Katrina

Since I ask so frequently for prayers for my friend Katrina (and because she really needs and appreciates them), I've decided to add one of those side-bar picture-things to provide a continuous prayer request for Katrina. Katrina amazes me. She's brave, filled with faith and at peace with God (and credits prayer for all of those!). I'm looking forward to visiting her later this month and giving her a special gift that seems to have come into my hands just for her.

She recently asked me, "Will you fast for me?" Wow, that's a tall order. But I'll try.

News from Katrina... More Prayers Needed

Hi Everyone,

We got back from the Mayo Clinic in Arizona and didn't hear the news we wanted to. I do have a motor neuron disease and it's progressed into my back and arms and will continue to my upper body doing the same thing as it is doing to my legs. So there is no cure and no treatment for this one. They were able to pinpoint the exact disease I have which is great because there are over 80 lower motor neuron diseases. The one they found that I have is Progressive Muscular Atrophy. It's a form of ALS and quite similar to it, it's actually a cousin of ALS but you can live longer with it. It is basically the deterioration of muscles in the body that also kill the nerves.

A progressive neurological disease in which the lower motor nerve cells (motor neurons) deteriorate. PMA is not rapidly progressive.

What is PMA?

PMA affects only the lower motor neurons, causing atrophy and fasciculations.

PMA is noted by an absence of upper motor neuron difficulties such as spasticity, brisk reflexes, or the Babinski sign.

Patients with PMA survive longer than patients with ALS and in some cases symptoms can be restricted to the arms or legs for a long period of time before spreading elsewhere in the body.

So we are glad we went and did all the testing. It was more extensive than my other neurologist and I know I would of always wondered, if I had gone to Mayo they would of found something different, so in that aspect I am glad I went. We really missed the kids and it was a long trip. So in a nut shell this is what we found out. Thank you to everyone for all the love, support, prayers, and help you have given to our family. We really appreciate everything everyone did for us to get us there and help with the drs and tests.

Please continue to pray for us!

XO- Katrina

Previous post on Katrina

Prayer Requests

Please remember my friend Katrina (a soldier's wife with three young children and a mysterious degenerative disease - formerly diagnosed and then undiagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease) who will be visiting the Mayo Clinic next week and hopes to find some answers! She specifically asked for prayers for the doctors she will be seeing that they will be able to help her.

For this beautiful little girl, the daughter of Bernie's godparents, who will be having major facial reconstruction surgery later this month. She was born with a very severe cleft palette and with parts of her facial structure missing.

For John's aunt who has alzheimer's is recovering from a stroke and a heart attack.

Another Prayer Request from Katrina

Please pray again (continue to pray!) for my friend Katrina - she and I were best friends since our homeschool days back in the 80s. She's just in her upper thirties, has three young children and has been suffering from a debilitating disease for a number of years now. Several previous diagnoses seem to have been incorrect - including Lou Gehrig's disease, but she's stumped all the doctors so far. She gave me permission to share this with you.

Hello All,

I have some news to tell you!

Mayo Clinic in Arizona has agreed to see me! They won't make an appointment with you unless they think there is some chance they can HELP you!!!! So I had to do an interview with them over the phone, send them an email of my last 5 years, and then they put my case in front of a board and talked it over for the last week and a half. They decided to let me come May 15th. The bad thing is that they don't accept my insurance nor would my neurologist be backing me up to see them anyways since he thinks he did all he could for me. It's in the nick of time because the disease is moving to my upper body. I have the same nerve twitching, nerves short circuiting and dying, that I had when my legs went. It's in my neck, near my heart, arms, and torso so it's been really worrying me and keeping me up at night. We are going to drive out to save on airfare and rental car. It should only take 11 hours blah.. I get carsick big time.. but it's the better way since we have the wheelchair, walker, etc.. and since we won't have the plane ticket then if we have to stay more than a week then we don't have to worry about anything. I did try to see them earlier because I feel like I will be worse waiting a month and a half but there are no cancellations and everyone seeing them is in need so my case isn't any emergency compared to theirs. :) We are just trying to figure out the big stuff but please pray they can help me.. to figure out something because it is progressing and I am worried for myself.. hate to sound needy but prayers really are working for me :)

Take care, Katrina

More Prayer Requests

First I've been meaning to ask for prayers for the "Common Room" family who were recently in a serious car accident. All seem to be on the mend, but I'm sure they'd still appreciate additional prayers.

A family on one of my e-mail lists asks prayers for their teenage son who has been hospitalized with psychiatric problems.

