20. February 2009 by admin.

Well Sarah had a great day. No vomiting and eating everything in sight. If she does well tomorrow morning she will most likely be coming home tomorrow afternoon. They did some type of barium swallow study on her and found out that her digestion has been slowed. It is not unheard of with people who have went through what she has and it explains the vomiting. When we get more details on the study results I will try to explain it better.

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18. February 2009 by admin.

Sarah has been up and down the last couple of days. She has gone hours feeling good and is alert, and then she will start to feel sick again and vomit. Today she has been more up than down, but she has vomited a couple of times. She had physical therapy today and did well, but it takes it out of her so she has a big nap afterwards. 

One of the times she vomited and then wanted to eat afterwards. I don’t like that because that is what was happening when seizures were causing her vomiting.

Sarah eating her cinnamon roll from McDonald’s

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17. February 2009 by admin.

Well the big room on the neuro floor opened up today. The staff gaves us first dibs at it. We have a lot more room to move around now.

As far as Sarah going home in the next couple of days, I wouldn’t count on it. They can’t really send her home until she is over the vomiting and off all IV fluids and meds. Dr. Mangano came in today and told me that her CT scan looked great and she looks great. He said that by her scan there is no sign of excessive intracranial pressure, so he is not really sure why she is vomiting so much. There is some air still in her skull so that will cause headaches until her body removes it.

Sarah woke up this morning in a good mood. She was hungry and ate some breakfast. She couldn’t eat much due to her stomach skrinking. She went to physical therapy today down in the gym. When she came back she was completely exhausted and took a three hour nap. After that she ate some lunch, but vomited about 3:30pm. That was the first time today. She vomited four times yesterday, so it seems to be decreasing by the day. Hopefully whatever it is will go away. They are confident that none of her issues are seizure related. I have seen no signs of anything that would make me think seizure. She is still on IV fluids until she can hold all of her food down for a day.

We will just keep praying.

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16. February 2009 by admin.

 Sarah started out the day like the last few with vomiting, upset stomach, and just wanting to lay in bed. She took an nap this afternoon and seemed to be a little better after that. She wanted some macaroni and cheese so I ordered some for her. She ate until she was full. It didn’t take long considering how much her stomach has shrunk. She ate about two hours ago and hasn’t vomited yet, so I am hopeful that she will get better from here. Of course it could be the round of steroids they gave her early this morning. I think they are trying to figure out what is making her so sick. It could be the fluid filling in the open space in her head. It could be some of the medications, or it could be some kind of stomach bug. There is not much proof of it being a stomach bug.

I am starting to doubt her getting to go home this week (maybe the end of the week). I think they would have to wait for this round of steroids to wear off to see if it is masking a problem. Hopefully she won’t need a shunt for fluid problems.

She played a game and did some coloring with me, so she is starting to “wake up” a little.

I tried to get her to smile, but she wasn’t in the mood yet

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14. February 2009 by admin.

Sarah has been vomiting everything she eats or drinks today, but she has not been feeling like eating very much. Its not like before her surgery. She actually feels sick to her stomach now. They have her on I.V. fluids. Dr. Mangano is thinking that it is some kind of stomach bug. If so, I guess anyone who has come in her room could have brought it in with them. I am not totally convinced, but I appear to be the only one who isn’t. Sarah is having a lot of pain in her neck. Everyone is giving different reasons for that. None of them are winning me over, but I am not a doctor. She does not have a fever.

She is having a CT scan on Monday (not due to her current symptoms, it was in the plan). She will not be going to the rehab floor. If she can get over what ever is making her sick she will most likely be going home next week.

Please pray that whatever this is making her sick passes quickly.

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13. February 2009 by admin.

They pulled her brain drain today and unwrapped her head. She took a walk down the hall and back. She is still having some pain, but doing ok. When I left her today she was getting a massage. The rehab attending hasn’t come to evaluate her yet, so I am not sure if she will be heading to rehab tomorrow or not. She still has some swelling on the left side of her head and face. It seems like it might be too quick to get her to rehab, but what do I know. I have a feeling she will get to rest this weekend and make the move next week.

After the unwrapping

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12. February 2009 by admin.

Sarah is doing well. She is having more pain this time around.

 Dr. Mangano said that he will probably pull her drain tomorrow and hopes to get her to rehab on Friday. If that happens I would guess that she could go home after a week of intense therapy. She will have another CAT scan and MRI before she leaves.

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9. February 2009 by admin.

Well we are just two days shy of when all this started with Sarah. She is in the OR now. We have not heard anything, but should be notified when they actually start to cut. I will keep this updated as we are updated.

8:50am

Official start time is 8:50am. She is doing OK.

11:30am

Sarah is doing fine and the surgery is going good.

12:30pm

We just got word that they are starting to close. It may be another couple of hours before we get to see her.

3:45pm

We are in ICU with Sarah. She is doing fine. She is getting an xray right now. She will be getting a CAT scan in about an hour. Dr. Mangano talked to us when we first got up here and told us that he removed about 55% of the hemisphere and retraced his steps on the back part that remains to make sure there are no connections. He also said that they had to use the drill to open her skull. He was not expecting that so I guess she is a good healer.

6:30pm

Dr. Mangano stopped in to see Sarah one more time before he went home. He showed us her CAT scan and said it looks great. He expects that she will be able to go back to the Nuero floor sometime tomorrow. I sent Kim home for the night so she can spend some time with the other kids and get some sleep. Thanks to everyone for their prayers and words of encouragement. Sarah’s school made her a big banner. She loved it. Hopefully she will be back with them very soon. Thank you Hailey for the valentine card. It Rocks!

The Lord certainly has seen her through these times and brought her though stronger each time. She is showing no more deficits than she had this morning.

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8. February 2009 by admin.

Well Sarah’s surgery was moved to the first case tomorrow (Monday) morning. We hope that everything is ok with Dr. Mangano’s family. We will pray for them as we pray for Sarah.

Last night I took Logan to a Blue Jackets game. He needed to get out and have some fun. Our friend Brandy babysat Ava. I thought I would include this picture Brandy sent me last night. Ava loves to dress up like a princess just like her big sister. This is one of those comic relief moments that Ava is so good at providing.

Ava is a rocking princess

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6. February 2009 by admin.

Well Sarah was down in the pre-op area and they just gave her something to make her drowsy. At that time Dr. Mangano came in and told us that he had a family emergency and needed to leave. He gave us the choice of letting Dr. Crone (Director of Neurosurgery) do the procedure or reschedule for Monday. We decided to reschedule for Monday. Dr. Crone is a world class neurosurgeon but we just felt that he didn’t know Sarah enough. I will update the blog later after we get back to her room and get settled back in.

I am sure God has a reason for the delay.

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