This is Gracie. Isn’t she just beautiful? She’s just 3 years old and her smile could light up a room. Gracie was born on the 4th of July and she is quite a firecracker–lively and fun and just amazing.
Gracie is my sweet, little friend. Her amazing momma is a very good friend of mine. Gracie has 2 big brothers, a big sister, and a baby brother, and a daddy, of course. They are a precious family. They also happen to homeschool :).
Gracie has struggled with some health issues since she was first born. She has suffered things like bloody diarrhea, abdominal pain, and relentless vomiting. Sometimes she just wakes up screaming in the middle of the night, in obvious pain. Then about a year ago, she developed a painful limp. Since then she has suffered several unexplained broken bones in her leg and heel, was diagnosed with a tethered spinal cord, histoplasmosis with several granulomas in her lungs and on her spleen, and a seemingly unrelated mass on her spine that has yet to be identified, because her doctors cannot agree upon when or if she needs surgery to biopsy/remove it.
She has seen countless specialists from orthopedic surgeons to oncologists, neurosurgeons, geneticist, pulmonologists, general surgeons, endocrinologists, infectious diseases, and soon will be seeing a rheumatologist. Diagnoses such as cancer, osteomyelitis, Crohn’s disease, osteogenesis imperfecta, juvenile arthritis, celiac disease, chronic granulomatous disease, and Gaucher’s disease have been spoken.
Gracie has had brain MRI’s, spine MRI’s, bone scans, endoscopes, numerous blood tests, HIDA scans, ultrasounds, and will soon have tests of her bladder to determine when her tethered cord should be repaired.
Her many specialists have argued back and forth about whether she should have surgery or not. Second and 3rd and 4th opinions have been sought. Her parents have sought care in another city even, and yet there still is no definitive diagnosis for Gracie, much less a treatment to heal her. She’s been on several medications, usually to treat the symptom that is worse at the time, and is now on a very expensive ($1200) medication to treat the histoplasmosis.
You can imagine the toll this has taken on Gracie’s family. While Gracie has been brave and strong and tolerant of so much, and her family has remained faithful and trusting of God, it has still been an exhausting, frustrating, sometimes maddening, and often scary time for them. Not to mention the pure agony of watching their baby suffer so.
We all know that God has a special plan for this little angel. She is fearfully and wonderfully made. We know that our God is her sustainer and He is her healer, the Great Physician. So, please join with me in praying for Gracie, not just for answers for her family, but for complete healing. To God be the glory!
You can read more at Gracie’s Caring Bridge website. Feel free to leave her a message, letting her know you are praying. If you have a blog, please consider placing Gracie’s button on your sidebar. We really want to spread the word about Gracie and get as many folks praying for her as possible. You’ll find the code below. I know that her family would be so appreciative.
