Kaci’s children have craniosynostosis, a condition where the infant skull sutures (openings) fuse early and a secondary condition, chiari malformation, caused by the growing brain pushing its way down the spinal column. With 13 surgeries between the children, the Kings are often asked how they manage daily life along with the difficult diagnoses and seemingly endless trips to the operating room. Finding help did not come easily. Kaci trusted her instincts and pushed on, focusing on the children’s health and leaning on sources of strength. The conditions could be fixed once they found a doctor who knew how to help. Their continued search led to Dr. Ben Carson, Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital: an angel in disguise. The children would have suffered gravely without the treatment they so desperately needed.
As Dr. Carson states in his foreword, "In Light Will Emerge, Kaci King has provided a wonderful mechanism to gain foreknowledge of the difficulties of navigating the medical system…” There is hope even in the worst of situations, blessings when most aren’t sure any exist. Life is about attitude. Kaci was taught that for every action, there is a reaction, good or bad. She shares her family’s journey: how they coped; how they found their inner strength; and how not knowing what else to do, they prayed. Kaci offers a wealth of information explaining the medical conditions, websites and online support groups. Through this book, she sheds light on what helped them overcome obstacles, how they found strength during difficult times, and encourages others who may feel hopeless. Kaci shares the heartache and many blessings received throughout this journey.
Light Will Emerge enables parents and caregivers to push on to find help in a medical crisis and hopefully to help medical professionals understand their very real story.
An Ohio native, author Kaci King has been on a significant medical journey with her children. Her children have taught her many of life’s lessons. With that, she’s had some of life’s greatest ups and downs.
Aside from being a mother, Kaci is also a wife, daughter, friend, business owner, farm owner, author, pianist, 4-H mom, Girl Scout leader, traveler and horseback rider. Kaci and her husband, Rea, have two children, Madi and Austin, who share two medical conditions called craniosynostosis and chiari malformation. Kaci is one of two siblings raised in Lewistown, Ohio. Kaci graduated from Indian Lake High School in 1991 and obtained her college degree from The University of Findlay in 1995.
After the children were diagnosed, Kaci became an integral part of internet support groups, helping others along the same journey. She currently manages an international family match up program with pre- and post-op families to provide the family going through surgery with additional support from parents who have already been through it for a support group called Cranio Kids. Along with organizing this support system for others, writing has been very healing and rewarding for her.
With this book, Kaci hopes to be able to help those navigating the medical system, those that aren’t going through a medical journey but need to realize that hope can exist even in the worst of situations, and also those that are juggling the same diagnosis.
....I remember plain as day going into the endocrinologist’s office with all Austin’s prior lab results in hand and it was like I was going to convince the doctor there was something wrong. I knew deep down something was wrong, but I didn’t know what. At the time I didn’t understand when he had quickly looked through everything and nearly dismissed us. I was back to feeling helpless. If he didn’t help us, then what? For the first time ever, I learned my husband and I were no longer on the same page. It was the start of several doctor appointments that my husband would question my plea for help, my disagreement with the doctor’s opinion. In fact, following several appointments he asked me, “What’s the matter dear, you don’t agree with what he said? What are you going to do now?” After I got over the shock or feeling of helplessness over the doctor’s appointment, then again with what my husband had said, I picked myself up by the bootstraps and moved on. I assumed that Austin’s growth problem could be in the endocrinology area, but it apparently wasn’t, so it was time to press on to find out what was wrong with him. Not only was it the start of a rough road in attempting to help Austin, but I felt so alone. My husband was alienating my search for help, all the while I was remembering those pre-marital days of counseling with our pastor and how I’d never let an illness get in the way of our marriage….
…. it would bring Austin’s first medical diagnosis. She said that she would refer us to a pediatric neurosurgeon at Children’s. I will never forget this call. The words pediatric neurosurgeon rang through my head several times as she continued to talk. I was numb. The world almost stopped at that moment. It’s like I was trying to listen to what she was saying and keep this all in perspective. A perspective I had no idea how to compare to anything else I’d experienced….
…. I yet again hung the phone up from yet another doctors’ office and cried. Only this time, it was not out of fear. It was not because we had another diagnosis. I was not crying because there was going to be another major surgery, those tears would come later. For now, the tears I would shed would stem from the fact that we had been searching furiously for months to get our boy well and to watch him swiftly deteriorate in front of your eyes is something a mother cannot put into words. It’s a feeling that will take your breath away. To watch your child give up eating and drinking and watch their will to live diminish because they are in so much pain and you can’t do anything for them is like ripping a mother’s heart out. I had already been reading about this diagnosis for months and I knew this was the problem. No one else believed it was because Austin was now almost two and this problem is generally diagnosed and fixed before a year old. But because we’d fallen through the cracks up until this time, no one was willing to address it now and he was more miserable than ever….