Since last update, Cassie has had a tough couple of days. Starting late Friday – Cassie developed fatigue, lethargy and difficulty maintaining awake for longer than 1-2 hours. She is able to be aroused and passes all staff neurologic checks but she has not had her usual bright personality and energy level. The staff did find that her mucus cultures showed signs of an infection. They are continuing to review all the other cultures taken, but are adjusting her antibiotics to fight off this infection.

Over the weekend she was able to have a solid Hemodialysis session, drawing over 1.5 Liters of excess fluid off of her body. She however continues to battle hypotension (low blood pressure) at times limiting hemodialysis performance. 

On Sunday and Monday morning she was able to perform a 20 minute edge of bed exercise session with PT/OT working on her hand, arm, trunk and head strength. They even were able to begin stretching and light exercising of her residual limbs. 

Cassie and her family were able to watch Pastor Dan Metzger’s lovely sermon recorded this afternoon. We continue to feel very blessed for the prayers, well wishes and support we have had as we continue to lean into our faith during this trying time.

Cassie continues to march forward in her recovery journey. She has been continuing to work with PT / OT daily. The focus remains to get her on the side of the bed and perform limb and trunk strengthening exercises. Her arm and hand strength has increased dramatically over the past few weeks. She now has the ability to pick up both hands and wave, as well as press the call button for a nurse when she needs support.

Cassie continues to breathe on room air throughout the day. She is consistently reaching the 12-14 hour mark, even making it to 16 hours in a day. The next big hurdle for her breathing is to be confident enough to breathe on room air while she sleeps.

She has also been working with Speech Therapy, with the goal to increase her mouth and throat strength helping her get back to talking and eating.

The team continues to schedule sunshine therapy sessions for Cassie, and have made an emphasis to get her outside even more this week. As many of you know, Cassie loves nothing more than soaking up some sun rays while being surrounded by her family.

Each and every day, Cassie continues to wake up with a smile and a “can-do” attitude. She is always looking to beat her previous goals, and advance her rehabilitation as much as her body allows. This tenacious and optimistic mindset push her through each and every obstacle in the road ahead.

Over the holiday weekend, Cassie continued to show encouraging signs of progress in her recovery. She was able to get outside twice to enjoy some fresh air and soak up the summer sun—her favorite season—which lifted her spirits and brought a peaceful change of pace to her days. She’s been spending between 8 to 12 hours a day on room air, depending on mucus secretions, showing improvement in her respiratory strength. Speech therapy has ramped up with more intensive diaphragm and swallowing exercises, and her voice through the speaking valve is becoming noticeably stronger—strong enough to keep her boys in check.

PT and OT visit daily, focusing on seated edge-of-bed work to rebuild her core, trunk, and upper body strength. They’ve also begun light knee strengthening exercises on both residual limbs. Cassie continues daily prolonged dialysis for fluid offload, and although some fluid is pooling in her chest area, the team is monitoring closely and has not noted any major concerns at this time.

Cassie approaches every day with determination and a relentless mindset. She is endlessly thankful for the continued prayers, messages, and support—it all plays a vital role in helping her push toward better and brighter days ahead.

Cassie continues to push for progress day after day. She’s now spending 10–12 hours a day on room air—a significant step forward in her recovery, even as she works through challenges with fully expelling air.

She remains on daily renal therapy for fluid offload, and speech therapy has resumed to help her regain strength in speaking and swallowing. Physical and occupational therapy are also in full swing, focusing on hand coordination and trunk strength.

Cassie’s highlight of the day, a well-deserved 40 minutes outside in the sunshine soaking up all the rays she can get. 

Cassie and her family wish you all a happy Independence Day weekend! Please continue to send love and support as she navigates her journey back home. Best of luck to those in the upcoming Rose Lake boat parade, Cassie looks forward to the pictures of all the decorated boats.

Since her surgery on Thursday, Cassie has been in full recovery mode. Her pain and chest incision are being well managed, allowing her to begin focusing on regaining strength and mobility. Over the weekend, she had a couple of encouraging sessions with physical and occupational therapy, even sitting up at the edge of the bed for about 20 minutes—an important step in rebuilding her core and upper body strength.

She has also resumed her trache mask trials, breathing on room air, as she works to strengthen her lungs and return to full respiratory capacity. While she continues to require overnight continuous dialysis to support fluid removal, her care team is closely monitoring her progress, and every small step forward is a meaningful one.

Cassie celebrated her birthday yesterday showered with love and birthday wishes from friends, family and the hospital staff. 

Cassie underwent a procedure this morning focused on chest closure after clearing up the prior chest infection. The surgeon performed a cutting edge technique to salvage all muscle and utilize a superficial lining in the stomach (Greater Omentum) with a steel plate to securely approximate her chest wound. They removed the greater omentum through her abdomen and placed it over top the chest plate before closing her chest. The surgeons were very pleased with the work and stated that everything went according to plan.

