I know many of you are probably wondering what happened before Katie was brought up to Barnes and diagnosed with Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. So I wanted to give you some background info about how Katie acted and her symptoms so that it may make more sense.
My mom and I had seen Katie the weekend of the 13th of October at Silver Dollar City. She was there with a group from school and we had season passes so we decided to all meet up and hang out for the day. She seemed completely fine that day and acted just like normal. We talked about school, family, friends, rode rides and all that stuff. The only thing odd about Katie was that she was a little pale and I did not even notice that but our mom did. We just thought it was because she had been really busy with school, softball and getting used to college and she did not mention anything about not feeling well. So we went about the rest of our week like normal and things seemed to be fine. Katie and my mom had talked on the phone several times and everything seemed normal. The only thing that was wrong was Katie had told our mom that she had a dream about Jesse, our brother, but mom and her had talked about it and everything seemed to be okay. Then, the week of October 22nd she began doing odd things here and there. Sometimes Katie would say stuff that did not make sense and she became very outgoing at times. For example Katie was dancing in front of several people and we have a ridiculously hard time getting her to play Just Dance on the Wii. She also became very emotional at times and cried often which is not like Katie. By the end of the week she became more lifeless, incoherent and saying very odd things. We took her to the hospital in Jonesboro when we arrived in Arkansas and picked her up from the school. While she was in the ER the doctors ran tons of test on her and they checked her for everything you could imagine but she seemed to be just fine. Once the doctors found out about our family loss about two years ago and all of Katie's test being negative they concluded that this was a mental or psychosis problem and that is why she was brought to the Behavioral Center in Joneboro.
While Katie was at the Behavioral Center they were not able to give her a diagnosis. Katie became worse throughout the two weeks and they even brought her back to the medical hospital to do more test and still everything showed up negative. Now this is usually what happens to people who have Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis they get mis-diagnosed at first because they do have all the symptoms for a psychosis disorder. Also, Katie fit the criteria because of the big loss in our family and being a freshman in college because that can cause a lot of stress. That is why it made such perfect sense, however Katie was still not getting better and this worried many people because if it was a mental issue she would have came out of it by then. Towards the end of the second week of Katie being there she started running a fever and that is when she had to be brought back to the medical hospital. They found out that she had strep and they were also checking for meningitis, but those results came back negative. So at that point we did not know what to do because we could not figure out what was wrong with her and things were getting worse. That is when my mom asked the doctors if we could have her transferred up to Barnes. The doctors contacted the doctors up there and by the grace of God Katie was accepted and we were able to get her up there. That is exactly what we needed and as I said before the doctors in Jonesboro did everything they could but Katie needed to be in a hospital that is use to having weird and abnormal cases like hers.
I hope this helps you understand Katie's situation a little better and all of the abnormal stuff that Katie did the two weeks before being admitted to Barnes were all symptoms of her condition and that is how people can act who are affected by this. Also, we were reminded that God knows best and that we need to trust in his timing. While Katie was in Jonesboro we tried to move her to a hospital closer to home but they either would not accept her or did not have a bed. This was very frustrating for us, but now we have her at Barnes which is closer to our home than Jonesboro was and plus we have family that lives close to the Barnes hospital and that is a very comforting thing. God's timing was perfect and he allowed Katie to be in a hospital where we could have close access to family and friends which is a great support and comfort. Now, Katie had other signs and symptoms of the Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis that I did not mention but I gave you the gist of everything. Thanks for everything you all are doing and for all the prayers it means so much to us!
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.- Romans 8:28
