Surgeon update

The pace of the surgery actually picked up.  Everything is done and Julia is in recovery right now.  Both the neurologist and the surgeon were very pleased with the physical structure of the insula and relative straight-forwardness of this portion of the surgery.  We are all scrambling right now, pulling up drawings of the brain.  Our understanding is the surgeon took out the entire right temporal lobe, which includes the hippocampus and the amygdala.  Wow! We weren't expecting that. They also were able to remove the portion of the insula they were shooting for, with little difficulty.  The surgeon said a blood vessel got a little spasmy, but they calmed it down and it looked okay.  They also said her initial responses in recovery looked good, with Julia showing movement on both sides of her body.  We will have to check her as she wakes up, to see how her motor skills are, her language skills, then memory, etc.  We also wondered what happens with the hole in her head? (I'm going to have fun with this in the future!). Becca looked up the answer.  According to the internet, if that is credible, the cavity will fill up with spinal fluid and everything will be fine.

While I was typing, they came to get us and move Julia up to ICU for the night.  She looks really good - no swelling in her face.  She is juiced up on morphine right now, so nothing is hurting too bad.