07/12/2022
I’m excited to share with you this beautiful birthday tribute from Linda Newhart Honeycutt to her daughter Jessica Honeycutt. Happy birthday Jessica!
33 years ago, God granted me guardianship of an angel. Sounds a bit odd to describe a mother/daughter relationship in this way, but over the years, I've found it is true. She was born C-section at 35 weeks. And she was perfect. Her color was gorgeous, her face was round, her eyes bright and blue, lungs already developed. Perfect and beautiful, except ......she was in severe heart failure due to an abnormality of vessels in the covering of her brain. So large, the blood flow was audible in a pulsatile fashion on top of her skull. Her heart was failing because it couldn't keep up with
the amount of blood flow being pumped through these vessels.
Karl accepted me as his patient when I was approximately five months along. I had been seeing an OB in Salt Lake up until then but didn't have faith I would make it there in time if I went into labor. Karl had been in practice a little over a year here I believe, and he was the cat's pajamas according to all the pregnant women in Vernal, although few could pronounce his name correctly. Our first meeting was a consultation to discuss if he would be willing to be my doctor. I explained to him my past complicated pregnancies and after careful consideration, he agreed to be my OB, but if I began developing problems, he would refer me to specialist. His words were " I'm just a GP and some things are out my scope. At some point later, I would use those same words to describe him in an appreciative manner and it backfired. He became defensive and said, " I'm not "just" a GP, I am a
physician”, apparently forgetting he said it first.
During the sixth months leading up to labor, Jessica’s heart rate doubled. An ultrasound was performed and what was thought to be a Vein of Galen aneurysm in her brain was detected. Game plan changed. He would continue to care for me until my 9th month and then I would become a specialist's patient at the U so Jess could be delivered C-section to keep the birth canal pressure from erupting the large vessel. After delivery, she would need a neonatal neurosurgeon to treat her aneurysm. Fast forward to the beginning of my seventh month and I went to see Lethal Weapon 3. I still blame Mel Gibson, but for whatever reason, my water began slowly draining. I was placed on bedrest here in the hospital with hopes of it mending. On the seventh day as an inpatient, my water broke (what was left of it) and labor began. A drip was initiated to stop labor but attempts were futile.
Karl called for Life Flight to come get me and as the EMS crew entered the room, he decided to check me one more time. He said I was dilated to and 8 and asked how fast I usually deliver at an 8. My reply was " pretty fast". So the EMS crew left and a chopper for Jess was summoned. They wheeled me in for an Emergency C sect. Karl called Dr Yaussi (sp) to assist because I wanted tubal ligation. Jess was already engaged in the canal so no smiley face scare for me. It was sternum to bow. After delivery, Karl intubated this tiny 5.4 lb baby and off she went to the U. She did not have an aneurysm but an arterio venous malformation on the dura of her brain. At this point, I don't want to bore everyone with all the medical mumbo jumbo that followed. I will simplify things by saying each surgery was followed with a complication and by the time she was two months old, she had 9 major surgeries or procedures. I had no medical background whatsoever and was grateful to have Karl whom explained everything in such great detail to enhance my level of understanding. Medical terms such as cranial bruit and the finger technique to determine the extent of CHF. The Primary Children's physicans were excellent also but Karl was my go to, my comfortable shoe. I was fascinated by his wealth of knowledge and his ability to explain it to me. As things began to feel more hopeless, I spent a day at the U of U library researching her condition so I could comprehend what her chances were. Her condition was rare and no infant had survived but the docs felt her chances were good. Everytime I brought Jess home, we wound up at the ER, always legitimately, but it came to a point where I believe the doctors were doubting my parenting. When this circulated back to Karl, he paid them a visit and I was never treated unreasonably again. When we came to Basin Clinic for check ups, we waited in the car until a nurse would open a door and flag us in through a back so that Jess wasn't exposed to any illnesses. At one point, the Wasatch Dr's advised me she would have to reach a year old or 20 lbs before they could do any more for her. Little did they know I was already committed to no more surgeries. I took that as optimism and brought her home. Our next visit with Karl, he asked her dad and I to have a seat. He explained
that although everyone was so hopeful initially that her outcome would be favorable, the dynamics had changed. In a soft and caring tone, he told us her prognosis was grim. I asked what her
demise would feel like for her and he described to me in great detail what she would go through. That day was a turning point for me on so many levels. The fact that one man had the guts to tell us what an entire team of physicians couldn't say to us showed me exactly who you were Karl. A stand up, straight shooting, no bs guy from the show me state. Letting us know where things stood gave me the courage to face and accept the inevitable but hope for the best. Sheesh, I've gone on long enough but anyway everyone, she's still here ! 33 years and counting! She has one functioning kidney, a third of her right cerebral hemisphere missing, left peripheral vision loss, one functioning carotid artery,( the right side is tied off) a clotted superior vena cava and a hydrocephalic shunt. She was reciting songs, the alphabet, and counting to ten by the time she was 18 months. She never walked until she was two because she was on oxygen so she just rolled until she ran out of O2 cord and then rolled back the other way. Her first spoken words were in a sentence. The telephone rang and she pulled the bottle from her mouth, looked at me and said" Get that Nina" Dr B, you are, and will always be the one constant in Jessica's and my life. Without your guidance, expertise and loving support, we wouldn't be able to wish her a happy 33rd birthday. Not bad for a GP.,
