Abby's Journey Archive

Well, we have what we think is a timeframe for Abby's stay in the hospital. We saw both her neurosurgeon (Dr. Shafron) and her neurologist (Dr. Hadden) today. Dr. Shafron still believes that the seizure Abby experienced yesterday was her brain reacting to the surgery. He says the CT scan they did late yesterday looks quite normal with some swelling and little bleeding. As far as he is concerned, Abby can go home anytime.

Dr. Hadden looked at the EEG (reads brain activity) and said it looked like a brain in a post surgery state. He wants to keep her in the hospital probably until next Wednesday. This will allow them to increase her dose of Keppra (the long-term anti-seizure medication) to what it needs to be and pull her off the Dilantin (the current anti-seizure medication). Keppra tends to cause drowsiness (which supposedly goes away eventually) so they can't increase the dosage too quickly.

Abby took the news pretty well. She wasn't as sad as she was last night. We can all pray that everything will get balanced out sooner than Wednesday and she will be surprised to go home early.

In the meantime, we'll be settling in for a few days. She is supposed to be moved to a regular pediatric room tomorrow if one is available. At that time she will be able to have visitors of all ages.

I am tentatively planning to check in at work on Monday for part of the day. You can pray that I will be able to stay focused and have wisdom about what to try to tackle. You can also pray that we'll be able to balance our family needs until Abby comes home. Finally, you can pray for clear guidance for Amy and I as we sift through all the information coming at us and make decisions about treatment.

I can't tell you all how God has ministered to our hearts through your words. Getting home at night and reading your verses and words of encouragement has been so refreshing to me. Thank you for taking the time to pray, asking others to pray, and sending us frequent emails. God has been hearing you all and we praise Him for all that He has done so far.