Surgery Info

Hello everyone. We had a productive day today! I'm glad you liked the pics. I will take a bunch more tomorrow.

The MRI:

The MRI went well. Jenn, tell Carli that Kayla had the bubble gum smelling "goofy gas". We didn't get to pick, but it was all good! Denny and I were told to go in about 2 hours after it started. Kayla woke up really well. She was drowsy as to be expected but didn't cry or fuss at all. She did look a little different with all the probes on her head. (the probes will remain there until surgery) I just kept reminding her that food would be coming and that kept her wanting to wake up. The poor thing was STARVING! About an hour later, they wheeled her up to her room and we waited for her huge breakfast to be delivered. Yes, it was 3:45, but the kid had been thinking of breakfast since she woke up. I'm not kidding you when I say she ordered just about everything on that menu. When the food came, she sat up immediately and ate like she's never eaten before. I said to her, "is that the BEST pancake you've ever eaten in your life?" Kayla's eyes got wide while she nodded. She never stopped chewing and didn't even look up. She just said, "oh yeah... this is the best pancake I've ever had". We all know that feeling!  haha. Poor kid!

The Doc arrives to give us the scoop:

First of all, can I just say we love this man?  He really is soooo awesome. Not many neurosurgeons have a good bedside manor. He is wonderful! He always takes his time and you never ever feel like he's rushing you to "get it". He is thorough and will explain things over and over if you need him to. He is kind to Kayla and we find him often stopping his sentence to listen to her and nodding and smiling while she asks 100 questions. She really is a funny kid.

What he saw in this MRI was pretty much what we thought he would see. Everything looks about the same. I won't bore you with the medical details. The nitty gritty is that she will have surgery on Thursday Morning at 7:30. It will last until about 3-4:00pm and then she will be in ICU for at least 2 days. It's going to be a long LONG day. We will be getting updates hourly. There will be a pathologist to give us their best guess on whether the tumor is benign or malignant. It's only a "guess" though. Nothing is concrete like a biopsy.

Tomorrow:

Tomorrow will be wonderful! They took her IV out because she won't need it until Thursday. She will be free to play in the play room and do arts and crafts all day. We can watch a movie or do what ever we want. One thing for sure, we will have a tour of the surgery center, the ICU and all the areas that will be like a home to us for the 48 hours to follow. Tomorrow is our day to just be with her. To enjoy all the wonderful things about Kayla that make her who she is. I'm not going to lie. There will be some recovery time where she will have some challenges and a lot of physical therapy "PT" to get her back to her old self. We were told that the struggles she will have post op should all be temporary.
If things go well, it might be a week after surgery before she is cleared to come home. We are praying this is the case. So, tomorrow will be a day filled with giggles, stories, hugs and a lot of deep breathing to prepare us for what is to come.

While we were waiting today during Kayla's MRI, we logged onto the blog so I could figure out the commenting issues in the settings.  Our jaws dropped as we saw that there have been over 2,700 views. That is just incredible to me. It goes to show the power of thought. We can all relate to stories like this. If anything, it gives us a new way to look at our relationships. The power to strengthen our love. If anything, I hope we all learn to let the little things go. I know after this... being late for work, hearing my kids screaming at each other or spilling coffee on my shirt will be the bad day I could only hope for. Hug your loved ones. Hug them tight. Because in a flash, things can change.