Friday, April 2, 2010, 2:10 PM

Well today is Good Friday, and I have a lot to be thankful for with my family and friends and work, the sunshine, the rains we received this past week, my church family, my good friends Diane and Carlton,  Megan, Haley, Conaby, Jesse, Beth and Zach who even though I am not their Aunt call me Aunt Kim, and to those aggravating kids--Elliott, Taylor, Erica, Cody, Ryan and Gage I am a blessed woman. On top of all that I have Chuck, Hattie, Macho, Rambo, Shania, Ace, Snoop, and 7 pups who I share my daily life that bring me great joy. I am blessed.  I have the Lord who took my whipping on that cross for sins I committed. What a blessed person I am. What a loved person I am. It is a shame that I have to keep reminding myself daily of this. That some days I let LIFE make me forget for just a moment the blessings, and sacrifice my Lord made just for ME, Kim Elliott Hough. But....and there is always a but we let emotions rule and try to Fix things instead of letting the Lord have them or we try to deal with things in this life we cannot change and the frustration and the "oh poor is me" starts.....until, we stop and realize how blessed we are. Sometimes with me, it takes one tiny moment like today after I received the news that Gage's neurologist has been fighting with the drug company to get him into the drug study but since he has increased activity on the left side of his brain in addition to the seizures in the back of his brain that he cant be in the study. The neurologist told Beth that Gage is unique but we knew that, and he said that since we have tried just about every medication out there that meds would only help in Gage's case less than 5% of the time. Meaning would could experiment with multiple combinations that may never work with side effects etc.....or his recommendation would be to implant a neurotransmitter into Gage's brain.  OK-you can all cringe now; or start crying like me....but yes that is the ONLY recommendation Dr Gallentine which we love has for us for increased Quality of Life.  He said all along that Gage would always have some type of seizures, but we need to decrease the number per day for Quality of Life. That is our major goal. It may also help us take away some of the other seizure medications a little at a time and there is a device that when he has one where he is not breathing we would hold over the device in Gage and it should decrease the severity of the seizure. They are sending a DVD, and when we go on the 4-21 they will let us speak with the surgeon. They make 2 incisions one on the chest and one at the back of the head.  This is a lot to digest.  There are a lot of people who will read this email even now and say "Why will they put that little boy thru this?" I can honestly answer you this.  If this will bring Gage comfort on a daily basis for as long as we have him ie..decrease the number and severity of his seizures then it is a no brainer. We will pray about, and if it is the Lord's will it will be done.  Quality of Life. Beth and ML will make that decision may the Lord guide and direct them.  As for me, after the heard the decision I was upset, a little angry, and then Hattie and I went and picked up Erica from School early and spent the day with the bunch of puppies in the yard cleaning out their pens and giving them their first baths.  They are just deer hound puppies but they were pampered pooches at the end of the day....God is Good. He is Risen Indeed. May you be as blessed as I am daily.......Love, Aunt Kim
*BETH*