3 Month Follow-up Post Surgery

Hello everyone,

Alannah had her 3 month follow-up with the neurosurgeon and neurologist physician assistant yesterday, Thursday, 4/28/11.

First, she had an MRI so that they could have images of where they resected part of her right frontal lobe to see if that has healed the way they expected it to, and to make sure that nothing abnormal had happened in the healing process.

The neurosurgeon said everything looks good on the MRI.  The area where they removed brain tissue has filled with fluid, which is what was suppose to happen and he saw nothing abnormal on the MRI.  GOOD NEWS!

He informed us that since it has been 3 months since the surgery, that the skull bone where they had to cut is healed pretty solid at this point.  He also reminded us that it would be a full year before she could withstand anything like sports or anything high impact.  Bottom line:  Don't let her do anything where she could fall and hit her head really hard, such as climbing a jungle gym, riding a bike without a helmet, etc....otherwise, she's clear to get out and about and is going back to preschool next week to finish out the year with her classmates!! 

She does not need to see the neurosurgeon again until 1 year post surgery, which will be January 2012!

She has continued to remain seizure-free ( Thank God ) and will continue on with Keppra, her anti seizure med for 1 year post-op, b/c that is their protocol.

In August sometime, which is 7 months post-op, she will have a 24 hour video EEG.  That means she'll go into the hospital in the morning, they will attach numerous leads to her scalp ( with special glue ) and then they will plug her into a monitor, which will record her electrical brain activity.  They will admit her to the video unit ( which means they video tape her during her stay ) for that day and overnight and she will be able to leave the next morning.  When we leave the unit the next morning, we will go directly to an appointment with her neurologist, who will be able to tell us if they see any abnormal ( epileptic ) brain waves on the EEG.  Of course, this will be big news, either way.  So we are anxious to see what happens, and we will keep praying that the news continues to be good news. 

Below I have posted pictures from when we first got home after the surgery in January, through March 2011.  You will be able to see how much her hair has grown over the incision area and almost all of the dissolvable (is that a word?) stitches have fallen off. 



This was almost immediately after we got home - You can see how the incision is lifted, running along the top of her head.......that was some funky hair-do!



Getting back to guitar practice, she remembered everything!

February - you could still see the holes on the top of her head where the wires went in, and she still had her stitches but they are too small for you to see in this picture, and the incision has flattened down alot at this point ( I have such a way with words....sorry! )

March - hair covers almost everything

Playing with her cousins who came to visit from Tennessee - Kaci and Zachary

And we started to put her back to work! haha

All in all, everything is coming along really well at this point, and we will continue to pray, and hope that all of you will continue to pray, for her to continue to heal and to enjoy life to its fullest potential.

Love, Marilena and Eric