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Hollis in a coma, fundraiser, please help.

From http://helpholligethome.blogspot.com/
Monday, March 1, 2010
Shepherd Update
Got a call this morning from my social worker that Shepherd Center has agreed to negotiate with Holli's insurance company. It will be a hard road to get them to agree to send Holli out of network to Atlanta. We still need your prayers.
Harrison is in town to visit Holli and his friend Brody. Harrison was so shocked to see how well Holli was talking last evening. He will be in town until Wednesday and plans to visit with Holli again today. She told me that her memory is fuzzy and it is frustrating not to be able to remember. I know with time that this will get better.
Posted by paigereno at 10:21 AM 2 comments
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Good to hear! Your friend sounds like an incredible person, and she is very fortunate to have friends like you :)
 
From; http://friendsofhollis.blogspot.com/

Friday, March 5, 2010
Nice Article on Hollis' Recovery
http://coilhouse.net/2010/03/all-for-the-love-of-hollis-hawthorne/comment-page-1/#comment-27512
Posted by Agent Chaos at 2:44 PM 0 comments
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Happy Cries
Thanks to the overwhelming support to Hollis and Diane.
I have been happy crying for days now.

Thinking about a year ago is a trip. Five cities were already having fundraisers and the word was spreading across the globe. This has been, and will coninue to be, an epic journey. The greater human network of compassion has been exposed for all to see. So many wellwishers who are also strangers! We all showed the world that right at the onset of "recession" we raised $100,000 in three weeks through compassion and hard work. Together. With Hollis in mind.
Now we raise our glasses to her, and jump in the air, with unfiltered enthusiasm.

She has made it out of the dark and begins the new growth period. Spring is in the air.
New buds. New bees. New hours of sunlight to shine its golden magic upon us.

Hollis is rocking it. And that makes us stronger because we put our hopes and intentions in the soil for her to use the nutrients to blossom. She probably would have anyway, the bull-headed woman she is. It makes us feel good to lend a helping hand (or a hundred dollars).

Let us keep fixing the soil, so she can plunge her roots deep into the ground from where they were cut. Let's provide her with muses, guidance, and patience.
She needs music.
She needs videos.
She wants to read your letters.
Send her your smile you have now.
I am still not sure if she is aware of how much she has affected us all.
Let her know so she can weild that power for future battles.


I am going to Tennessee for a visit at the end of the month, so if you would like to send something with me, email ELIZA(at)FRIENDSOFHOLLIS(dot)COM
Posted by Agent Chaos at 1:37 AM 0 comments
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From; http://friendsofhollis.blogspot.com/
Monday, March 8, 2010
Not Giving Up the Fight!
I received a phone call this morning from Holli's insurance, Amerigroup, that the doctor denied her going to Shepherd Center. I have already appealed the denial but may not know anything up to 90 days. I am reaching out to resources for help to see if there is anyone we can contact that could help with our case. I need once again your prayers for Holli and for guidance as we continue to pursue this fight to get her into Shepherds Center. I appreciate every ones love and support. I will keep you posted.
Diane
Posted by paigereno at 12:34 PM 1 comments
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Holli Starting to Remember
For the last several days Holli has been very sad and having very negative thoughts about her past. She has been remembering many childhood memories that have been upsetting to her. She repeatedly talks about remembering having bad feeling about people and people being mad at her and getting upset about "stupid things". She is talking constantly about all these thoughts and feelings. I keep reminding her that no one is upset with her and that she is truly loved. She gets so worked up at times that she gets a very rapid heart rate, sweaty and her skin is blotched. I know this is part of the healing process but it breaks my heart when she gets so sad and starts bawling or so anxious about her negative feeling. I pray that she will soon find peace and strength to get through this phase of her healing.
Diane
Posted by paigereno at 4:26 PM 0 comments
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Oh I am so sorry for Dianne.
I hope the appeal can be granted Holli seems to be making amazing progress.
 
