Tomorrow is the big day

Surgery.  One more.  Third and final.  For this hospital stay at least, and prayerfully for good.  

The team made the decision to do surgery without waiting for another seizure.  The reason for this is that there are three options:  1. keep grids in and keep waiting...hard on all of us, risk of infection and no guarantee of another seizure.  2. Take grids out without doing anything else. Seizures would likely continue and we would probably need to do this all again in the future.  3.  Use the info we have to do a resection, meaning take out the bad tissue that's causing the seizures.  Because they do have good data from the seizure right after her second surgery.

So this afternoon I met with the epilepsy team to discuss the plan for surgery.  Mark was able to join by phone, and he will join us in person tomorrow evening.  So thankful!!!  They explained that they will be taking out only the bad tissue that's causing the seizures, but there's a chance they will be very near the motor cortex.  If they come too close, she will temporarily lose function of her right leg.  They assured us it will come back, it's just a matter of time and therapy.  And it may not be an issue at all.  Hopefully, the bad tissue is in front of the motor cortex and not on it.  

So tomorrow morning beginning at about 8:00, they will take out the grids, take out the bad tissue, and complete the corpus callosotomy.  The first time because so many electrodes were in place they were only able to sever 2/3 of the "connecting bridge".  This time they'll get the rest. 

Pray for Elsie to be stable and strong through this surgery.  They say it should take five hours. But all in all she'll likely be separated from me about eight hours.  Pray that they can stay away from the motor cortex and that she will not have a motor deficit after this surgery.  Pray for steady hands for this gifted surgeon, Dr. B.  Pray for speedy recovery.  They tell me it's better because all those grids are out and the brain is less irritated.

We're looking forward to seeing her running around again.  She did walk around the foot of her bed tonight while I held all those wires.  She's a fighter.  And she has the God of the universe and the prayers of so many on her side.  Thank you.