16. July 2008 by admin.

Sarah had a few seizures yesterday. I captured one on video to show her doctors. I felt my heart drop when I saw this. We were told that some kids will have seizures for a while after the surgery, but since I am not a patient person I am stressing over this. They are going to give her a loading dose of steroids. Maybe if the irritated areas on the right side of her brain have a chance to calm down they will stay calm since there is no disease on that side to keep irritating them. I think that is the plan.

We are trying to stay on the positive with how miraculous Sarah’s recovery has been so far. She was put back on solid foods last night. They clamped off her brain drain (that is what i am calling it) yesterday and she will get a CT scan this morning. If everything looks good they will pull it out and she will be able to move around a bit more. I am going to go over and get some pictures of her today to post. Dr. Franz told me yesterday that he would have never thought she would be able to speak so well following this surgery. At her age, all the speech (sensorineural and motor) comes from the left side of the brain.

I am trying to update more often, but until Kim and I get some type of schedule figured out there isn’t much time.  I will try to post more tonight or tomorrow morning.

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15. July 2008 by admin.

Sarah is doing really good today. She can move her head on her own and is wanting to sit up more. She is talking more and eating. She has had some eye twitching today which I guess is seizures, but the doctors are not too concerned. I think it was expected right after surgery.

I am going to do a post dedicated to the benefit soon. I am supposed to be getting video and pictures from people that took them. After that I will put something together. Here are some that I have now.

The picture that everyone signed

Ava with her cake

Logan with his silly hat

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14. July 2008 by admin.

Well Sarah was finally moved over to the neurology floor this afternoon. She spiked a fever shortly after she got there. She has been sleeping most of the time, but much more alert today. She ate some popsicles and took her medicine with some apple sauce, so she is showing good signs as far as swallowing. Her speech is good when she gets it out. I think it sounds better than before the surgery. You can tell that it takes a little out of her to talk, so I am only going to push her so far right now. I told Kim everything she said yesterday except one thing that I got on video. I wanted it to be a surprise and have it played to her at the benefit last night, but I have no good video or web software on my Mac laptop. I captured this yesterday afternoon a couple hours after Kim had left.

Before you watch keep in mind that this is less than 24 hours after a surgery that was supposed to seriously impair her speech. Some speculated that she may not be able to speak at all for a while after the surgery. Watch this and know what a mighty God we serve. CLICK HERE

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13. July 2008 by admin.

It appears that they want to keep her in ICU for one more night. Not sure why. She is doing ok. She spiked a fever earlier in the evening, but after a round of Tylenol it was gone. She has said a few more words. She said that she wanted a red popsicle and she wanted her monkey (her new webkinz). I have a video of her talking, but all I have here is my Mac laptop and it doesn’t have the software I need to get it to our website. I will post it as soon as I get home tomorrow.

I heard the benefit is a big hit. I hope everyone has a great time. It should be good for Kim to have some fun, but for some reason I can’t get the scores of Logan’s basketball games from her.

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12. July 2008 by admin.

Sarah has moved her right leg and arm a little more. She has said one word since her surgery, “Benefit”. She is still pretty out of it. She did get a visit from physical and occupational therapists. Her left eye twitched a little, which was something that we hoped not to see, but it didn’t very short and only once.

Sarah sleeping with her monkey

Eyes open and giving dad the hairy eyeball

Getting some physical therapy

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12. July 2008 by admin.

We finally got to see Sarah about 9:30pm. She was still pretty out of it and sick from the drugs. Before I headed out I got her to move her right foot, leg, and hand. It is just reflexes, but I was feeling good about it. She hasn’t tried to say anything yet. Hopefully it will be a short stay in ICU. Praise the Lord for getting Sarah through the surgery. It is all about recovery from here. Thank you to everyone for the awesome support. I really want the benefit to go well tomorrow. I hope everyone can just have a good time.

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11. July 2008 by admin.

I will keep this post updated throughout the day.