fROM; http://friendsofhollis.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, March 24, 2010
My first Tennessee visit.
Here I am, day 1 of a four day adventure in Tennessee to visit Hollis.
In the car ride on the way over, Hollis called to tell us how excited she was for the visit. Five minutes later we pulled into the nursing home and she was there in the window. I made a childish face at her and raced inside. I jumped in her arms gave her a big hug. She gave me her best one armed hug and then told me to give her a kiss. We kissed and she said we had to do it again so we can get a picture of it. How refreshing to have my first words with her be bossing me around!!
She handed me a note she wrote to me that was penned by Karen, her stepmother, signed by Hollis with her left hand. It said, "Thank you for being my friend. I love you!"

holliandelizakiss.jpg


We quickly left the bustling activity center for the privacy of her room. Hollis was speaking the whole time. She would say things and then asked if I could understand her. If I didn't then I would tell her to repeat it and she would without frustration. She told me to sit in her chair with her. She asked me to massage her shoulders and feet."oh that so nice." She told me she couldn't feel anything, then I pinched her and she looked at me so I told her I caught her in a fib. She talked about her speech therapy and various health problems, some imagined. She kept saying that she is blind in one eye. Then we would do some experiments when we would cover each eye and ask her how many fingers. When she repeated herself the fourth time, I interrupted and told her that she had said that four times already and that it wasn't true. She apologized and didn't bring it up again. Near the end of the visit, she did say that it is hard for her to focus, but that is more of a problem with needing glasses.

She has this joke about fibro mialsia that kept cracking us up the whole time.
The joke was along the lines of, "One time at band camp, I got sick. It was from Fibro Mialsia."
Heather, her sister was like,"Did you smoke this fibro mialsia?"
"Yeah!"
"I think that was Marijuana, maryjane, reefer...."
"hahahah yeah!"
And then from then on, sometimes when she couldn't think of a word, she would say she has fibro mialsia and laugh and crack up. Then it started to turn into spinalbi-fasia, etc.

We spent the day cuddling and reading a few letters from folks. I am introducing a new letter or present every few hours so she doesn't get overwhelmed. Which she wasn't. The last few weeks she has been stressed and depressed, so Diane warned me to not expect anything, but Hollis was back to her joyful, joking self. Her original southern accent, the one that comes out when she's drunk, was more apparent. Her southern hospitality was amazing. She kept asking me if I understood her, that she was just trying to explain where she's coming from. She was so polite and very thankful for all the gifts I would pull out. She has this phrase, "Oh, I had no idea" and "Oh thank you, that's so nice," which is very southern sounding. And very pleasant.

I brought a piece of bacon from breakfast for her to lick or something. I saw this glimmer in her eye when I first pulled out the bacon. It was like heaven had answered her prayers. She totally ate a very small fatty bit. Her slightly studdering thought patterns showed a transformation in her thought. At first she was saying she has an eating disability. That she can't eat food; that it will give her pain. Then I reminded her that her body wants real food instead of the vitamin tube and that it would be hard to reintroduce food but it will eventually happen. I notified her of the real pain it will be to get over a year of feeding tubes. Then she said that she can eat, but just not too much. Then she asked for more bacon. We gave her some yogurt instead and told her that the more she eats and the more she swallows, the more food she can have like that. Later on in the evening, I was telling her about Homemade Hustle and how Babs and Nikole's descriptions of their food are super poetic. She kept asking me to tell her what kind of food they were making. She was very interested in it all and would exclaim "Oh that's nice."

I showed her the picture of pregnant Linda and she was so excited. "Oh I had no idea she was pregnant! I wish she would have told me." She was very delighted to get updates from people. We are setting up an email account for her so she can reach out and send messages to people. She proclaimed that no one writes anymore. She would really love little updates on people. She doesn't want to hear how people are sorry for her position. She wants the dirt. The trials and tribulations. She conveyed that she knows that her big skill in life is communicating with folks and its lonely when she doesn't know what's going on. She also informed me that she has a Skype account as of this month and can Skype with anyone whenever. So if you are Skype-able, drop her a line. More info on how to later.