Finally, I would like to request your prayers again for my good friend Katrina for whom I shared a novena prayer a little while back. She has had multitudinous health issues and over a million dollars in medical tests. At first she was diagnosed with "Lou Gehrig's Disease" but the diagnosis has since changed (more than once I think). It's a great challenge already to deal with these things and raise her family (she has three young children). Now her husband is scheduled to return to Iraq for another year (really an extra three months on top of that with training and such). Please, please, keep them in your prayers. She has such a good sense of humor and seems to be handling things rather well (and she does credit the prayers for that). She told me today that she asked lots of people to pray the novena to St. Clare for her - even ones who weren't religious or who weren't currently going to church. One of the moms returned to the Church after praying the Novena.

Prayer Request

I'm asking again for prayers for Katrina (my best friend from my homeschooled high school days). She's a young military mom with three children under the age of ten. Last year she was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease - a terrible degenerative disease with no cure that is 100% fatal. They since changed the diagnosis but haven't really figured out what's causing her muscle degeneration. The re-diagnosis indicated that she would end up with "only" lower-body paralysis and in a wheelchair, but without threat to her life. She's suffered through dozens and dozens of painful tests and medical treatments and still doesn't have clear answers. (The symptoms started when she was pregnant with her third and her husband was in Iraq for a year - she started losing certain movements in her feet and started falling a lot.)

She's asking for prayers to St. Clare, since the disease now seems to be affecting her upper body. Here is the message I got from her yesterday (she gave me permission to share it here):

Alicia, Not too proud to ask or beg if the case be.. haha.

Alicia, you had once asked me if I needed anything to ask and I am feeling weak of spirit and body at the moment and wanted to ask you to say a novena to St. Clare of Assisi for me, for strength in mind and body and healing. I am feeling weak in my upper body now and am worried the disease is coming to my upper body and am a little terrified that I may be paralyzed over my entire body so I am asking you for your gift of prayer.

Down the centuries, the gracious and gentle St. Clare has continued to ask the afflicted ones in the world: WHY DO YOU NOT COME TO ME TO BE CURED? No stranger to suffering,- she bore the cross of illness for more than twenty-eight years,- this first spiritual daughter of St. Francis still desires to help those who suffer to share as deeply and as fruitfully as she did in the mystery of redemptive love. A woman of unbounded faith and hope, she teaches the secret of finding peace amid suffering: union with Jesus Crucified. "If you suffer with Him," she wrote, "you will reign with Him."

Pope John Paul II once remarked that there was no concern, suffering, anguish or discouragement of others which did not find an echo in the hearts of St. Clare and her spiritual progeny.

I am inviting you to join me in enlisting St. Clare’s intercession. Please say this prayer once a day consecutive for 9 days and you may add any prayers you feel. Thank you for any prayers you can send me. Much Love, Katrina

St. Clare of Assisi
O God, You who filled
the heart of St. Clare with love
for the mysteries of the Cross and
caused her to rejoice to share
in the sufferings of Christ,
grant that through her example and prayers
all who suffer in mind, heart or body
may find serenity in suffering,
faith in time of trial,hope in Your healing mercy
and be given a share in the everlasting light and love
of Your heavenly kingdom.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Other Stem Cells

Many people are aware of the ethical problems (or at least controversies) with embryonic stem cell research. Basically, it involves the destruction of the very smallest form of human life. It is at the moment of conception that body and soul come together and become a new life. That immortal soul that God instills in the new human being makes it, not only unique and precious, but completely distinct in kind from animal life.

This controversy has hit close to home for me recently since my best friend from high school (we were homeschooled together) - a young mother in her mid thirties with three small children - was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS - commonly known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease"). This is a terrible degenerative disease for which there is no known cure and which is usually fatal in 3-5 years, but one that many are supporting stem cell research for in hopes of a cure.

There are two important things about stem cell research that are not commonly known:

The first is that embryonic stem cells have not yet shown much, if any, prospects of actually helping those whom researchers are hoping to help...

http://www.stemcellresearch.org/


The second is that, although different in kind from embryonic stem cells, the stem cells found in a newborn baby's umbilical cord have shown a great deal of promise with no ethical problems whatsoever...

http://www.cordblooddonor.org/

This seems like a no brainer. Pro-lifers who want to encourage an alternative to embryonic stem cell research should support cord blood donation. Anyone who wants to support research to treat debilitating diseases should support this very promising venue. It's just a good idea. If you are expecting a baby, please research the possibility of donating your baby's umbilical cord through the link above.

Prayers would be very much appreciated for my friend and her family. I will be flying to California soon (with my 15 month old son) to visit her.

Articles of interest...

"Wonders of Science" by Steve Kellmeyer

Donated Umbilical Cords Could Save Thousands of Lives