Untraceable Paths: She's Out... Again

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.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

She's Out... Again

Just wanted to let everyone know that Tina's out of surgery. I talked to the surgeon and he said that everything went well, and that he was able to remove some more hardware that had been left in the last time, which should make Tina happy. We're hoping that they're going to let Tina go back up to the EMU for recovery, which is a bit out of the normal way they do things. Typically, when a patient is just here to recover from a neurosurgery they would go to a neurosurgery unit not the EMU but we requested that Tina be allowed to recover in the EMU where everything is familar and everyone knows her. The surgeon thought that he could make this happen, but he's still waiting on final confirmation that this will be the case.

Thanks again to everyone who prayed for protection durring surgery, please pray for a quick recovery so we can get home.

4 comments:

truspartan said...: Awesome ... glad she's out and all went well! Continued prayer for healing up and coming back!; January 18, 2012 at 1:56 PM
Anonymous said...: Cool. Appreciate the update. The whole notion that that surgery can even be done boggles my mind, but glad it went well. Praying for a fast recovery and smooth trip home!; January 18, 2012 at 2:23 PM
Jim and Chris said...: Continuing to pray for you and Tina. Your attitudes and dependence are amazing and inspiring. Blessings to you both.; January 18, 2012 at 8:59 PM
Anonymous said...: Appreciate your willingness to share your story as an encouragement to all of us. Grateful to know that, while not the outcome we hoped for, God is still faithful and will be your lamp miles down this road.

Tom; January 19, 2012 at 2:25 PM