First follow up visit post surgery

Alannah's first follow up visit post surgery was Monday, 1-24-11.

It went pretty well.  The neuro team is happy with how the incision looks, her activity level, and her appetite.  They are also happy with the fact that she has not had any seizures (Thank you God).

The only thing she has to have looked at in February is a swollen lymph node/gland in her neck on the right side, the same side as the surgery.  She had this inpatient, then it went away.  An ear/nose/throat doctor looked at it while she was inpatient, but never had to do anything about it b/c it went away.  Well, it came back last week, so the neurosurgeon wants us to have ENT doctor look at it again.  So she has an appointment the 2nd week of Feb, to have it looked at.  It doesn't hurt her and it may just be part of the healing process, but he wants it looked at just to be sure.

Other updates:

The skull bone will take 3 months to heal solid.  It is being held in place by a plate and screws which will stay in forever, and as per the neurosurgeon, will not affect her ability to do anything in life.  He said if she wanted to play football, she'd have to wait for a whole year post-surgery.....Here's to hoping she never really wants to play football, because I am already getting gray-haired pretty quickly!  The plate and screws are even MRI safe.

In fact, her next follow up with both the surgeon and the neurologist is in 3 months, and she will  have had an MRI by the time she sees them.  She will be on anti-seizure meds for a whole year post-surgery, that is their protocol after this surgery.

At 6 months, the neurologist will see her again.  At this point, she will have an EEG, which is a test that measures electrical brain activity.  They will be looking for any abnormal brain waves......hopefully, they won't find any.

Then, at 1 year, if the EEG is normal and she still hasn't had any seizures, they will talk about weaning her off the seizure meds for good.

That's the plan for now.....

I will keep you all posted after the multiple visits over the next year.....if I forget to blog....call me.   Teresa, thanks for the reminder for this one.

GO STEELERS!   ( Sorry, Dr. Holder)