Over the past week Cassie remained on daily night time dialysis and increased ventilatory support to maintain proper internal values before surgery. Over the past two days, she was able to spend some time on room air and speak with the family. 

PT/OT were limited over the past week in order to allow her body to rest and fight off the infection. However, they continue to work her hands, elbow and shoulders to regain her function. 

Through it all, she keeps fighting — not just for herself, but for all of us who love her: family, friends, prayer warriors, and anyone who has cheered her on. This past weekend, she even rallied enough strength to play euchre with her husband and two sons.

Cassie has continued her fight over the past few days. She went back to the OR on Friday (6/20) to do a wound cleanout of her original chest incision where they did debride any tissue that looked infected, and ensuring her chest incision is sterilized. The medical staff took cultures of the remaining tissue to ensure there was no infection before they closed up the wound. Unfortunately, the infection persisted and her scheduled surgery on Monday (6/23) was adjusted from a chest closure, to another chest cleanout. This morning the team removed any tissue that looked infected, and took more cultures. The cultures will take ~2 days to be studied to determine if any infection remains. Once these cultures come back, the medical staff will make the decision if they are ready for chest closure or Cassie will go back to the OR for another washout while the antibiotics they are providing her continue to address the infection.

Over the past week, while her chest has remained open, she has not been able to participate in any PT/OT or breathe on room air as these both cause her significant pain.

Please continue to keep Cassie in your thoughts and prayers as she is fighting off her chest infection setback. As the family is preparing to celebrate Cassie’s birthday on Wednesday this week, please pass along birthday wishes through this page and the family will share them with her on her special day.

Cassie has had a busy last couple days in her recovery process. She underwent a lengthy surgical procedure to cleanup an infection of the chest wound from her original surgery. While the team is confident they have cleared the infection they will closely monitor the area. They have scheduled take her back into the OR tomorrow for another washout to ensure there is no remaining infection prior to chest closure.

Breathing continues to be a substantial challenge and her ability to independently breathe on room air varies daily. Over the past week the team has performed bilateral Thoracentesis’, a procedure performed to removed excess fluid from the lung space. Both procedures were deemed successful and removed approximately 1.5-2 L of fluid each from her pulmonary system. The medical staff is hoping that the fluid removal will allow more proper expansion of the lungs and ease her ability to breathe. 

Therapy continues to work with her as her tolerance permits and the family has seen substantial progress in her hand and wrist ability. The team is currently happy with healing of her lower residual limbs and plan to continue to monitor progress to set her up for best long term functionality. 

As she navigates the ever fluctuating nature of each hour, day and week – Cassie continues to push through with strength, resilience and her radiant smile. 

Cassie is continuing to experience the ups and downs of recovery. The past few days she has had some positive developments in her kidneys, while experiencing some difficulty with her ability to breathe on room air. Cassie is continuing to tolerate intermittent dialysis which the medical staff is using to clean her blood, and continue to remove fluid from her body. While dialysis will continue, they are seeing increased kidney function.

However, over the past few days breathing on room air has been a significant challenge for Cassie. She has only been able to tolerate room air for 3 hours at a time, and up to 7 hours in a day. She has also been extremely drowsy over the past few days. The medical staff have confirmed that her main chest incision from the transplant is infected. They are continuing tests to ensure that the infection is only in the skin, and not in the blood stream. She will have to take another trip to the OR this week to address this infection and begin treatment with antibiotics.

Cassie’s lower residual limbs are continuing to shape up nicely. The plastics team removed the wound vacs from both of them today and were pleased with how the wounds are healing. They will continue to monitor her residual limbs to determine the next steps to ready them for the use of a prosthesis. Thank you for the continued support, thoughts, and prayers that are being passed along to Cassie.

Since our last update, Cassie continues to show incredible resilience on this road to recovery. She’s now spending 12 to 13 hours a day on a trache mask with room air, a big step forward in her respiratory progress. Room air breathing fluctuates daily as she continues to deal with mucus build up caused from prolonged ventilation and immobility. She’s still undergoing dialysis regularly, but she’s been working hard every day with speech, physical and occupational therapy to build her strength and regain more independence.

On the surgical side plastics, vascular and prosthetic teams are actively managing her care, focusing on proper healing of her residual limbs. They’ve started wrapping them in compression stockings to support healing and reduce swelling—another important part of the process. It’s been a steady climb with plenty of challenges, but Cassie continues to show up daily with strength, grace, and a fighting spirit.

Cassie has been very appreciative of all the encouragement and support she has received. We are so grateful for the many cards, gifts, and kind words that have been sent our way—each one has truly lifted our spirits. The love and support we’ve felt from so many has meant more than we can express. While we’d love to thank everyone personally, the volume of generosity and our focus on Cassie’s care make that difficult at the moment. Please know how much we appreciate every single gesture. Cassie has also been tremendously thankful for all of those in the education community that have constantly been thinking about and supporting her throughout this process.