Dear friends and family -



Thanks for visiting Georgia's page! As most of you know, Georgia had been struggling with worsened seizures since January 2010. She subsequently underwent seizure surgery which resulted in a functional hemispherectomy on July 21st at Denver Children's Hospital. We really appreciate all of the kind thoughts and prayers that you have showered on her (and us!) - please keep them coming! We hope this website/blog can be an easy way for us to keep everyone informed on how Georgia is doing. Bare with us...we're new at this!


Love - Rick and Alicia







Thursday, July 22, 2010

longest day ever

Just a quick post since it's 1AM and we are beat, physically and emotionally. The surgery was a grueling 7 hours. Georgia is doing great - she was extubated (breathing tube taken out) easily and is sleeping comfortably. She has woken up a bit and already shown some of her spunky spirit (read: tried to pull her drain out and smack the neurosurgeon). She is moving her right side very well, but not her left, which is pretty much expected at this time.

As well as she is doing, we did have a setback - that they ended up having to perform a bigger operation than we had been hoping for. Basically, there was seizure actvity in the front part of her brain also which required them to perform a functional hemispherectomy instead of a more limited surgery. This surgery involved removal of the right temporal and parietal lobes (the ones on the side of the head) and disconnection of the frontal and occipital lobes (the front and back parts) but leaving these parts in place. As scary as this sounds, the prognosis for children who have had this surgery can still be quite good. We are really hopeful that she will regain good use of her left side. Since she already had significant damage on the right side of her brain from the tumor, it's possible that a good amount of her function had already moved over to the left. So that is what we are hoping and praying for now.

7 comments:

  1. You guys are amazing and your strength will benefit G tremendously. Keep the faith and take care of that little one. We are all praying for you!!

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  2. Been thinking of you guys often yesterday and today. Glad to hear the surgery is behind you ~ fingers crossed for continued smooth sailing! Thanks for posting the update; we were grateful to read how things are going. Stay strong, Mo!!!

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  3. Thanks for the update. What an amazingly strong little girl. Love and prayers continuing to be sent your way. Love, Kelly

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  4. Our prayers are with you and Georgia. She is a tough cookie. Lots of love.
    The LEE's

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  5. I love it - despite all of these obstacles; my feisty little girl is still here. This stubbornness is going to really help her in these next couple of weeks.

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  6. Hang in there, Georgia is a glorious little girl with strong spirit. She will triumph through this challenge. We look forward to seeing her back in the "hood." Be strong, be faithful. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

    G

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  7. So glad to hear she came out of surgery ok. Thank you so much for the update -- I was thinking of her all day. Take care of that little gal. I love her spirit -- slapping the surgeon. Classic !

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