Today Hannah had the first of her two brain surgeries. The first surgery is to place electrodes directly on the surface of the brain so that the origin point of her seizures can be pin-pointed
Pre-Op
After arriving at Phoenix Children’s Hospital at 5:45 in the morning, we were admitted and taken to the prep area. Here Hannah changed into the hospital “PJs”, and then there were a lot of questions, both for Hannah, and from Hannah. She soon became quite anxious and began to cry about being scared of the operation. But… they have a drug for this (they seem to have a drug for everything). She was given some Versed to help with anxiety, which it did. She quickly calmed down and became her cheerful self again. After a few more minutes she was taken to the operating area…
The nurses told us that the Versed had an amnesiac effect and she wouldn’t remember anything we were talking about, so to test this I told Hannah that we’d increase her allowance to $100/week. Well… the nurse lied! As soon as Hannah started to wake up after the surgery, we asked her if she knew how much allowance she was going to get and sure enough, she mumbled “a 100 dollars.”
Surgery
The surgery went well. The only comments the surgeon had was that she was “oozy,” meaning she bleed a little more than usual and they needed to do some extra work to clot the bleeding. The were able to place a large grid of electrodes on the left frontal lobe, and also were able to put a strip of electrodes on the back side of the left frontal lobe in the area between the left and right hemisphere.
Recovery
About noon we were able to join her in the ICU. She has been given Morphine several times to help the pain, and it keeps her pretty sedated. The swelling has also started on her head and the left side of her face. She can’t really open her left eye.
She is able to talk though (a couple words or a sentence here and there between sleeping), and she’s able to move everything, which means the swelling inside isn’t affecting any of that.
She’s had several visitors today (Family and a few friends from church\work). Her most special visitor was Sam though. Sam has never been able to visit her before (RSV restrictions limited visitors to those over 12).
Prayer Request
Our prayer for today is that she can be moved from the ICU area to the Pediatric Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (PEMU), and that she has some seizures that can be recorded to pinpoint their origin.
Keep fighting the fight!! Jesus has awesome plans thru this!! She is one tough an amazing cookie–full of sugar, spice…and amazing child of God! We are praying–as you know…and can’t wait to say hello to such an angel…that picture looks so familiar…just in a 28 yr old body! Jesus is healing her! Has His hands on you all! I love you all..will be at the childrens epilepsy support group there tonight…if one of you want to get away for a break…some discussion…support…it is at PCH..7 PM….God bless you all–as He carries you all thru this!!
In His Grip,
Heather Siebens http://www.twitter.com/epilepsycures
i lift hannah up to god and pray he will heal her and comfort her family…..amen
We are praying for you all and hope everything gets better, we would also like to send a girt to Hannah Do you mind if you could tell us the right time to send it and the address Thanks. We love you all and Jesus will take care of everything and lift this up to him to take care of.
I used to work with Jordan Losen, and we keep in touch via Facebook. That is where I learned about Hannah. Even though we have never met, I am praying for your little girl. May God give her the strength to get through BOTH of these operations without complications. I hope she is cured and that you can look back on this operation as being a complete success. She is a blessing. May God continue to bless you and guide you through this most difficult time.
Dear Cousin,
Sounds like Hannah has Sousa blood. Only a Sousa would remember the allowance raise to $100! GO Hannah! Hannah has been in our prayers. We love you all. It was nice to see Jan in the YouTube vid.