Urgent Prayer Request for My Young Cousin, Severe Head Injury - Update at #2982

My family | Thursday January 25, 2007 | GretchenM

[GretchenM]

My aunt and uncle sent this out to our family at 6:30 AM today. Carrie is my young cousin, a very gifted artist, and the second eldest among her siblings. She and her family are in Michigan.

Prayer reqeust from my aunt and uncle (Carrie is their granddaughter).

This morning on her way to work Carrie's car slid on the highway and into a tree. She has very bad injuries, especially to her head. Her brain is swelling and she is now in surgery. They plan to open her skull to allow for the swelling, and she is not responding.

They don't give her parents a lot of hope. We are telling everyone so you can join us in praying for our dear Caroline. They called her parents about 7:45 this morning and they're at the hospital now.

[silent_jonny]

This is great, Dolly! Thanks for letting us know.

[AmericanMade1776]

I am sorry. you don’t mean Carrie died do you? You mean Gretchen?

[television is just wrong]

God bless him and prayers going out.

[television is just wrong]

God bless him and prayers going out.

[DollyCali]

yes I meant LOSTING GRETCHEN. !

ugh

Carrie is still with us.

I was on way out & posted hurriedly & there is not edit option here. I am sorry.

dollly

[AmericanMade1776]

It is okay, we all make mistakes, just glad Carrie is okay.

[silent_jonny]

Sunday prayers for Carrie and her family.

[DollyCali]

Carrie UPDATE (20 AUG 07)

Carrie in Florida - 2005


Carrie a couple weeks After her accident in ICU


Carrie looking MUCH better June 07 - Homecoming "glamor pix"

(from her mom, Mary)

Here is what is happening in the past couple of weeks, and I will attach some photos. Carrie is an artist, and one of the photos is her standing in front of a mural she did at a Polish restaurant.

She is our second oldest of eight children. She is a wonderful, talented, funny, beautiful, and very caring young woman. We love her very much and miss her so. She is a person that makes other people be on their best behavior, do you know what I mean? She just is so sweet and caring. A doting older sister to her siblings, too.

She rests comfortably most of the time. She coughs sometimes and needs her airway cleared out with a suction machine. She gets six meals a day through a stomach tube. I make this food for her and it is full of healthy things.

She has some wonderful caregivers and we are very happy with them. Most of them are Christians, and also pray for her. They bathe her, shampoo her hair, do range of motion exercises, talk to her, read to her, and stimulate the senses with flavoring extracts, etc. They are willing to try new things, too.

She also gets a massage every two weeks. We try to keep her days very busy and her nights very quiet so she can sleep.

Her eyes are open and sometimes it looks like she can focus. But they don't operate the same most of the time.

She startles at noises, so she can hear.

We are trusting in God to see her through this injury to perfect health and quality of life. It is very daunting, of course. I told my husband last night that medical science has done what they can do, and it is good that we worked with them, but now we are waiting for God to complete the healing.

We are attending a conference next week put on by the Healing Room. Gretchen had told us about it. It is only 45 minutes from our house. We will try to get Carrie there, but at this point, I don't know how to. If she ever has a doctor appointment, she has to go by ambulance. We don't have a lift van or wheelchair yet.

The nurses told me that during a shift change, Carrie turned her head to look at the incoming nurse. That is something new.

Someone had told us that progress will come in weeks and months, not days. Even so, it is achingly slow. It is sometimes difficult to see progress at all. But there are things going on that we cannot see, and it does not alter our faith in God. We have put our trust and hope in his Holy Word.

Thank you for being willing to share some of this with your prayer partners. We are so blessed to have people that are willing to help us carry this burden. May God bless you richly!!

With much love,
Mary (Carrie’s Mom & Gretchen’s cousin) 17 August 2007

@@@

SOME PIX

Carrie & Boyfriend


photo at the deli in front of her mural.


all eight kids at my parents' anniversary two years ago. carrie is on the right.


Her graduation from college this past December.2007


One is her doing a chalk drawing at another local restaurant.


Carrie and her boyfriend, then her with a fish-making a face!


