Sunday, October 24, 2010

Snoqualmie Valley, Mackinzie and Cole.

This is Mackinzie. She just turned 6 and is in kindergarten. I get to work with her 4 days a week. When she was in her mommy's tummy her family learned that she only had 1/2 a heart. At 6 months of age she had a heart transplant and continued to develop normally, but about a month after she turned 4 she got sick and on the way home from Seattle Children's Hospital she stopped breathing. Her mom stopped the car and did CPR, but her brain was with out oxygen for so long that she became as if she had drowned. She is tube fed and has a nurse every night monitoring her. She used to take about 48 meds. I do things for Kenzie like stretch out her arms and legs to put on her orthotic's. She has a bag of them- 3 different ones for her hands alone. She needs to be put in a stander at least an hour a day to stretch out. She coughs to get the flem out of her stomach and throat and has a suction machine in the car and by her bed. She wears a humidifier on her face every night.
Kenzie's family consists of her mom Elaine who is a great cook with a fun personality, Ethan who is 9 with red hair, John the dad and Cole the gentle giant Malamute. I walk Cole first thing every time I come so he gets his exercise and stops whining. People are often leary at first by how big he is, but he really is the most sweetest dog. He whines every time he sees another 4 legged friend wanting to see him. We started out with very short walks, but have progressed to quite long ones around the golf course they live around.
Mackenzie's has thick beautiful dark curly hair and lots of cute hair accessorizes and clothes. Like most of my child clients she dresses better than me. These pictures do not do her justice. She really is a darling little girl. Kenzie gets lots of therapy- occupational, physical, feeding and her parents took her to the Dominican Republic twice for stem cell injections. Stem cell therapy is not FDA approved in the US yet. The cells are brought from Europe to the DR. The family has a lot of hope for her as she has made improvements already.
The family lives in the Eagles Nest a small gated community and this is the view just before going through the gates where I walk Cole and get more than a 180 degree view. I'm just amazed at the beauty every time I come. It's so beautiful, these pictures don't do it justice. Of course Snoqualmie Falls is just down the main road.

Right before the gate.


Mount Si or "Twin Peaks"

1 comment:

  1. What an amazing job! I did stuff like that with my brother. Night nurses are such a blessing!! I bet they just love you!

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