29th place: a celebration...

Success

To set a goal,
to achieve it,
to dream a dream,
to believe it,

To lay down a path,
to find a way through,
to overcome fears,
to start things anew,

To have faith in yourself,
to prove you can succeed,
to listen to your heart,
to dare to dream a deed.

This is true success.
It lies within us all,
we just need to find out how to unleash it.

*Kelsey*

the story behind Kelsey's poem...

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Wednesday evening...

Hi Mommy,
I was right about Kelsey's illness being something worse than strep. It took some convincing, but I finally got her pediatrician to look at her again today after 5 days on antibiotics. This time the pediatrician referred me to Children's Hospital so she could be looked at by a pediatric ENT and get a CT scan of her neck. So, off to the ER we went where we just spent almost the entire day.
The short story is that Kelsey has a deep neck infection. Exactly the thing I thought she might have. No one in the ER was at all convinced because she isn't running a fever and really isn't all that sick outside of the severely painful neck and huge lymph nodes on that side. But she's like me. She'd have to be dying to have a fever! Basically a deep neck infection is an abcess in a place where an infected lymph node used to be. It's pretty small right now but these type of infections don't respond real well to oral antibiotics so she was just admitted and will be receiving IV antibiotics for at least 24 hours or until this clears up. I just came back home to check in with Robert and Mildred who have the other two kids (boy did that take some juggling today). I'll go over and pick up Garrett in the morning and take him to school and then go back and spend the day with Kelsey. Albrecht's coming home early from Richmond and should be home by tomorrow afternoon/evening.
Kelsey's all tucked in for the night and is doing fine.... If things go well she'll come home tomorrow evening. Or it could be a few days. I'll try to keep you posted :)
Love,
Kimberly

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Thursday evening...

Kelsey loved hearing from you at the hospital today. She wanted me to follow up because she said the line went dead during your conversation and she wanted to make sure you didn't think she hung up on you or anything. She's not sure what happened, but wanted to make sure that she told you that she thinks she'll be released tomorrow. The antibiotics appear to be working. The doctors do their rounds at about 6am and then right up the orders for the nurses later so we don't get a whole lot of information. But she's definitely acting like she's feeling a lot better, even though she was never super sick to begin with. The symtoms were primarily the excruciating neck pain and a throbbing headache. Today's her first day without pain killers in almost two weeks - a very good sign :)
Love you!
Kimberly

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Saturday morning...

Hi Mommy,
Yes, Kelsey came home yesterday and is doing much better. Sorry, I meant to email last night but things have just been so hectic. Remember the question you had to ask because we have a crazy family? Yes, she is planning to compete in the Regional championships tomorrow morning. We went in to gym last night and this morning so she could get a sense for how she's feeling. She really wants to go, but it took her some time to realize that she's going to have to accept that she's not 100% and that if she goes she has to be happy with her best. I think we finally got there. She looks good enough that I'm not worried about safety. She may not compete vault - or she may do the easier handspring - since that will be last and takes a lot of power that she doesn't have right now.
So, we're leaving for Allentown as soon as we can get packed and we'll be home late Sunday night. Hopefully with a happy, healthy Kelsey, no matter what the outcome of the meet.
Please tell everyone thank you for the prayers. They've obviously been working!
Love,
Kimberly

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Monday afternoon

Thank you to all of you for your notes and prayers for Kelsey. They really helped her enjoy her hospital stay and she's made a quick recovery. Even did very well in her regional gymnastics championships on Sunday where she competed against the best gymnasts her age from six states (who qualified to this meet from their state championships). Not bad for someone who got out of the hospital on Friday, was weak from fighting an infection, and missed a week of practice in the gym.
http://www.parkettes.com/results/2006-2007/level8_4_36.htm
Can't wait to see all of you this summer.
Love,
Kimberly

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Sunday

2007

Level 8 Regionals

Allentown, PA
Age Group: Senior A

403
Kelsey Powell
All Star 1(Gymsport, PA)
Vault: 8.45

Place: 44
Bars: 9.15
Place:15
Beam: 8.85
Place: 25
Floor: 9.15
Place: 20
Overall: 35.6
Place: 29th