She is still handling it extremely well.

6/18
The ophthalmologist got Elizabeth into the pediatric neurologist today (Dr. Ikramuddin of Lutheran General - one of the top childrens hospitals in the area). The cause for her double vision is undetermined. He is running some tests – lumbar puncture (spinal tap), MRI, MRA, blood work, and nerve and muscle test. They want to rule out pseudo tumor cerebri (basically the body thinks there is a tumor on the brain but there is not one - we have not looked this one up or asked too many questions about it because we wanted to wait for the doctor's determination first) and myasthenia gravis among other things (diabetes being one of them). In order to do this she has been admitted to Lutheran General Hospital for the night. Julie and I are both with her. She is very upset that she is not having fun on her first day of summer. She feels fine and is watching a movie & playing games n the internet.

6/18 PM
Elizabeth had the spinal tap tonight and did really well. Because they sedated her for the spinal tap they do not want to risk over-sedating her for the MRA so they are going to do it in the morning. She will have the MRI/MRA and the nerve/muscle test in the morning.

Hopefully we will know more by the weekend. I would be terrified at 13 and having all these test run she is being such a trooper!!