Good evening everybody,

Thank you so much again for following Andi's site and for all of the love, support, prayers and well wishes that she has received over the past 7 weeks.

Since the last update in the middle of April, Andrea's progress continued to advance.

April 17th - Andrea had what we thought at the time was a bit of a setback. The tremors in her left hand had significantly increased to where we were told to bring her in to get a CT scan later that day. While there wasn't anything that was immediately needing to be tended to, her neurosurgeon, Dr. Bennett, did want to continue to watch the changing size and fluid levels inside of the cranial cavity.

April 18th - Andrea had met with the leading Neuro Ophthalmologist in the Twin Cities, Dr. Weingarden. He was a quirky personality who made a difficult appointment extremely comfortable. He yelled down the office to his staff about his excitement to have 2 VAD's on the same day when he averages maybe 1 per year. He was very reassuring that Andrea's vision would return to normal near the 90 day mark. He passed on giving her prism glasses as he felt that her eyes would naturally adjust as her balance and coordinator continued to improve. While Andi hasn't seen a significant difference in her vision since that appointment, we are hopeful that the vision will continue to improve, as she is still having double vision at distances, especially while moving in a vehicle.

April 22nd - Andrea met with Neurologist Dr. Hoj. He examined the CT, along with administering a plethora of neurological tests, and was beyond excited about Andrea's continued improvement. Coming from a MD of over 40 years, when he says you are the, "Poster Child for Stroke Rehabilitation," you get very excited. He indicated that the majority of stroke symptoms will not continue to rapidly improve after the 90 day mark. Not to say that Andi's tremors or vision may not improve after mid/late June, but the likelihood of that happening is not the commonality. 

May 1st - Andi was officially discharged from in-home Speech Therapy, Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy. While the likelihood of of continued out-patient OT still was prevalent, all of the therapists said that Andrea was operating on incredible levels and had passed all of their highest of requirements. We were ecstatic. Following the last OT appointment, we went to get yet another CT.

May 2nd - Andi and I went back to Dr. Bennett's in St. Paul to review the CT. At this time, Dr. Bennett indicated that, while Andrea had advanced rapidly, and in many cases, unexpectedly, the fluid had build-up in the cranial cavity (hydrocephalus) had significantly increased and she would need to undergo another procedure to alleviate the "leaking" and drain the excessive cerebral spinal fluid (CSF). Admittedly to Dr. Bennett, this was a significant step backwards, she made us feel at ease by telling us, "For those that get off of the table from the first surgery, this 'isn't uncommon'". She explained to us the potential complications of the surgery (infection from re-opening the incision, elongating the original incision, operating near the brain stem, etc.) but made us feel extremely comfortable with the idea that sewing in a mesh to control the fluid and inserting another drain was, while timely and a bit tedious, less invasive and "intense" as her craniotomy. Surgery was scheduled for May 9th.

May 3rd - Andrea had a pre-op physical with Dr. Foss. In case anyone here is looking, he is the single best general practitioner that we have ever encountered. Incredible. Allina Woodbury. Shameless plug.

Following the physical, we had an incredible time at the Murder Mystery 80's Themed Fundraiser put on by our neighbor Jamie and supported by over 100 of our friends and family members. THANK YOU ALL FOR AN OUTSTANDING NIGHT and your incredible generosity in supporting Andi and our family.

May 9th - Today. Andrea, Wayne, Renee, Jackie and I arrived at St. Joseph's at 5:00am. Andi went back to the pre-op room at about 6:10am and we were called in to see her around 7:45am. She went back to the OR at 8:12am and we were briefed by Dr. Bennett around 11:30am. By 1:30pm, Andi was in her room comfortably in the ICU on the 5th Floor at St. Joseph's and within an hour she was eating a Jimmy John's sub.

As far as the surgery went, Dr. Bennett was not able to execute her original plan of sewing in the mesh. By all accounts on the CT, the area of dead tissue, where the cerebellum was, looked to be empty from the atrophy. However, when Dr. Bennett began, the tissue was still in it's original area. While she considered scraping out the "dead tissue", she felt that there was a higher risk in that in case any of the vessels were still alive. Instead, she opted to use a adhesive/bonding substance to close the "pin-hole" sized leak near the brain stem where the CSF was exiting. While it wasn't her intended result, she felt very comfortable with how the procedure culminated. Additionally, a lumbar drain was inserted to allow the CSF to exit the body. She will continue to be monitored over the next 5 days in the ICU to ensure that there isn't continued, excessive leakage. If this is the case during the recovery in the hospital, or potentially after she leaves St. Joseph's with continued CT observation, a permanent shunt will be inserted into her cranium which will regulate the CSF drainage.

I believe that everything in here is accurate. Please forgive me as I am not a medical professional and I am doing my best to interpret somewhere between 50-60 appointments, therapy sessions, etc. over the past 7+ weeks.

Thank you again to everybody for your continued love. 

All of our best,

Andi, Aaron & The Vail's