Vim & Vigor - Fall 2017 - North Mississippi - 5

the Diabetes Treatment
Center came and spent a
full day in Kellan's room
training us."
Kellan stayed in
the hospital through
Thursday because it took
several days to get his
blood sugar regulated.
At ﬁrst, Kellan was getting eight or nine insulin shots per day, but he
recently began wearing
Kellan Huggins sees pediatric endocrinologist Sara Silver,
an insulin pump that
DO, for his diabetes treatment.
delivers small doses of
"When we got to Tupelo, they immeinsulin continually.
diately started him on IV insulin, ran
Looking back, his mother now sees
more tests and gave ﬂuids because he
some red ﬂags she missed. "Before that
was dehydrated," Taylor says of her son's
weekend in June, he would get really
diagnosis with diabetes. "Someone from
tired, but I just thought it was because it

PHOTO BY THINKSTOCK

PEDIATRIC
ORTHOPAEDICS
Twelve-year-old Anna
Holcomb of Pontotoc was born with
cerebral palsy and sees several pediatric
specialists aﬃliated with Children's of
Mississippi in Jackson. In 2015, Anna
became a patient of Wade Shrader, MD,
a Pontotoc native and pediatric orthopaedic surgeon who sees patients at
the Children's of Mississippi Tupelo
clinic once a month.
In May 2016, Anna required leg surgery at Batson Children's Hospital in
Jackson. "She would walk with her
knees turned in," explains her mother,
Crystal Holcomb. "As she grows, her
knees wouldn't have been able to hold
her. She fell a good bit before surgery.
"Dr. Shrader has triplets, two of
whom have cerebral palsy," Holcomb
says. "His son had a similar surgery, and
knowing he had personal experience
made me, as a mother, feel better. He is
very compassionate and understanding

was so hot outside," she says. "As soon
as he was diagnosed and we started
insulin, you could really see a diﬀerence.
He's doing wonderful."
Diabetes is a chronic illness that will
require a lifetime of close monitoring by
a specialist like Silver. Fortunately, she
and other pediatric specialists see children ﬁve days a week at the Children's of
Mississippi clinic in Tupelo. Children's
of Mississippi is the umbrella organization that includes all pediatric care aﬃliated with the University of Mississippi
Medical Center, including Batson
Children's Hospital in Jackson.
"The Tupelo clinic is unbelievably
helpful," Taylor says, noting that the
45-minute commute from Rienzi is
much more convenient than driving
to Jackson.

of what Anna is
going through."
After recovering from surgery,
Anna spent three
weeks in inpatient
rehabilitation at
Batson's Children's
Hospital. Following
a second surgery
in December, she
began going to
NMMC's Pediatric
Outpatient
Rehabilitation for
therapy ﬁve days a
Anna Holcomb began therapy at NMMC's Pediatric Outpatient
Rehabilitation in December.
week. She progressed
from requiring a
Her mother is equally determined to
wheelchair to using a walker and now
get Anna the best care available, and
only wears leg braces. In March, she was
having a pediatric orthopaedic surgeon
able to resume therapeutic horseback
available in Tupelo certainly helps. "It's
riding, her favorite activity.
very nice not to have to travel three
"She is very determined for sure," her
hours one way, especially for a child,"
mother says. "She has pushed herself
she says.
very hard to do as well as she has."

FALL 2017

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