We arrived for surgery at 7am today.

Dr Ringer and the surgical team took Michelle back at 9:25. At about 11:25, we were paged to meet with Dr Ringer. He said everything went well. There were a couple of issues that caused her bone not to quite fit in place... one being a pocket of fluid between the skin and the dura that needed to be drained and the second being that the edges of her skull where the bone was removed had some regrowth that had to be shaved away! Once he took care of that, the removed piece fit back in perfectly. They attach the bone to the rest of the skull with several plates and screws... so now the joke of she has a screw loose could be taken literally!

Michelle was taken back to the good old floor 12 neuro unit. Not the same room though! This time she got the penthouse suite.... no seriously.... it’s a suite!  She has been extremely groggy and is having a lot of difficulty coming out of anesthesia. No one seems too worried at this point except all of us. She perked up a little around 6 this evening and enjoyed some chicken broth and strawberry ice cream. Unfortunately, the pain kicked in hard and she needed a dose of the good stuff which then knocked her back out.

Tomorrow she will have PT/OT in to assess her and the bandage will be removed. Where we go from there? I’m not sure yet. 

Tonight we breathe a small sigh of relief that surgery went well and she’s stable.

The second hardest thing today other than surgery was deciding whether to shave half her head or the whole thing! She chose to shave it all!

Thank you all for your love and support! 

Love to all,
Angela xo