Jodie's Address

Jodie Tharp
514 Parsons
Greenwood, MS 38930
(662) 459-9116

Feel free to call, send cards or visit Jodie!

Jodie and mom, Nancy, live just a couple of blocks
off Grand Boulevard in Greenwood.

Jodie's Coming Home!

Just wanted to let you all know that Jodie will be coming home on Sunday, September 25th. They decided yesterday to extend her stay at Timber Ridge until that time.

Please continue to pray for Jodie as she will soon make the adjustment to being back home. I know she will be so ready to be at home (especially with Ole Miss football season here). In the past month, even some of the ones who take care of Jodie at Timber Ridge have said they thought she was getting homesick and I know we all surely miss her. I believe that the past 4 months she has spent there have been beneficial and we pray and look forward to more improvements in her recovery.

Also, to update you on her since she was released from the hospital last Friday after her seizure scare. She also had an infection and she's been having problems with one of her toenails and finger swelling (this occurred before the seizure - I just didn't know). Because of this, she has been on antibiotics in the past few weeks. She had to go back yesterday for some more lab tests to see if she is on the correct antibiotic because the infection has not seemed to clear up. Mama spoke with the neurosurgeon's office here in Jackson again yesterday and they feel that the infection and antibiotics may have caused her to have the seizure. She is doing fine now and has continued to go to therapy this week.

We look forward to bringing her home and ask for your continued prayers.

LATEST UPDATE - Test Results

Mama just arrived at the hospital and they are releasing Jodie to go back to Timber Ridge. The CT-scan showed no problems and no apparant "problem" that would have caused the seizure (which also means there is no fluid on her brain and her shunt is continuing to work properly). The doctors are saying this may just be a typical seizure resulting from post-injury brain trauma (and that she's been fortunate not to have had one before now). They will now look into changes with her medications to try and prevent another one from occurring anytime soon. Meanwhile, Mama is with Jodie and will be with her throughout the weekend.

Before the events of today, Jodie was scheduled to be released from Timber Ridge on Thursday, September 15 and return home. As I have mentioned earlier, they conduct a review every Tuesday to determine continued length of stay and this was the release date as of last Tuesday. Mama may decide to go ahead and bring her home before Thursday. I will keep you updated on those plans and when Jodie will be coming back home.

In the meantime, please continue to pray for her recovery.

PRAYER REQUEST

First, please let me apologize for being “lax” on my updates as of recent. I will send you some more information on what Jodie has been up to lately, including her birthday (Aug. 31) in a later posting.

Most importantly for now, I am asking for your special prayers for Jodie today. Before noon today, Timber Ridge called Mama to let her know that Jodie has been rushed to Saline Memorial Hospital in Benton, AR. After receiving the phone call, Mama immediately left Greenwood and is on her way to Benton to be with Jodie and speak to the doctors (it’s a 4 hour drive). During Jodie’s morning physical therapy session, she started to have a seizure – a very serious one. For those who know background of Jodie, she did have minor (black out, no shaking) seizures before her accident, but the one she suffered this morning was more severe and included her body shaking and jolting. The seizure lasted about an hour. Nurses were with Jodie the entire time, talking with her and continuously taking her vital signs. They did tell us that Jodie was somewhat responsive to them during this time – which is a positive sign as most people are not responsive during a seizure.

Once the ambulance arrived, they gave Jodie some medication that caused her to stop seizuring and she is now resting at the hospital. The have done x-rays and blood work and as I am typing, Mama just called (she is still en route) to say that Jodie’s lab-work has come back positive and there are no problems they can find from those results. Mama has been in touch with Jodie’s neurosurgeon here in Jackson and they are all requesting for the doctors at Saline to order a CT Scan and EEG, which will hopefully offer more information or insight into what may have caused the seizure.

This is all the information that we have right now. We do know, however, that doctors have told us from the beginning (since right after the accident) that seizures usually occur following a brain trauma, but Jodie has been fortunate enough to not have had any thus far (15 months post-accident). So, with that being said, this could mean that it may be something the doctors have to address with her medication or it could mean that there is a problem that brought on the seizure that will need to be investigated further by the doctors.

For now, we will have to wait and pray that there is nothing wrong and that it will not happen again. The rest of us are on stand-by waiting to hear more from Mama (once she arrives) and from the doctors before we make a move. I will keep you posted as we find out more information.

As we have known from the beginning, along the journey to Jodie's recovery we must face the good and the bad - and always the uncertain. Please join us in praying for Jodie and knowing that God is in control and is taking care of her.

Please pray for Jodie and for Mama as she travels to get to Jodie.

I will post updates to this page, Jodie’s blog. Furthermore, all future updates on Jodie will also be posted here – I will no longer send them via email - EXCEPT for the next few and I will alert you by email of a posting to the site. While I have been delinquent in sending an update recently, I have been working to create this site to make it easier for those who care about Jodie to receive information on her. Sometimes there have been problems with the emails not being received by some, others just now joining the email to get past updates, etc. I hope you will enjoy this site as a central place to receive information and updates on Jodie. You may also post your own comments to this site, if you wish, by clicking on the "comments" link below each posting. Thank you and please check back often.