Makenna Caroline DOB: March 22, 2008

After a pretty eventful helicopter ride from Manhattan, KS to Wichita, KS where doctors informed us that we didn't have many options but to be airlifted. I still in labor with contractions 4 minutes apart was flown 33 minutes to a level 3 hospital with a NICU. Around 8 pm the evening of March 21 I meet my in laws in the labor and delivery room and waited patiently for Makenna's father to speed down the highway making the 2 hour drive in 1 hour. After all the hustle and buss;e I was situated in my room and waited for more contractions to come on.

At around 11 that night the doctors finally broke my water but something wasn't quite right. The doctor was called and the nurses came back to hook me up to more monitors. After the emergency helicopter ride, I thought what else!

Well, the what else was soon to be answered. At 1:45 am the monitors went off and doctors rushed in the room, telling my partner to put on his gown and hat, as they whisked me away to have an emergency c-section. Makenna was in trouble and her heart rate was decreasing. At 2:17 am March 22, 2008 Makenna Caroline made her grand appearance into the world.

She would go directly to the NICU were we would spend 11 days there. With multiple diagnosis floating around, unanswered questions, we were sent home...still clueless.

On October 16, 2008 I got a frantic call while grocery shopping from my partner. He said I needed to get home, something was wrong with Makenna. I arrived home to find she was bleeding from her mouth and nose and shaking. We went to the ER in Dodge City, KS. They checked her out and 1 hour later we were sent home. Just a normal nose bleed. Hmm I wasn't buying it. The next morning I took her to our PCP and they ordered at CT. It showed that Makenna"s head size had increased dramatically, and the shaking that at this point I filmed on the camcorder, showed that she was also having infantile spasms.

It was the first time someone said the term hydrocephalus to us.We were on to one of many ambulance rides to Wichita, KS. On October 17 in the evening Makenna got her first shunt. On December 23, 2008 we got shunt number 2. Then after months of horrid seizures and more specialist we relocated to Riley Hospital for Children in Indiana October 2009.

From there we got more bad news, that in a years time of no one checking our shun it was septic and had spread throughout her small weak body. Shunt number 3 November 2009, Shunt number 4 December 2009. The new year would bring 4 more shunt and revisions. Finally after research from one tire mother, I found something called a 3rd venricularostomyt. It was the last hope. I could not bare to see her in such distress.

We spent months at Riley. They new us and had a room for her ready in the Heart Center. Luckily this procedure has helped with the CSF for Makenna. She has surpassed the age in which 2 doctors told us we would not see. She will be 4 in March 2012. We have been blessed and pray that more advancements and advocacy continue for children with hydrocephalus. Especially when it can be seen in utero like it was with us, but pushed aside by doctors.

Never give up, never stop asking questions and never ever stop fighting. This is the wisdom I have learned from Makenna who is non verbal, has a global developmental delay, but she knows more about the world than I ever could hope.