Fundraising Team Roping Benefit!

Hope you are having a great summer! So far we are. Mommy is home enjoying her summer with me and she started taking classes to get her Master’s Degree in Special Education. I keep trying to help her out with her papers, but she keeps telling me, “No!” when I go to type for her. And Daddy is enjoying his summer by going camping and fishing with Paw Paw and JJ. I’m not quite old enough to go yet, but maybe next year!


I am learning how to walk all by myself. I can get across the living room and I sometimes I still fall down, but I have to have help still getting up without something to hold onto. Mr. Ryan and I are working on that in my Physical Therapy class. I have that once a week! And I’m going to be adding another class too, Speech Therapy. Ms. Debbie is going to help me to use sounds and words to mean things. Although, I think I am doing just fine. I’ve got “da-da-da-da-da” down really good! I even say “ba” every now and again!

Coming up in July, we are going to be busy, busy, busy! First, JJ gets to come and stay ALL month! He is so much fun to play with. He always makes me laugh! And then, on July 10th is Mommy’s birthday and we are going to have another benefit for my surgeries. This one is going to be a Team Roping one! I can’t wait. The top winner gets a saddle with my name on it and the average winners get belt buckles that are as big as my head! (Well, they say “Higginbotham Benefit Champion” on them, so they had to be big! Besides, everything is bigger here in Texas anyway!) I attached a flyer and a picture of the belt buckle. Granny is going today to check out the saddle. I can’t wait to see that. I get to help present it to the winner at the end of the night! Hope you can all come out and join us for this event! If you can’t, we understand! We know you would if you could!

After the summer, I get to go back to school. I get to move up to the toddler room if I can get this whole walking thing down. I know I can do it! Mommy is still teaching Pre-k, but she won’t be teaching colorguard this year. She wanted more time to spend at home with me and Daddy! My next surgery will be around October or November. They are going to fix my cleft palate, so that when I eat food won’t go up my nose so much! (Thank goodness! I HATE it when everyone keeps trying to wipe my nose!) They also might straighten out my thumbs at the same time. We aren’t sure about that one yet though. That will be up to Dr. Kelley and Dr. Sharma to work out. We will be sure to keep you posted on all the great things coming up.

Hope things are going well with you and your families too! Also, keep saving tabs for the Ronald McDonald House too! The boy scout troop at Mommy’s school saved a ton! We got to take pictures for the newspaper!

Well, I gotta go now! Mommy says it is time to eat lunch… Mixed veggies and apple/blueberries. Yummy!

All my love,

Mason Higginbotham

Speed Racer

Here is Mason in his new soft casts (splints). He loves cruising around in his walker and thanks to his brilliant Aunt Ness, he has shirts that velcro up both sides so he doesn't have to be naked all the time.

I have also attached a picture of his hand with the bandages off. His fingers are still swollen and stitched but the Dr says he is healing great!

Mason Is Home!

Mason was released from the hospital this afternoon. Praise the Lord!

He had to stay longer than expected because of a little bit of fever (they wanted him to be fever-free for 24 hours). He also had a postitive test for MRSA, but it was only a postive culture and not a full blown infection. They are able to treat it with antibiotics, but he has to stay close to home until the antibiotics run their course.

He's had a hard time, being as active as he is, realizing he can't use his hands. He will still play, smile, and is as charming as ever, flirting with the nurses and staff. He even tried to climb out of his crib once! But you can tell he gets uncomfortable and frustrated.

Please continue to pray that the skin graphts will form correctly to his fingers so that they'll be able to remove the casts in about 2 weeks (or sooner!).

I'm Outta Here!

Surgery Update

Thank you for praying!

The surgery took longer than expected yesterday (over 7 hours!) but the
doctors said he did well. He had a slight fever in recovery last night, but
that went away during the night. He is still on pretty strong pain
medication, and he's been pretty cranky today, as you would expect. He's
drinking and holding down formula which is good progress.

In Recovery:

These pictures will break your heart, but my sister sent them and I wanted
to share with you. He'll be wearing casts on his arms to keep him from
moving his fingers so that the skin grafts will grow on his hands. I'm not
sure how long he'll be in them, but you can imagine the difficulties an
active 11-month-old will be facing.

Morning after - drinking with the help of little doggy!

They expect him to be home from the hospital tonight or tomorrow morning if
all goes well today. As the Lord brings him to mind, please continue to
pray for his recovery and for peace in their family.

Latest & Greatest about Mason

Hello all!

We apologize for the long interim between updates. These last few months since Mason’s first surgery have just been a whirlwind. So let’s go back to then…his first surgery.

