A long day

Steph is resting (hopefully) in the "sleep room", so this is Andrew finishing up the post for her.

Around 10 this morning things got difficult for Oliver.

He was either asleep or very agitated. He was crying and whimpering a great deal. He was in pain from the catheter removal (all male readers collectively wince right now) and was very painfully constipated. His little belly was distended and quite firm.  He vomited four times and therefore needed and entirely new head wrap. Our neurosurgeon spent 30 minutes redressing it while Steph held him on her lap. We felt like we were on "Discovery Health". Oliver's incision is really gnarly. That picture you saw is nothing! We thought about taking a more "detailed"picture, but decided it was way too gory. All of this took hours. Andrew initially got in the crib again to help control Oliver's arms and legs.  One doctor (who will remain nameless) mildly freaked us out by recalling that a 3 year old girl stuck her finger up into her wrap, started fiddling with her leads, and started an infection (hydrocephalitis...joy).  Oliver's wrap fell off several times, as he alternated from acting zonked to bolting up and struggling against us, potentially torquing the leads that are coming right out of his skull.  The left side of his head looks surprisingly like a wet football, with an intricate seam.  We were assured that the fluid (and there was a lot of it) was "completely normal. In addition to getting this "normal" brain fluid all over her torso, Steph's butt fell asleep from sitting in the crib for hours on end. It was an exhausting afternoon.

Finally, Oliver let loose with a combo poop-pee and a final "tossing of the cookies" (sorry for the graphic description, but we are all friends now, right?).  I could've sworn I saw him smile at me as he finally let it go.  He has been resting much more comfortably, and even asked for the iPad to play with (which we happily brought out for him).

**Did we mention that Steph's Mom and Mudder are here, and have been a big help? They have brought us meals and treats, and got Oliver's lovey blanket and arm restraints washed at their hotel and back to us in record time!  We are very thankful for them.

Hopefully our evening will be more peaceful. These bumps in the road are to be expected, but we are wiped out emotionally and physically.

Dr. Thiele and Dr. Duhaime talked through the data and surgery plans and here is what we know:

99% sure surgery will happen on Monday

Most of the seizures are coming from the left anterior temporal lobe.

This is the “best” area to remove because it is considered a peninsula, and when it is removed it stops the seizures and controls the spreading of seizures. It also has redundancy on the right side so its functions will move seamlessly over there. Our neurosurgeon was excited about this area to remove. It is ideal as it has the least impairment possibilities.

                                       Oliver still loves his taggy blanket.

The one piece of news that was a bit troubling was there may be seizures originating from the frontal lobe. The area in question is the part that controls the face and the tongue. We are still collecting seizure data so it is too early to figure how difficult a decision this will be. We'll just take that as it comes.

Once again, thanks to everyone for their prayers.