ICU & Recovery

UPDATE:  9:35am

Hi All,

Everything is good.  The surgeon visited this morning on rounds and said that everything went well and that Meara did a great job.  

This morning she was having a hard time waking up from anesthesia so that they could assess her motor function.  They sent her to have a CT scan to check for bleeding in the brain.  Results came back fine, no bleeding.  Just the expected swelling.  The loss of motor function in the legs, arm, and hand on her left side is expected for now because of the swelling in the right side of her brain.  As the swelling subsides she should regain that function.  We'll also know in the next few days the extent of her loss of function on the left side of her face, tongue, and jaw.

She is stable, beautiful, and simply perfect.  She has her bone flap back in so besides the incision she looks just like herself before we arrived at the hospital.

They have cleared her to head back upstairs to Epilepsy Monitoring Unit.  Just like the last surgery we are waiting around for a room to open up.  She has also been cleared for a regular diet once she feels up to eating....which might be awhile based on last time.

People have been remarking on our strength and positive outlook throughout this.  An important piece of that is the support we have received from all of you.  Your prayers, good wishes, care of our Ainsley, on and on an on has been a huge blessing.  We could not have been in this place of peace if it weren't for every one of you out there supporting us.

Thank you for the love.  Thank you for the strength.  I'll post more on recovery as we get new information.  Thank you for following us throughout this.  It has helped us tremendously to be connected to all of you.

Love and Gratitude,
Aaron & Megan

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Hi All,

It's 2:18am and we are up in the ICU.  Meara is sleeping in bed.  She is beautiful.  She is peaceful.  She'll wake up in a few hours in a lot of pain but they'll give her IV morphine.  She'll be in a great deal of pain the next 3 days or so (same as after the first surgery).  These next days won't be very fun but at least we are through the resection and we can move on to recovery and therapy.

From here on out we will find out her deficits and enter the rehabilitation phase.  The therapists will let us know what that will look like in terms of intensity and how long we should expect to stay here in the hospital.

The surgery went just as planned.  The surgeon avoided any trauma to the blood vessels and he resected the entire area that they had in the plans.  We are grateful for your prayers and good wishes.  We are grateful for our amazing surgeon who is gifted and skilled at his work.  We are grateful for our friends, family, and strangers who held us in prayers and thought as we journeyed through this with our sweet Meara.

As Megan said tonight, we are halfway there.  We have a long road of recovery and therapy but our daughter is beautiful, and sleeping, and with us tonight.  We are so happy, and grateful, and at peace.

Love to everyone.  We just can't express how thankful we truly are.

Love and Gratitude,
Aaron & Megan