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The Long Goodbye: Health Background

Sometime around the first of June in 1951 my grandmother's water broke. She went to the hospital expecting to deliver her third child, but was sent home by the doctor. I don't know much about what happened when she went home, if she was sick, in pain, had to stay in bed. We don't ask questions because of the immense guilt my Mimi feels. I do know it was June 11, ten days after her water broke, before my mom was born. 

My mom grew up to be a normal adult. There were no apparent defects caused by her horribly traumatic birth. A birth that wasn't even mentioned until 2003 when brain scans showed a large portion of her frontal left lobe was missing. The doctor took both of his thumbs and held them side by side to demonstrate the amount that had already deteriorated. No one will ever be certain, but it is the opinion of doctors at the UAMS Center on Aging that my mom may have suffered a small stroke in utero during those ten days my Mimi was in labor. 

In her teens and twenties, my mom was in a series of car accidents and suffered head traumas. None of them were severe, but she did suffer concussions. The doctor says that repeated injury over time could have, like the stroke in utero, continued to prevent sufficient blood flow to the left frontal lobe of her brain, thus causing it to deteriorate.

Not only was there an abnormality in the frontal lobe, she was also a carrier of the APOE4 Alzheimer's Gene. That, combined with her medical history, greatly increased the chances that she would develop early on-set. The doctor looked at my Auntie Joye, Mom's sister, during the appointment and said, "Wear your seat belt." There seems to be a correlation between the gene becoming active once a trauma, specifically to the head, occurs. The same was true for President Reagan after his horse riding accident. The article can be found here:
http://www.memory.umn.edu/about/essay.html

So, what does the frontal lobe control?

Function:

  • Motor Functions

  • Higher Order Functions

  • Planning

  • Reasoning

  • Judgement

  • Impulse Control

  • Memory

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Past Posts

Mary Grace

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One day at a time

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Madelyn Barrett

I really don't even know where to begin or how to write this post. I've put it off for several days hoping that maybe if I let things sink in a little more it would be easy. This will never be easy. As you know, we welcomed three beautiful little girls into the world on Friday afternoon. We had hoped to continue to "buy time" and hold off on delivery for several more weeks. God has always had a plan much bigger than either Reid or I could ever imagine. I have to chose to believe, everyday, that somehow this all fits perfectly into that plan. We knew from the time of her delivery that Madelyn was struggling the most. The circumstances surrounding her birth caused a lot of trauma to her tiny body. After a day of fighting for a positive outcome, the neonatologist came to visit with us and told us it was time to let her go. Late Saturday night we went to the NICU to hold our precious baby for the first and last time. She was absolutely perfect and looked just like h

Surprise!

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The babies are here!

Friends and Family, Late this afternoon we became the proud parents of three little girls. Madelyn Barrett: 1 pound Olivia Bain: 1 pound, 5 ounces Mary Grace: 1 pound, 10 ounces The babies are stable in the NICU  tonight and we are hopeful that God is going to move mountains as they grow and thrive. Madelyn's (Baby B) amniotic sac ruptured on Sunday night. We had a sonogram done each day this week to check her heart beat, fluid level, and position. The doctors told us Friday morning that she was not likely to make it and that delivering her was not an option as it put too much risk on Mary Grace and Olivia. Once again, we were told to wait and see. Around 4:30 Friday afternoon I delivered Madelyn. The NICU team was here immediately to begin working on her. When the doctor checked on the status of the other girls, he saw signs of infection and he immediately performed an emergency c-section to deliver Mary Grace and Olivia. We have seen the Lord's mercy through each to