Mason’s first surgery was on December 29th! That day was very stressful to say the least, but Mason came through like a charm. He was sedated for most of the day and he still had a tube in to help him breath. He looked like he had been hit by a train, but all the doctors and nurses kept insisting on how great he looked for having just gone through what he had gone through. By the end of the night he did give even the nurses a scare though. While they thought he was still sedated, Mason decided to roll over! He almost rolled off the bed! After that, he had to be restrained any time he was left in the bed alone. As he improved and progressed in his healing, he was moved from PICU to an intermediate care unit then to a regular room all over the course of 4 days. On the 4th day, his doctors came in to check him out while we were there and gave us an update. One doctor also decided to prove to us just how durable the distracters in his head were. Without warning, the doctor grabbed one of the distracters and shook Mason’s head… HARD! We all just gasped, and we swore that Justin was about to hit the floor, although he insists he wanted to hit the doctor instead! The whole thing didn’t phase Mason in the least! A good lesson to learn, but not one I recommend the doctor do to other patients! Overall, Mason spent 8 days in the hospital and then was released to go home. He would have been sent home after 6 days, but he developed a blood clot in his leg when they removed his central line.

Once home, then the “fun” started. Doctor’s appointments twice a week (the hematologist for the clot, and the Cranio-facial team for the distracters in his head). We also had to give him a shot twice a day for the blood clot and turn his distracters twice a day to slowly spread the bones in his skull. After 17 days, the extended part of the distracters were removed and we no longer had to turn them. All the turning created a 17 ½ millimeter soft spot all the way across his skull. The really cool part was that we noticed that he now had a round head. As you can see in the pictures attached (one is from 4 days before the surgery and the next is from the morning before we removed the extenders), the shape of his head had dramatically changed. Finally, after a month of shots, his ultrasound showed that his blood clot had completely cleared and we were able to stop giving him shots.

Before Surgery:

Morning before distractors removed:
By then, it was February. Things had just started to settle down into some sort of normal-ness… yeah right!! February was just as busy as January was. My brother was promoted to Warrant Officer in the Marines and my sister had had her 3rd child. Since my mom, who had been staying with us to help watch him while he wasn’t allowed at daycare, was now away helping to take care of the rest of her family, we all took time off to stay at home with Mason. Mason started to really enjoy playing and crawling around. Then he discovered that he could crawl through the coffee table! Before we knew it, it was March! Mason started to pull himself up to a standing position, then he started “cruising,” as the physical therapist calls it, all around the coffee table. Now he is really getting fast at going around the furniture. He is getting braver about letting go just long enough to stretch and reach the next piece of furniture, but he hasn’t tried to walk solo yet. Along with all these new discoveries and accomplishments have come bumps, bruises and scares! All part in partial to any growing child his age. Thank goodness for his helmet!

We also decided that we should give Mason his own room, since he has decided that bed time, now means play time! One picture included, is an “in progress” shot of the living room during the room switching. All the stuff from the room was all over the living room and Mason was playing. Can you find the baby in all the mess?

And for his crowning achievement, Mason said, “da-da” tonight! Justin has been gloating all night! I am just happy that he is making the “d” sound because the speech therapist told us he probably wouldn’t make that at first because of his cleft palette! I guess he showed her!

Look! I have shoes on!

Now as we near the end of March we are gearing up for Mason’s next surgery. On Wednesday, March 31st, Mason goes back in. This time to remove the distracters in his head. The doctors are expecting this to be an easier surgery than it was to put them in. They will also separate his pointer and pinky fingers on both of his hands while he is under anesthesia. After this surgery, both his hands will be in casts in order to allow the skin to properly heal. This is going to be the hardest thing for him to deal with. He is so active and mobile. Not being able to use his hands is going to be VERY frustrating for him. All in all, he is only expected to spend one, maybe two nights in the hospital this go round. As with the first surgery, I will be keeping everyone posted via Facebook and text messages.

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers. I will continue to keep everyone updated as we go over the next hurdle in our lives!

All our love,
Allison and Justin

More on Mason...

Mason was moved from the ICU into the IMC ward on 12/31. He was eating from a bottle and they had removed the bandages from his head. He was doing very well...and continued to progress rapidly!

By that evening, he was sitting up in bed! In this picture, you can see the 4 distractors that are sticking out of his head. These will be turned to open up space in the skull for the next 3 weeks.

The next day, they removed all tubes, drains, and the catheter. He still had to be connected to a monitor, but Mommy & Daddy finally got to hold him! It was a great start to a Happy New Year!

By Saturday, Jan 2nd, he really seemed to be back to himself. He was being playful, sticking out his tongue, and smiling a bunch.

By that evening, he was moved into a regular room, and all IV's and tethers were removed. The word they had at that point was that he was pretty much ready to be released, but they were needing to order some sort of head gear. Due to the holiday, they weren't able to get anything this weekend.

By Monday, Jan 4th, they were expecting to be released "any day now..." The doctors had decided that they wouldn't wait on the head gear, as it would take too long. Also, when they took out his central IV, a blood clot had formed and was affecting his left leg - which they found and were treating with medication. That was clearing up quickly.

With everything that this little guy has been through in the past 6 days, you wouldn't know it to be around him. He is full of life, happy, and spreads that joy to everyone he sees!