On a warm, sunny, early Spring day, in March of 2009, we were rear ended sitting at a red light at the bottom of a hill. That impact forever changed our lives. This is the story of a young teenage girl who was excelling in 9th grade, a freshman taking college prep classes with a goal of being a veterinarian. After the accident, she was not able to read for 7 months. Fifteen months later, words on a page, pictures, people, all of life remains a blur and the specialists are beginning to utter the word brain injury.

What would you do if your child suffered from a concussion, a head trauma that in time seemed to become a brain injury…though no one says these things up front, and only time will tell the whole story. Where do you turn to to help your child through a concussion that drags out past a year? Where do you turn for help when the MRIs have revealed a nodule on her pituitary gland, and you are not sure if her symptoms are caused by a brain injury or that pesky little nodule?

We tell her story at The Great Brain Saga, and in the Facebook group The Great Brain Saga. We are asking our friends, family and everyone we know to donate just $10 toward the SPECT scan. By giving up 2 Starbucks trips, a movie and popcorn or a couple of Happy Meals, you can help Emily!

We have exhausted what our area has to offer medically for adolescents. Emily has gone to the ER had a CT Scan, 3 MRIs of the brain - all of which revealed a nodule (growth, adenoma) on her pituitary gland, 3 complete eye exams, seen an occupation therapist and vision therapist, not to mention MDs and neurologists. No one has been able to figure out WHY her vision has remained a blur since the accident, let alone how to fix it.

Since Emily has symptoms indicative of both head trauma and brain tumor, with evidence of both, she needs a SPECT scan and a thorough evaluation by the brain specialists at the Amen Clinic in Reston, VA. Their sophisticated SPECT scan will show blood flow patterns in the brain, which will offer clues we need to get to the bottom of this. Their goal is to find out what is happening, and offer a comprehensive treatment plan to help Emily get her life back!

You can help Emily see the specialist she needs, to get a plan to go forward. You can be a vital part of her recovery, and help her finish high school, with the ability to see.

While “thinking out loud on Facebook” as we waited for her third MRI, I put information about the Amen Clinic up and said, if all 330 of my Facebook friends just donated $10 each, we would almost have enough money to send Emily to the Amen Clinic. Within half an hour, I had a dozen friends offering to donate $10, to help, with great ideas on how to do this - all encouraging us forward! Wow….is this what the Lord wants us to do? We have prayed, researched, prayed more, researched and consulted every expert we can, tried every last open door and this remains the open door. While it is really kind of weird and truthfully, acutely UNcomfortable for us to ASK for money, we really think we are supposed to ask for $10 donations from 500 people to do this! Make it one gigantic team effort to send Emily!

Therefore, encourage one another, and build up one another, just as you also are doing. Pray without ceasing. 1 Thess 5:11 & 17

Our goal is to raise enough money to send Emily to the Amen Clinic this summer. We need to raise $5000 to pay for the very expensive SPECT scan, visit with specialists and traveling expenses to and from the Washington DC area. This is an expensive trip and we would not take it, if we didn’t think it was her best chance to get her life back.

All we need is for each person reading this to donate $10 (or more, as the Lord leads) and Emily will be able to get the help she needs, forward this to everyone you know, and please, pray for Emily! If you could just skip two Starbucks drinks, a couple of Happy Meals, a movie ticket and popcorn, or a roll of quarters, this would be an incredible help. If we all do a little, we will hit that goal! Thank you for prayerfully considering this!

To the world, you may be one person, but to one person, you may be the world. — Author Unknown