Cassie continues to make meaningful strides in her recovery with unwavering faith and determination. The most uplifting moment was on Saturday when she got to take a 45 minute trip outside. Cassie was able to soak up the sunshine with a big smile on her face, a huge morale boost for her and the family

Her progress in physical and occupational therapy has been encouraging, as she has been able to sit up on the edge of bed for 25 minutes and complete arm, hand and trunk exercises. Cassie for the first time was also assisted by the staff into a chair where she stayed for a full two hours. Although it seems like small steps, they’re big wins reflecting the strength she continues to show daily.

Cassie’s transplanted heart continues to maintain proper function as she was able to wean entirely off dobutamine (heart assist medication) without issue. She has made notable improvement in lung function as she was able to tolerate 4 hours of “room air” for two consecutive days. This is a significant milestone that can allow for more use of the speaking valve and the potential of the speech team to evaluate her for a swallowing test – a step toward being able to eat and drink again. 

While her kidneys still aren’t functioning at full capacity, she remains off continuous renal therapy and is stable with intermittent dialysis every other day. They have confirmed that the kidney’s are producing but not at the consistent rate required for normal fluid offload. 

Additionally, the plastics team is very pleased with the healing of her left residual limb. If progress continues, they’re preparing to move forward with surgical intervention on the right lower extremity in the next few weeks.

Cassie continues to express her extreme gratitude for the multitude of thoughts, prayers, cards, and assistance the family has received throughout this process. Every single prayer continues to make a difference. This journey is full of peaks and valleys, but with continued encouragement Cassie remains ready to face each step ahead with strength and resilience.

Cassie has had a busy week in her recovery. On Monday Cassie went back to the OR (her 17th trip). The plastics team continued to spend time preparing her residual lower left limb for a prosthetic. The plastics team was very pleased with the progress of this residual limb, and were able to close up all of the other wounds remaining from her fasciotomy. The plastics team did also confirm that there will be some form of amputation that must take place on her lower right leg. No surgery will be happening for a few more weeks as they continue to evaluate how to approach the amputation.

Cassie continued to spend time each day working with Physical Therapy, they sat her up on the side of the bed for 10-20 minutes and moved her arms and legs, They also placed an emphasis on strengthening her core and neck muscles. Occupational Therapy has also visited each day working to increase her hand dexterity.

Cassie has continued to work daily with the respiratory team to increase her ability to breathe on room air. She has been able to breathe for 4+ hours on room air. The 4 hour mark of room air was a significant milestone, as the Speech team then were willing to evaluate her for a speaking valve. She was able to speak her first sentences to the family today, stating how much she loved us, she missed us, and how she is ready to go home!

Cassie has transitioned away from CRT (Continual Renal Therapy) which is constant dialysis that she has been on since the original surgery. She transitioned to PRT (Partial Renal Therapy) from 6 PM – 6 AM for a few days, and today is beginning intermittent dialysis. The intermittent dialysis is currently scheduled for every other day. While she has had some breaks off of dialysis, the medical staff believe her kidneys are jumping back into action as she is able to offload her own fluids.

Cassie continues to fight through her recovery, tackling each obstacle with her infamous smile. She is working so hard to regain her strength to get her voice back so she can let loose, with all the thoughts that have been pent up in her mind for 6 weeks now. We wish you all a blessed Memorial Day weekend! 🇺🇸.

A huge thank you to the Van Buren School district for the incredibly inspirational video. Cassie absolutely loved it and made her smile ear to ear. A link to the video is below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wA4EV_FJl0wDjJ0yXzVXJpyDoOxgJUdc/view?usp=sharing

Cassie was able to get some good rest last night to makeup for her sleepless night the day before. This morning she was able to sit up on the side of the bed for 18 minutes with the support of PT/ OT. She did exercises to move both her arms and legs. Later in the morning Cassie was able to sit outside with the support of the medical staff. She absolutely loved her time in the sun! She was able to be outside for 15 minutes before she had to head back inside.

This afternoon she was able to do hand / arm exercises with her favorite physical therapist (her handsome and intelligent son). She has also been back on room air for the past hour and is looking to get to 2 hours today.

There are currently minimal updates on Cassie’s status to provide daily as she has begun the lengthy process of recovery. Instead we will be providing updates on Monday’s and Thursday’s. We greatly appreciate all of you that have followed along with us daily on Cassie’s Journey. You may continue to use this webpage to post comments / prayers daily and the family will continue to read them off to Cassie.

Your thoughts, prayers, and outflow of love have helped Cassie and the family get through the most difficult moments of our lives.