We decided to call Shannon because we were reminiscing about singing a song in the livingroom and tapdancing and we couldn't remember the words. Hollis remembered the melody and sang it to me. When we got her on the line, Shannon sang it to us and we all sang along and laughed. When Hollis talks on the phone, it's hard to hear her, but if you tell her to speak up or repeat things, she will no problem. It's more important for her that we understand what she is saying than the ego hit of us not being able to make out some of the mumbling. Hollis asked Shannon where she was and how she was doing. Hollis wanted to hold the phone and she was, but since she talks too quiet, sometimes her hand would go over the speaker and it would become hard to hear her. She doesn't talk that long, but she gets this amused look on her face when people are talking about what they are doing. After we got off the phone with Shannon, we called DA. She was asking him how he was doing and very interested in the goings-on at the Burningman office. She got this far away look in her eye, conjuring up this half fantasy-half reality land of fire and dust and hard work and people with weird names, like Fibro Mialsia.

She didn't want DA to stop talking about his life. She wanted a thousand word picture. When they did have to part ways, she thanked him for not being a prick. And we laughed and laughed....

I showed her my new Booty Dance skills. She got the biggest grin. She was the one who had been teaching me about the amazing booty shaking skills so many years ago, and now I could finally do it, as well as Jamie Bond. She was very surprised. And proud. I told her about the "Mogli" technique (sticking butt in air on hands and feet) and she said she hadn't heard of that and then asked if we had The Jungle Book dvd to watch so she could know what I was referencing. She is a sponge. She is a thirsty sponge.

While we were reading some comic books donated by Last Gasp, she interrupted me to tell me that some of her dreams had been in French. She reminded us that she had taken a semester in school of French but only knew a few things. I said the few things I know, including the "Voulez vous couche avec moi, c'est soi" (uh keep in mind I have no idea how to spell that) and she sang along and laughed. Then we counted in Fench and she kept going after my 1-10 knowledge. She couldn't pull out anything until I reminded her of how it is pronounced, then she sounded quite elegant. "Oh I had no idea you speak French," she said to me. I told her I speak Spanish and that my knowledge of that helps me understand. Then we went into some Spanish and she asked me how to say to the left and to the right and kept asking until she got the right pronunciation.

I am super excited about how this is all going down and I will continue to share it with you all. More tommorrow. Hopefully I can make more sense of my words. Please understand that I am trying to get this out so that i don't forget anything. I understand it is not the best prose.
Posted by Agent Chaos at 8:51 PM 2 comments
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OMG this lifts my heart!!
 
From; http://helpholligethome.blogspot.com/
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Eliza's Visit
This week Holli has been back to her old self of smiling and laughing. Her best friend from San Francisco, Eliza, was here to spend three days with Holli. Holli was so excited about Eliza being here. Before Eliza arrived on Wednesday, Holli dictated a letter to Eliza telling her that she was glad she was here and that she loved her. Holli was parked in the dining room at the big window watching for us to arrive. Eliza entertained Holli for the next three days, reading to her, giving her "gifts" and letters from friends back in SF. When Holli's roommate was out of the room , we would put on the music and Eliza would dance with Holli in her wheelchair. Holli again was laughing and trying to make jokes. Holli's big punch line was that she has "spinal myalgia" whenever she couldn't remember what she wanted to say and then just die laughing!! We were able to take Holli outside yesterday and enjoy the sunshine. Thanks, Eliza, for being here for Holli.
Posted by paigereno
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great idea ^^^^^^^^^^
 
From http://helpholligethome.blogspot.com/


Monday, April 12, 2010
Botox injections
Good news Holli's botox injections have finally been approved!! She should be getting an appointment soon for her first treatment. It has taken 5 weeks for this to happen. I am so thankful that we can now start again to get Holli's right arm straightened. She has so much tone in that extremity that she desperately needs botox for us to be able to accomplish this feat.
Holli had a good friend, KT, from San Francisco visiting her this past week. They watched "The Little Mermaid" which they love to sing the songs. We have been having some beautiful spring weather. Holli and I have been going outside and ejoying the sunshine and fresh air.
Posted by paigereno at 9:23 AM 0 comments
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Every day is better and better. Diane is truly a saint.
 
