The Final Update

If you don't feel like reading this long blog post, this will sum it up = Dana is cured.

If you'd like know a little more information about all this then here you go!

Yesterday we had an MRI to get an update on how everything is coming along (I think we've become experts at the filling out paperwork, waiting, and waiting some more thing).

Once we had our MRI scans in hand we visited with Dr Deshmukh and his PA Dr Stamper and got some very good news.

The brain has continued to heal nicely.  Some of the entry way they removed to get to the cavernoma has already healed up and the best news was there was still no sign of any residual cavernoma.  Deshmukh was particularly happy about the amount of old stained brain matter they removed from the area.  He estimated that around 95% of the stained brain had been cleaned thus increasing our chancing for no seizures down the road.  He could see a that the right side of her head was still slightly swollen however that will come down eventually as well.

After getting the good news we started asking away if she could do this, or that.  There was a long list and they were very patient with us (as always) and went over how much of this we could do and/or why we couldn't do any of that.

We have 6 more long weeks until she can do impact exercises like jogging but in the meantime she is allowed to exercise on the elliptical, stationary bike, swimming, etc.  

The overall main threat to Dana now is general fatigue or getting over heated.  If she gets too fatigued and over does something then it's possible her body could shut down (sort of like fainting), thus requiring her a day or two of rest to get her energy back.  Her eyes will have bags under them and she'd really just feel exhausted.  Deshmukh told us that younger people actually have a longer recovery time than older folks b/c younger folks usually over do things and then have set backs.  Luckily for us that hasn't happened!

The overall main threat to Dana in the long run is seizures.  Due to the fact that we operated on a part of the brain that is mainly associated with seizures there will always be a risk for seizures.  However, because they removed a lot of the brain that was stained with blood (and thus having iron deposits in it) her risk of having a seizure is just as much as me having a seizure.  

I love those odds.

In 6 weeks we have another follow up to check on how she is going and to remove all restrictions from her.  That will be a terrific day sometime in mid-May and we can't wait.

After we left the Dr's office we had lunch at our favorite restaurant in Davidson, Flat Iron.  For Dana she took advantage of one of the lifted restrictions right away by ordering a beer!