Early Easter morning, four and a half years ago, life for our family changed forever. I awoke to the sound of an otherworldly noise and Tina’s body convulsing uncontrollably. That event began us onto a path where we would discover that Tina was suffering from late onset Epilepsy. That path would include long periods of Tina being home-bound and a non-stop roller-coaster of trying to figure out which medications would strike the best balance between controlling her seizures but also limit the debilitating side-effects of chronic fatigue and loss of focus – that effort has only been marginally successful.

On July 14th 2010, our path took another turn when Tina underwent a five week long surgical procedure where doctors at University Hospitals in Cleveland Ohio implanted multiple electrodes into her brain in the hope that this would allow them to locate the spot in her brain that is responsible for her seizures and then surgically remove that spot in an attempt to control her seizures without medication. Unfortunately after 3 surgical attempts to locating this seizure focus, the clock ran out and the risk of continuing this procedure became too great, so they removed all of the electrodes, and sent her home with very little to show for our 5 weeks in the hospital.

When we left Cleveland two summers ago we couldn't imagine that we would go back anytime soon. Those five weeks in the hospital were very disappointing for Tina and difficult for our kids. However, over the course of the last year and a half, Tina's seizures have become progressively more frequent, and medications have become progressively less effective at controlling her seizures. So, after consulting with Tina's neurologists, it is clear that we are in for yet another turn in the path of life.

We will once again be making the trip to University Hospitals in Cleveland, and on Wednesday January 11th, Tina will once again undergo the same procedure to implant electrodes in her brain to monitor seizure activity in the hope that they can determine the physical location of her seizures and surgically remove it.

This is not a path that we went looking for nor did we anticipate how sharply our lives would change literally over night when four and a half years ago these seizures began. There have been days when we have wondered as to why these things were happening and what God was up to in this. What we have learned is best summed up by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Rome where he said that the paths that God lays out for us are "beyond tracing out." We may not understand this path or where it’s leading us, but what we do know is that we would rather follow God’s untraceable path than to follow any path we could lay out for ourselves. This blog is our attempt to bring others along with us as we walk along God’s untraceable path.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Surgery Number Three

As I mentioned in my last post, Tina will need to undergo yet another surgery in preparation for her final surgery that will treat her seizures. The neurosurgeon came through this morning and informed us that he was pushing back a bunch of his other patients tomorrow (Monday) in order to get Tina in.

They will be going in, lengthening her incision, removing some more of her skull and repositioning the electrodes on the surface of her brain. Currently the electrodes are laid out in a square grid that is 8 electrodes by 8 electrodes. The issue is that although the electrode grid is showing Tina's seizure focus very well it shows the focus at its very edge. The concern is that we're talking millimeters of tissue that they would be removing from her brain and so when the seizure focus shows at the very edge of the grid they can't be certain that they're getting the exact right tissue. So they will reposition the grid to center around where the current grid is showing the seizure focus.

We were hoping that they would be able to reposition the electrodes without taking out any more skull but apparently they can't and so this surgery will once again be more painful than the very first one.

As of right now we're not exactly sure what time she will be going back in but the surgeon said that it should only be a couple of hours at the most and then Tina will come back up to the EMU.

Yesterday was a bit of a rough day for Tina as she came to grips with needing to stay here even longer, but toward the end of the day our friends Jim and Chris Courter showed up down here and spent a couple of hours with us. It was a tremendous encouragement to both of us and Tina's spirits were visibly lifted by the time they left. How humbled we are when we realize how much others have sacrificed to support us as we go through this. We often say that prayer is such an easy thing to do, but we all know that if we are truly honest with ourselves the discipline to actually sit down, and take the time to pray for someone can be a difficult thing. So we want to express our gratitude for those who have lifted us up in prayer and continue to do so.

Please pray for our kids, especially Megan, as the news of our extended vacation is not sitting very well with her. She misses her mom.
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2 comments:

Kathryn Jones said...

Prayed for you guys around the fire this weekend. I am so glad they are able to get Tina in Monday instead of waiting until Wednesday! Also grateful that Jim and Chris were able to visit you guys. What a blessing. Praying for Megan though, that must be rough.
Love you guys! Kathryn

July 25, 2010 at 4:36 PM
Hannah said...

Praying for you all as you travel down this journey the Lord has set before you! Know you are not alone! God is good ALL the time :) I hope you get a good nights sleep!

July 25, 2010 at 8:43 PM

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