From: http://helpholligethome.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Pure KT's visit to Tennesee
so I went down to Nashville Tennesse and had some visits with our dear Ms. Hollis. Let me tell you that girl is Taaaalking! ye-haw! I walked into her room and couldn't stop smiling. Diane asked Hollis, "Do you know who that is?" and quick a wink Hollis said, "That's KT, Hello KT!" and I kissed her face. Hollis is doing well, all things considered. She was laughing and making fibro mialga jokes. She was able to stay pretty focused during our visits, but also tired and had to rest from time to time. We sang some of the Little Mermaid "Look at this stuff, isn't it neat, wouldn't you think my collections complete!"

And so the girl is still in there, as we've known all along, fighting and working hard to reclaim what's her's. Hollis enuciates each syallable and has a full blown Nashville accent, the kind she gets after having a few ;) very cute.
Diane says her strongest memories are from her childhood, but she remembers her more recent past too, Dancing, the Derailleurs, DPW, San Francisco, etc. Her short term memory isn't great, recent visits were hazy for her it seemed. She asks Diane for help sometimes when she's having trouble saying something, she says "Can you feel me?" Yes, Hollis, we can feel you.

On my next visit, Diane said Hollis was grumpy. It was strangely a relief to hear, the grawly side, Grewahhh. We watched The Little Mermaid, and I braided her hair. When I came in the next day she asked me to braid her hair again, so she is remembering things day to day. I worked on her right arm for awhile. She said she couldn't feel it. Although Hollis has great control over her left arm, she can't feel her right hardly at all. We need to encourage those neural paths to connect again!

The last visit I re-read some letters that had been written to her, and we looked at the BRC street signs that were signed last summer. She remembered everyone, and kept saying, "oh, I didn't know! wow!" When I left Hollis made a point of telling me how important our visit was, so keep contacting Mz. H, she misses us.

Besides visiting Hollis I was in Nashville to look at colleges. I'm going to spend a semester of school in Tennessee in Jan. and plan on spending time with Hollis. So lets get a list of exercises, games, activities to do with Hollis to forwards the Haul-ass recovery.

--
KT
Posted by Agent Chaos at 11:49 AM 2 comments
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and from: http://helpholligethome.blogspot.com/

Saturday, May 8, 2010
Mothers Day
This Mothers Day weekend I stop to thank my Lord for all my blessings. Both of my daughters are very precious to me and I am so thankful for all the joy that they bring into my life. It is so wonderful that Holli has come so far and this Mothers Day is able to talk and laugh with me as a year ago I was just blessed to have her alive. Heather is such a wonderful daughter and has been there for me in so many ways . She has become my best friend and rock over the years. I don't know what I would have done on so many days when my strength would falter and I needed her strength. And to my Mom, I thank you for your love and showing me through your life about our Saviours love and how you are always there for our family no matter what the situation. You taught me to be strong and to keep the faith. I love you, Mom.
Therapy has started the serial casting of Holli's right arm. They have it at a 90 degree angle and Monday will take it off and stretch her arm more and recast it. I pray that with the botox and casting that her arm will improve. She has tolerated the casting well so far. She still has her good days and then her not so good days and gets very emotional at times. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.
Diane
Posted by paigereno at 11:53 AM 1 comments
Thursday, April 29, 2010
First Botox Treatment
Today Holli went for her first botox treatment to her neck and right arm. I pray that these treatments will make a big difference. She will get her next injections in 3 months. Holli tolerated them very well. Therapy is to restart working with her arm again next week.
Holli has been in a good mood for the past week. She is laughing more and seems calm. Some days she gets fixated on certain subjects and can get really upset about her "disability". We are all stressing that she does not have a disability but a brain injury with some physical challenges. She will quickly forget what we tell her and we just have to keep reminding her. Then on other days she will say "funny" things and just laugh at herself and sings songs along with her Ipod or the Arts station on tv. She enjoys being read to and playing Uno card game. She also loves going every Monday to get a manicure. The weather is starting to warm back up so we will be able to spend more time outside before it gets too hot and humid.
Posted by paigereno at 2:12 PM 1 comments
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It gets better and better thanks for posting :thumbup
 
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