6:45pm

They are closing now, but that will take about two hours to close. She is doing fine.  We have not talked to the surgeon yet.
5:15pm

We just got word that it will be a few more hours. “tedeious work”

4:45pm

Still no update, but wanted to post the pictures from this morning. Sarah’s loses her first tooth.

2:45pm

No real update. They just told us that everything is fine. Nancy Clark came brought us lunch and is helping to keep Kim’s mind off of everything.

11:30am 

The actual surgery started a little late (2 hours). They had problems getting the MRI data to the OR suite. They made their first incision at 11:16. She is doing fine. I will give more updates when I have more to give.

9:30am

So far everything is going great, but the actual surgery still hasn’t started yet. Pastors Eric and Terry came down to give us support and pray with Sarah, Kim, and I before the surgery. That really gave us a sense of peace during something so scary. it also gave us an opportunity to get to know our new pastor. I guess this day is just full of blessings. Sarah lost her first tooth during pre-op. They started the MRI at 8:56am, so they are just a little behind. The surgery is supposed to take about six hours, but it will be longer for closing and post-op stuff. She was very brave going in. Her surgery is in the OR’s Brain Suite, so we could not go all the way into the induction room. She was chatting up the nurses all the way back. She made them bring her a pillow so she could put her tooth under an actual pillow when she went to sleep. The tooth fairy has to go the the ATM now and turn that tooth into cash for when she wakes up. One of the nurses told her that the Tooth Fairy pays out double when you lose a tooth in the hospital. Dr. Mangano (the surgeon) was very optimistic about everything. He believes that she should have some movement in her right arm and leg following the surgery, but her biggest deficit will be her speech. As many of you know if there is one thing that Sarah likes to do is talk, so speech therapy should be easy for her. We look to Jesse for an example of what to expect, but we know that no two kids come through this surgery the same way. We will just keep our faith in the Lord that he uses Sarah to show people how wonderfully we are all created. I will update this when I have some more news. Everyone please keep praying.

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9. July 2008 by admin.

Sarah got a surprise visit from some of the Madison Mohawk Cheerleaders tonight. They brought her a benefit t-shirt that has been signed by all the Mohawk Cheerleaders. They also gave her the same outfits that they will be wearing to camp this year. This was a big deal to Sarah. She was a cheerleader last year and will fight with everything in her to be one again. Hopefully when she is in high school she will get to do the same for a little girl who is going through a rough time. Special thanks go out to all the Mohawk Cheerleaders for giving of their time.

Sarah with some of the Madison Mohawk Cheerleaders

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9. July 2008 by admin.

I guess we found a golden retriever litter that was born July 3rd. They will be ready to go mid August. Sarah is very excited and has already named her Miley. She knows that she must work very hard at getting back on her feet so she can come home and get her puppy. Kim is looking forward to house breaking and cleaning up accidents. Alicia Meyers is a breeder in Columbus.She is going to hold a puppy for Sarah.

So thank you Alicia!!!

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7. July 2008 by admin.

Chick-fil-A has agreed to donate 20% of all sales from noon-4pm on Saturday, July 12th to the Something for Sarah benefit. This is good at the Towne Mall location only. I have heard that a few other businesses will be doing this after the benefit. I will post the times/dates/locations when I have them.

It is difficult to prepare yourself for this kind of life changing event. I am not sure exactly how other than lots of prayer for Sarah and the surgeon and his staff. I know that afterwards I will be focusing on the job at hand, which is to get Sarah back on her feet and home. I know there will be times of weakness and self pity, but Kim and I will do our best to keep that at a minimum. Sarah is just concentrating on getting her puppy. That seems to be enough of a carrot to get her through this.

People ask us a lot if there is anything they can do the day of the surgery and the only answer I ever have is “just pray”. I honestly don’t know of anything else we need on Friday. I just feel that there is a plan in place and it will be revealed to us this Friday. There is more than the obvious testimony here. I hope one day soon I can make it available for everyone to read.

I am sad about missing the first week of church with our new pastor.

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