Rest

Rest....So we're sitting in the dark now back in M's room in the EMU. I cannot begin to imagine the pain she must be in, but I am greatly comforted by the small, shallow breaths she is taking while peacefully asleep. Praise God for a peaceful and quiet room. Praise God for faithful friends like you. Praise God for M's mom, who is a great comfort to M. I look over at her with her head all bandaged up. My heart aches and I pray that we will get our answers soon. She should be feel pretty puny most of today and hopefully more like herself tomorrow.

We got out of the ICU around 11:15 this morning. She has some swelling in her head and is taking morphine frequently to control the pain. Our goal for the next few days is for M to have 4 to 6 seizures (a feat that does normally occur at least once a day) and get them recorded on the EEG monitor. Once this information has been collected and assessed, the docs should be able to better determine the exact location of her seizure. It will then be determined if we can or cannot have surgery. Our desire is that the seizure is a) not located in a vital area of the brain, and b)can be removed.

Thanks for all your emails and calls.

These pics are of M's brain with the subdural strips. The top pic is looking from the rear towards the front. Note the amount of leads and where they are at on the brain. More or less, the doc explained that he wrapped M's brain with the leads and focused on the left temporal lobe where the primary suspicion lies.

The second photo is looking at the brain from the right side. Yes, that is the brain stem coming down vertically in the picture.

I think back to my dreadful years in English class and my teachers always said my writing was too simplistic. While I don't think I can eloquently pen the words for what we are experiencing, I felt that D's (M's mom) creates such a visual...not to mention that a Mom's love for her child is amazing. So here is an update that D sent out to folks on her mail list...

"...I pray that none of you ever have to experience the journey that we are on. While ours seems so large, I know that each of you have your own battles to fight, so know that we are sending love and prayers in your direction also!!

Watching my precious daughter in pain with wires and monitors coming from her brain...I feel so totally helpless! For any parent and me in particular (as I am such a control freak) this is such a humbling process as I learn that God is the only one with any power here!

I know he loves this child and will reveal to us one day why so much pain and suffering has come into her world. Yet, for this moment, this day, I just give thanks for each of you and your loyalty and love and prayers. Just at the moment when I think my heart will break or my feet will not take another step....I receive a message from one of you and I am renewed by faith and love and we push on.

After a rough night in ICU with an early morning trip to the CAT scan to evaluate the brain swelling and drainage and a few more sutures...Meredith is now back in the EMU (Epilepsy Monitoring Unit) with the highly trained staff we love so much. They have administered more morphine as her pain is so great and now..finally she sleeps!!..."