Sorry for the long gap. I didn't realize how much has happened since the last post. As it turns out, we went home on Tuesday, Oct 27th, a mere 4 days after surgery! Hard to believe! But as always when you have to stay in the hospital, it is so much nicer to be back home. We had Julia sleep in the downstairs bedroom, so she did not have to navigate the stairs. She was able to walk around okay, but still pretty wobbly. But the home environment, with familiar food, etc. helped Julia to feel better. The swelling in her face took several days to settle down - really almost a week to be completely gone. Her incision looks good, and her hair is growing back quickly, which is hiding the incision. Since the doctor only cut about a 1" wide path of hair, centered on either side of Julia's incision, she has been able to change the part in her hair, and cover over the doctor's handy work, so it is barely noticeable that she just had brain surgery. Julia has been brave and just gone out with her new short haircut and no wig, and most people don't even know!
We have been really shocked and amazed at how well things have gone, and continue to go. We have not detected any loss of strength or fine motor skills on her left side, no loss of any language skills, either in long-term (Ukrainian and Russian) or short-term (English) abilities. She still thinks my jokes are not very funny, so that is status quo as well. We need to work on stamina - Julia can only be up moving around for 1-2 hours, and then she is tired. We are also still wrestling with headaches. Some of it is sinus (since the rest of us are battling that, too), but that doesn't explain all of it. Libby and I both think one of the seizure medicines has been, and continues to cause, headaches. We are going to see if we can reduce the dosage some. The ultimate good news is that we are now 18 days without a seizure!!! We have never come close to going this long without a seizure, so we are definitely plowing new ground. If we can get the headaches under control, we will truly celebrate! Well . . . I am already celebrating, but it is hard for Julia to enjoy this stunningly good news when her head hurts all the time.
We are truly amazed and thankful for God's gracious kindness in all of this. We are exceeding our expectations - God has done "far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." (Eph 3:20-21)
