Hi All,

We are home at last! I am currently administering Gabrielle’s first dose of IV antibiotics and figured I would post this update while I wait for them to infuse.

Gabrielle had 4 seizures today which can be a little discouraging. They did not however generalize to the rest of her brain and therefore she remained conscious. So this is an improvement. We continue to pray they will vanish completely if it is God’s will.

Neurologically, the doctors can’t believe how normal she seems. They are impressed that there are no obvious deficits following surgery. Praise God!!!

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Hi Family and Friends,
It looks like today might be the day to go home! Gabrielle developed a fever on post-op day #1 and her blood cultures and urine came back positive for infection. They began treating her with anitbiotics and her fever has improved and she appears to feel alot better. They inserted a PIC line yesterday which is a special IV that she can be sent home with. We will be administering IV antibiotics at home for the next 8-10 days to make sure any infection is blasted away. As soon as all home health instruction is completed and we have all of the necessary materials we will be heading out.

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This has been an amazing journey filled with many bumps and I just want to share a little story from the other day at Duke. We were discussing Gabrielle’s prognosis and whether or not the other side of her brain was affected. The neurologist said we just have to hope that “Mother Nature” has formed the other side of her brain normally so that by removing the right side we will stop the seizures. At that moment I realized how amazing it is to know I don’t just have to hope in “Mother Nature”. I have my hope in the one true God. A God that knows every hair on our heads and every tear we cry. A God who loves us beyond compare and allowed His only son to die on a cross and then raised Him from the dead to give us eternal hope. This has given me so much peace and hope at a time when there are so many uncertainties.

Hi Friends and Family,
Thank you so much for the love and support you have given all of us. Thank you for your continued prayer. Gabrielle’s surgery went really well. She is recovering nicely. Dr. Grant said her brain’s electrical activty looked greatly improved but not perfect. He said it may be due to irritability from the surgery or other small areas of malformation. Gabrielle is waiting for a regular peds bed. She is nursing again and has most of her lines removed. She seems pretty comfortable and is doing better than we expected. We are praising God for keeping her safe and improving her prognosis. We have seen so many children suffering here and it reminds us of our many blessings.

Love you all!

Kelly

Well, yesterday’s post is now obsolete. How quickly things can change. We received a call from Duke this morning saying Dr. Grant will be able to operate this Friday, Aug. 24th @ 8:00 am. We were thrilled!!! We left for Duke at 10:00 am and had all of her pre-op testing completed today. We learned the surgery will no longer be completed in two stages. The doctors all agree the previous testing has narrowed down the area enough that they should be able to perform all necessary mapping while in the OR prior to resection. This will reduce the risk of infection and blood loss which is good news and also shorten the hospital stay. The surgeon estimated Gabrielle will be in the hospital about 4 days. She will spend the first night in the PICU and then stay in the peds unit. The surgery will take about 4 hours. We greatly appreciate your continued prayer and support. We will keep you all posted.

Love, Kelly

We have a date! Sept. 10th will be the big day. This isn’t as soon as we were hoping for but many schedules had to be coordinated and they wanted it to be first thing in the morning with no cases following. We will be praying Gabrielle remains stable until then and trust this is God’s perfect timing.

Gabrielle will have pre-op testing completed Sept. 5th and arrive at 6am for surgery on the 10th.

I spoke with Dr. Grant yesterday and he said the lesion in her right frontal lobe is quite extensive and he will basically be removing the entire lobe minus the motor strip. He suggested the process of saving Gabrielle’s motor strip to avoid left sided paralysis will be a tedious one. But, it is comforting to know this is all in God’s very capable hands!

We appreciate the love and support of each of you!
Kelly

Hey All,

Just a quick update. Dr Grant is completely booked next week so the soonest Gabrielle would be able to have surgery would be the following week. The secretary will get back to us on Monday. Please pray she can have it done soon. It sounds like Dr. Grant is in high demand.

I’ll keep you all posted.
Love,
Kelly

Hi Family and Friends,

The result of the conference today was that Gabrielle is indeed a good candidate for surgery. This is amazing news when you consider the alternative. We will be scheduling the surgery as soon as possible. It will be performed by Dr. Grant at Duke. We will hopefully have a date by tomorrow.

We just ask that you continue to pray for our little girl. Pray that the lesion does not involve the motor strip and that the surgeon is able to remove the entire area of concern.

Brain surgery is not an easy thing for an infant to undergo but we are so hopeful that this surgery will give us our precious Gabrielle back. We are praying that God will perform a miracle through the hands of the surgeon.

I will keep you posted!
Kelly

Hello Family and Friends,

Just wanted to let you all know Gabrielle has been status quo for the last week having 3-8 seizures daily. The conference to discuss her candidacy for surgery was postponed from last week to this Thursday as the pediatric neurosurgeon was on vacation. We ended up going to Connecticut for my sister’s wedding and Gabrielle tolerated the trip really well. We just returned today. We should know more in a few days and I will update all of you.

Thanks for continuing on this journey with us!
Kelly

Hey Family and Friends,

Thanks so much for all of your prayers, love, and support. Gabrielle and I came home today in the middle of the afternoon. The video EEG, PET scan, and, MRI have all been completed. The doctors are optimistic at this point that she is a surgical candidate and they will meet to discuss her case in depth in the coming days. This is certainly an answer to our prayers!!! If there is consensus among the doctors regarding her candidacy for surgery then plans will be put in place to schedule her surgery as soon as possible. We have decided against getting a second opinion because her seizures have worsened significantly over the past week and there isn’t time. She had 46 seizures over a 48 hour period in the hospital. The medications are having very little effect and we are basically going to keep her extremely sedated over the next few days to try to keep her from having so many seizures which can be damaging to the good parts of her brain. We will keep you posted as we learn more from the doctors about the surgical process.

Thank you in advance for your continued prayers. It helps so much knowing you are all pulling and praying for our little girl!!!

Love,
Kelly