Happy Thanksgiving - November, 2011

Hope you are all having a wonderful Thanksgiving! Mason is doing wonderfully! His cranial surgeries this summer were extremely successful. His next surgeries will be coming up next month just after Christmas. He will have 2 separate surgeries 1 week apart from each other. The first will be on his hands. They will be straightening his thumbs and widening his hand span by cutting back the webbing between his pinkies and other fingers. The second surgery will be to repair his cleft palette As always, we will keep you posted throughout both procedures and recoveries!

Distractors Removed - September 28, 2011

Day 1 - Mason had his surgery today to remove the distractors that were inserted in July to add more space in his head. All went well. He is in recovery right now and will spend the night in the IMC for observation and should be sent home tomorrow.


Day 2 - Mason is up and ready to go. He was finally "unplugged" and allowed to go for a walk, and now I can't get him to go back to his room! LOL! Dr's came and he is on schedule to be allowed to go home this afternoon.

ICP Monitoring - July 26, 2011

Day 1 - ICP monitor is in place. Waiting to be called back to recovery and then he will be moved to an IMC room to be monitored over the next few days. Scheduled for 4 days but could be out in as few as 2 if no mishaps occur.


Day 2 - We are almost done with day 2. The monitoring is showing that the pressure in Mason's head is still higher than the neurosurgeon would like, even after the cranial surgery. So now we will continue to turn the distractors to widen the space they are creating in Mason's head. We will not be release from the hospital until the pressure goes down to a level that the neurosurgeon is comfortable with. Oh well, so much for being out of here after a few days! :( Mason is hanging in there like a champ as he always does! :)


Day 3 - The wire for the ICP monitor has developed a kink or something in it. So it is back into surgery tomorrow to replace the wire. This really isn't a big surgery. The doctor explained that if Mason was older and capable of understanding and able to contol himself long enough to sit still for more than 20 minutes, he wouldn't have to even be put under. It would just be a local anethetic to numb the area and insert the wire. Looks like we will be here through the weekend. Thankfully a room at the Ronald McDonald House opened up so we will be able to get some more restful sleep. :)


Day 4 - Dr. has decided that it is not worth putting him under again for just a day of monitoring. So monitor is coming out and we are being discharged today. :). Yipee!!! Praise God!

Checking in - July 23, 2011

Hello all! Just checking in to let you know Mason is doing great. On Tuesday, July 26th, we go back to the hospital for a few days to do the pressure monitoring again. The doctors want to compare the results of the monitoring now that he has had his cranial surgery with the results from the time they did it in March before his surgery.

Post Surgery - July 5, 2011

This cranial surgery was a success.  This time the spacers were much smaller, but his frustration level was much higher during recovery.  He recovered well and was home within 4 days of surgery.

It's Surgery Time Again!

Well it's that time again. Mason is gearing up to have his next major cranial surgery on Tuesday, July 5th. It's nice that we were able to go 6 months without being in the hospital but it's that time again. This surgery will be the same one he had back in December of 2009. They will be opening his skull, putting in spacers (called distractors) and basically forcing his bones to grow out so as to give his brain more room to grow and release the pressure that has been building in his head since the last surgery. I will keep everyone posted as much as possible.

I have created a group on Facebook called Updates for Mason. It is open to everyone to become a member. That way I can post the updates one time and in one place for all to be able to read. Please feel free to join the group and add your friends as well if they want to keep up on the latest info about Mason!

We want to send out a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone that helped, contributed, and participated in Mason's latest benefit in May. It was a huge success. It raised close to $7500 which helped us pay off his medical bills for this past year and we have enough to also cover our copays for this upcoming surgery as well! We cannot thank everyone enough for the love and support that continues to flow in for our family!

I know that I am behind on updating the pictures, but I will upload them in the next few weeks once everything settles down from his surgery! He is doing great, being pretty much a typical 2 year old: climbing on everything, getting into everything, and just being happy and loving life! AMEN!

Until the next update, thank you all again and again for your prayers, support and love!

Sincerely,

Allison, Justin, & Mason

Benefit for Mason - May 14th

Hello all!


Hope things are going well for you! Things have been busy as usual for us. Mason went back to the doctors Thursday (4/21). After the ICP Monitoring was completed in March, they have determined that the pressure in his head is high (as was expected), but not high enough to warrant doing a surgery to move his forehead forward immediately. They are very happy that they can wait to do that, so that they don’t have to separate his forehead from the rest of his face. So now the plan is to do another surgery to stretch the back of his head again (and give him more room there) this summer. After that surgery is complete, then we will discuss when to do the front and the face. They still aren’t concerned about fixing his cleft palate at this time, but will be looking at that after this summer as well.


I have attached a copy of the flyer for the upcoming benefit that we will be having to help cover the continued medical expenses for Mason. I know that not everyone can make it, especially those that are so far away, but I just wanted to keep everyone up-to-date on his progress and journey!

With all our love,

Allison and Justin – and of course Mason!

Hi, From Mason...Long Time!!

Dearest Family and Friends,

     I know that it has been too long since I’ve sent out an update and let you know how things have been. For that I apologize, but in my case “No news is Good News!”