The last is her letting her little brother fix her hair.

@@@

From Carries Sister Date: Sun, 19 Aug 7:30

Good evening,

Caroline continues to show signs of healing. I know there are different stages within a comatose state, and although she’s not conscious (yet), she is certainly at a higher level of awareness than ever before.

The EEG confirmed Caroline’s brain only has activity in the frontal lobe. Perhaps the rest is not lost, but it just recovering and rewiring itself. We want to pray that her brain has not experienced nerve shearing – we pray the nerves that feed the brain cells have not been cut off and that these cells have LIFE.

Mom (Mary) mentioned yesterday that Carrie furrowed her brow for the first time. She also mentioned last week that during a shift change between nurses, Carrie turned her head and looked at the nurse as she came in the door and said hi. When I saw Carrie a couple of weeks ago, I felt like she was really looking at me while I talked to her. I could see life behind her eyes. Our favorite nurse, Diane, spends 2 days a week with Carrie, and on her days off she thinks of Carrie and of new methods of therapy to try. She said to my mom “Carrie just doesn’t seem to want to stay in bed for the rest of her life”  We agree!! Diane and many of the other nurses are tremendously encouraging. They care for her as much as we do.

My parents would love to somehow get Carrie to a Christian Healing seminar about an hour away in Grand Rapids, MI this Thursday thru Saturday. This seminar has come to the area with a reputation of people being healed from severe conditions like Carrie’s. Carrie doesn’t have a wheelchair yet that can be strapped into a handicapped van for transportation. My parents are inspired though by the bible guys who couldn’t get thru the crowd with their paralyzed friend, so they lowered him down thru a roof so the friend could be right in front of Jesus. Where there’s a will there’s a way

We miss her so much! We have faith that Jesus can touch Carrie and make her well and whole and healed.

Jesus, we ask you to surround Carrie with your angels of protection and peace. If it would be your will, provide a method of transportation for Carrie to come to the seminar this weekend - a place so rich with healing. Cause your Spirit to hover over Carrie. Cause her brain cells to feed off the nutrition coming to them and be filled with life. Cause the nerves to reconnect again by your mighty power. We bless you for sustaining Carrie’s life, and ask that you continue to bring her to full healing. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

p.s. Attached is a picture of Carrie taken in June looking very beautiful home from the hospital with a new makeover. The embedded photo was taken in Florida a couple of years ago. We miss her

(this pix is at the top of the post dated June 2007... dolly)

[Ladysmith]

What a beautiful young lady! Continued prayers for her recovery. I thought my own recover from surgery was slow but only had incisions that required healing. This is such a test of faith for the family - praying that faith will be answered by Carrie’s recovery.

[wagglebee]

Special Prayer Request

Please continue to pray for Carrie’s recovery.

Thanks and God Bless!

[trussell]

Prayer ping update. Please see post 2,808 posted on 08/20/2007 5:22:52 PM MDT by DollyCali {click the number}

Please post your replies to DollyCali

Please know that I have been praying and will continue praying. May God continue to provide healing and comfort as needed.  

Blessings,
trussell

If you want on/off my prayer ping list, please let me know. All requests happily honored.

[Hydroshock]

Prayers sent.

[HoosierHawk]

Prayers up for Carrie, family and FRiends.

[MountainFlower]

I cannot put into words....the spirit is crying up from within me for healing for this beautiful girl!

[Mr. Silverback]

Prayer ping! Update at post 2,808.

[skr]

More prayers are on the way. All praise to our Heavenly Father for the healing not seen yet!

[DollyCali]

thank you..that is beautiful. I was torn with emotions when I got the pix from Carrie’s mom. Praying for some unknown person is one thing but when you can attach a “LOOK” to that name.. well, it is overwhelming.

[Mustng959]

Prayers up for a beautiful young woman! God has given her many artistic talents that she has not wasted and we hope to soon see more of her works.

[Faith]

O Lord, please provide a way for Carrie to get to the healing seminar. Nothing is too difficult for You! Thank You, Father, for the wonderful love You have for this precious young lady. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Continued prayers for Carrie.