Cassie didn’t get a lot of rest last night and was dealing with some stomach issues for most of the day. But, she continued to fight and had a session with Occupational Therapy today that was targeted on moving her hands and arms. She was able to tolerate 90+ minutes of room air today. The medical staff was able to provide her medication to help relieve the pain in her stomach.

Cassie will look to get more rest this evening so tomorrow she can focus on increasing her room air tolerance and increasing her movement with the support of PT / OT.

Cassie had another productive day in her recovery. She was able to do 2 more room air sessions, totaling to ~2 hours and 45 minutes of breathing on her own. She continued offloading fluid through the support of a dialysis machine.

With the help of PT / OT, Cassie was able to sit up on the side of the bed for 12 minutes and move her extremities. Cassie did have a clot in her lower right leg, but today it was confirmed by the medical staff that this clot has cleared up. Cassie will look to continue to increase her tolerance for room air and PT/ OT sessions over the weekend.

Cassie had a busy day! She made good progress on fluid offload today, making a noticeable difference in her hands and arms. She was able to tolerate room air for two 1-hour sessions throughout the day. While she became slightly acidotic at the end of both sessions, it was nowhere near the level of acidity that she had yesterday after her room air session.

Cassie had another session with physical therapy that sat her on the side of the bed for 12 minutes today, and worked out her arms and legs. The nurses were able to get her bed to simulate a chair today, which allowed her to sit upright for a few hours throughout the day. Occupational therapy also gave the family some hand and arm exercises that they can continue to do with Cassie to help her regain arm strength and hand dexterity.

Overall Cassie had a very productive day, and that day got even brighter when she had a visit from Pastor Dan. Pastor Dan led her and the family through a brief prayer. Cassie will try and get some good rest tonight as she looks to improve her room air time tomorrow.

Cassie had a brief trip to the OR this morning to redress the residual limb in her left leg. The plastics team was enthralled with the progress her left leg has made, and passed on this good news to Cassie.

Cassie also made good progress offloading fluid from her chest. She was able to sit up on the side of the bed with support from PT / OT for 10+ minutes. While sitting up both therapists ran her through some arm and leg exercises. She very much enjoyed this increased mobility. After she laid back down, the nurses continued to do mobility exercises with her arms and legs. The medical staff is making an emphasis to increase her mobility over the coming days.

Cassie was able to tolerate room air for 90 minutes today before she became acidotic. As a reminder, acidotic is when she is unable to expel enough CO2 in her breathing which causes her blood to increase in acidity which throws off her blood pressure among other items. The respiratory team is evaluating if she will go back on room air later tonight.

Cassie’s test for pneumonia came back negative. She is still struggling to breathe on room air due to the mucus build up in her lungs. At this time the medical staff believe her difficulties breathing are because of the fluid buildup around her heart and lungs. However her blood pressure keeps dropping as the medical staff have attempted to offload this fluid through dialysis. They will continue to try and slowly offload fluid to help strengthen her breathing capabilities.

Cassie is continuing to work with the PT / OT teams to help regain some strength in her arms and legs.

Cassie had a restful evening. She is still dealing with a large quantity of mucus in her lung system that is making it difficult for her to breathe. The medical staff are still awaiting results from the bronchoscopy performed yesterday. This morning the respiratory team helped breakup some of the mucus before putting her back on “room air”. Cassie was able to tolerate “room air” for 2 hours today before the medical staff wanted her to rest prior to her surgery.

This afternoon Cassie had a second surgery to address the amputation on her left leg. The plastics team helped shape the residual limb to be best fit for future prosthetic use. While they were in the OR the medical staff also closed two remaining wounds on her left thigh from Cassie’s fasciotomy. She also had two more wounds closed in her groin. These prior wounds served as the arterial access point for her use of ECMO pre and post transplant. The medical staff viewed the surgery as a success due to the length of residual limb remaining below the knee with healthy tissue able to surround the end. The left leg will continue to remain open as she will revisit the OR numerous times in the future to finalize the shaping of the residual limb through skin grafts.

At this time there is still no medical action required on her right foot as the medical staff will continue to wait until Cassie can verbalize what she is feeling to the team. Cassie has returned back to her room from the OR trip and is settling in for a well deserved rest.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the loving Mother’s that inspire and develop the next generation.

We had the opportunity to spend the day with our beloved Cassie and reflect on how thankful we are to have her as our rock.

Cassie had a restful night where she remained on ventilation to allow her recovering chest to relax. The ICU team performed many tests today to rule out any possible pathology causing her episode of low blood pressure last evening. She had a Bronchoscopy performed today to collect lung mucus and test for potential infection causing her extra difficulty with breathing.

While she is still awaiting results they continue to test her breathing ability on room air.

The family is extremely thankful for the continued outreach, support and prayers for Cassie as she fights to make strides everyday.