Abby Casstleberry Update! 911 CARES

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone, we know many of you support 911 CARES. One of our

very special " 911 CARES Kids " is Abby Casstleberry. You can check

her updates at http://www2.caringbridge.org/ca/abbycastleberry/

Please make sure to sign her guestbook. She was recently released

from the hospital after a serious surgery.

Also, please mark your calendar for September 23rd. Abby will be

featured on the television show Three Wishes. More will follow soon

on that show and how it helped Abby. For now, please check out the

updated info and sign Abby's guestbook. Abby and her Mom ( a 9-1-1

dispatcher) check and respond to the guestbook often!Below you will

find the most current info!

Hi ,

I just wanted to send this to you.....it has been added to the

caring bridge site along with a note from LeAnn and Leo recognizing

the all of the efforts of 911 CARES. .Abby has come SO far since the

first email I sent all those months ago, thanks for being there for

all of us.... Thanks –

(This e-mail is from Abby's Mom LeAnn)

Well, we are home again! Abby was discharged from the hospital late

yesterday afternoon. She has 48 staples in her skull, her facial

swelling is way down, and her G-tube was removed. Hooray, hooray!

When Dr. Deb removed her head dressings yesterday, Abby was so

pleased and relieved that she shed some tears of joy. These are some

of the first tears of emotion that we have seen since before the

accident. And among only about 3 times we have seen any tears at all

since before the accident. Early in Abby's initial hospital stay she

had said, " All I want is the roundness of my head back " . Wishes do

come true.

Our stay at the Mc House was sponsored by with

911 CARES, as have all of our previous stays. From mid-November and

during Abby's long long initial hospitalization to the numerous

secondary surgeries ... 911 CARES has paid for the housing of Abby's

family. Thank you for your incredible generosity. And, for allowing

us to free our minds and hearts of the daily necessities of living,

and to enable us to focus on Abby.

Love, prayers, and good thoughts we continue to grasp and embrace

and to channel towards Abby's full and complete recovery.

Love to you and yours, LeAnn & Leo

Now – a note from Aunt Colleen.........Long time no write…

I visited Abby on Saturday, the day after her last major surgery

expecting to see her sleeping the day away. Ok, you would think I

would have learned not to expect anything with her but the most

impressive, awesome energetic results. How easily I forget…

She was sitting up, slightly reclining with her head completely

bandaged, her left eye swollen shut and her mouth going a mile a

minute! One of the wonderful nurses who had cared for Abby before

came in and the two of them were talking gymnastics. Abby was

talking about what she " can " do, not what she could do before. Then

Dad, Leo pulls out his camera and shows me a quick video of Abby

doing a few tumbling and trampoline moves with her helmet on. At

this, I became a puddle of emotions, all happy, thankful, full of

joy. How do we say MIRACLE?!? So, that was Saturday August 20th.

Today, I called the Castleberry house to get the latest Abby update

from Matt or Hannah and guess who answered the phone?!!? ABBY!!!

Needless to say, I was pretty much yelling with joy, " what are you

doing home? " What happened to being in the hospital for at least a

week??? Poor thing, I think I was so excited I kept asking her

questions. Here are the answers: All of the bandages on her head

have been removed. She no longer has to wear her helmet. She has

staples in her head that may be removed as early as Friday.

She can go to school as soon as the staples are out. She can swim

and return to some activities very shortly. Oh yea, did I say, she

no longer has to wear her helmet!?!!! This is of course her favorite

part and the fact that her head is round again is also a highlight.

Her hair is already growing back in. Of course she now has to start

over again but the stubble is getting longer as I type this.

I am sooo incredibly proud of her for being such a trooper. Of

course some of this strength comes from Mom LeAnn and Dad Leo,

forever the pillars holding up the world- at least their world of

love and devotion. I am so happy I cannot even express it properly.

WOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!! So, on that note; Thanks for all your prayers

and wishes. Can you see how they are working? Thank you, Thank you,

THANK YOU!!!

Love Always,

Aunt Colleen