Tomorrow is the big day! We will arrive at 7am and once Gabrielle is sedated she will have a PICC line placed, the stereotactic MRI completed, and then head into the OR. The surgery tomorrow entails suturing grids onto the brain and placing depth probes. Dr. Weiner said the surgery may take anywhere from 3-8 hours but his average surgery takes about 4 hours. He said sometimes repeat brain surgery can be much more tedious due to scar tissue,etc. and the risk of problems can be a little higher. We are praying there are no problems with bleeding, stroke, or neurological damage and that Gabrielle would tolerate the surgery extremely well.
Following surgery she will be taken directly to the PICU and remain there for approximately 7 days of intracranial monitoring. It sounds like the hardest part of this for most children is being confined to the bed or chair for so many days. Based on the results of this monitoring Dr. Weiner stated we may have difficult decisions to make regarding how much brain to remove. We are obviously praying things will be very straightforward and that the seizures are being produced in a very localized area.
We will continue to update as we can.
Thanks so much for continuing to follow Gabby’s story.
Love,
Kelly
Duff and Kelly…our prayers are with you. I know all too well what it is like to sit in a waiting room for hours, knowing many hands are in your little one’s brain, and praying they return to you the same child. My heart aches that you are, again, having to sit through this. But, God has worked everything out for you all; from the doctors in NYC even down to the apartment. You are meant to be there, Gabby is meant to be there, and God has already placed His mighty army around your family for His will to be done as it should in this situation. Our prayers are with you!