     Things here have been busy but good. Since I last wrote to you, so much has happened. For starters, I finally got the knack of walking. So much so that I even learned how to run! I love it. I have also learned how to climb! Mommy and Daddy aren’t so pleased about that one and I get told to “get down” a lot, but it sure it fun to get back up on things once I get down! One of my favorite things to climb on is the couch. Then I can get closer to the fish tank and play with the blinds on the windows! I attached a picture of me climbing up to see the fish.

Mr. Ryan, the physical therapist, was so pleased with my progress that he said I don’t have to have class with him anymore. Now I am working on Occupational Therapy with Ms. Candy. She’s working on helping me to use my hands and other fine motor skills. I’m making a lot of progress. Ms. Debbie says that I’m doing great with speech too. I can make all kinds of sounds now. Too bad Mommy and Daddy just don’t understand me yet. I’m sure they will figure it out soon though! To help them out, I have also learned some signs too. I can sign “more, music, please, eat, milk, I see you, bye-bye, and daddy.” I’m working on the sign for mommy, but it’s much more fun to just laugh at her when she says it!

      In August, the doctors did a sleep study on me to see if I was breathing enough at night. All those wires were annoying. Check out the picture to see what I mean. I didn’t think I would sleep much at all, but Mommy was there and I was able to still drink my “vanilla latte” (that's what Mommy calls my milk since the Vanilla flavored Pediasure smells like a Vanilla Latte), so that helped. The doctors told Mommy and Daddy that I do have mild sleep apnea, whatever that is, but it isn’t bad enough to worry about at this point. Because of this, the doctors decided to not do surgery on my cleft palate in October like they had originally planned. They said that it would be better to just wait and let my mouth grow more on its own before they do that.

     For Halloween, I was a cowboy and I got to go trick-or-treating with my big brother JJ. It was a lot of fun. My favorite part was walking up to the door and saying HI to everyone. They gave me candy too, but I didn’t eat any of it because I only had 1 tooth at the time, but Mommy and Daddy helped me to eat it all. I finally got my first tooth at the end of July and my second tooth in December. I had my two front teeth for Christmas! Now I am cutting to more teeth on top. One on each side. Maybe I’ll start chewing some food and will be able to move to table food soon!

     Right before Christmas, I was sick with a very bad stomach virus. After two weeks, it wasn’t getting any better and it started to hurt my hips a whole lot and I didn’t want to walk. The doctors got worried and put me in the hospital to run tests. The found out that the virus was causing inflammation in my joints and my immune system was attacking my joints thinking that it was part of the virus. The solution was that I have to take Ibuprofen and not Tylenol when I get sick from now on. Just 1 day on the Ibuprofen and I was ready to run again! The doctors could tell I was better when I tried to run down the hallway!

     After all that mess, Christmas came and went without a hitch! I really enjoyed opening my presents. I got to meet Santa Claus again. This time JJ was there and we got to have our picture taken together. For Christmas Eve, JJ and I also got matching pajamas! He is such a cool big brother! I love it when he is here because he always plays with me and lets me chew on his toy cars (at least the ones that he isn’t playing with at the time!)

     After Christmas, I was back to the doctors because the cardiologist found fluid around my heart. The tried a few medicines, but discovered that it was more inflammation from when I’d had the virus before Christmas. So more Ibuprofen! Good thing I like grape flavor. It took 3 weeks to clear up the fluid and then it was back to the hospital at the end of January for an MRI and MRV. Those were not so fun because I wasn’t allowed to eat or drink anything all day until it was over, but Mommy was there with my “vanilla latte” to make me feel better when it was all over!

     When Mommy and Daddy met with the doctors to discuss what happens next, they got to see the pictures of my brain from the MRI. The back of my brain looks like it is supposed to thanks to the cranial surgery from last Christmas. However, the front of my brain is being squished against the front of my skull. The doctors said that they know that they have to open up my head again and move the front of my skull forward to make more room, but they are hoping it can wait until they are ready to reconstruct my face too. Then it will be easier on my because it will only be one surgery and the pieces of my skull will recover easier if reconstructed at the same time instead of two separate times.

     To determine if it can wait or not, they are going to do a Pressure Monitoring Procedure, where they will insert a wire into my head and then monitor the pressure over several days. If the pressure is too

high, then they will do the front of my skull first and then the face separate. But if the pressure isn’t too bad, they will decide to wait and do it all at once. The procedure is scheduled for March 22nd. They will have to shave my head again to insert the wire. So much for my beautiful curls!

     To end on a happy note, at the beginning of February, I got to see snow!! It was really cool, but once I touched it and realized how cold it was, I’d had enough and was ready to go back inside and play with my toys. Besides, that big coat Mommy made me wear was hard to move in any way!

     The final picture is just a fun silly picture. If there is one thing I have learned, is that it’s no fun unless you can laugh and have a good time. Leave the worrying to the doctors! Isn’t that what they get paid for?? Well, that’s all that is going on with me! Hope things are going well with you and your family! I will try to write again later!

All my love,

Mason Higginbotham

PS. Mommy and Daddy say hello too! Hugs and kisses to all!



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