Happy to see Katie

Hollis got to see her PCA, Katie, and she was so happy, she lifted her head up by herself! Lots of tears of joy!

One more night in ICU

We'll be in ICU one more night, just for the nursing coverage. Still doing well, but tired and uncomfortable.

A bit queasy and sore

Hollis is waking up more, despite being heavily medicated with Morphine and sedatives. She's definitely feeling some discomfort, but is more annoyed by all the IV lines and drains in her. She was feeling a little nauseous and had some dry heaves, but they gave her some meds for that, and she settled back down. Surgery was very clean and looks good and is draining less and less fluid. A little fever overnight, but it was controlled with Tylenol. Overall, she is doing pretty well, and is resting pretty comfortably.

Looking good

In ICU and Hollis is resting. She looks good and is breathing on her own. Hoping for good night of rest for all.

We're done!

They're done, and everything went well! Waiting for her to be xfd to ICU room.

One hour to go!

They are closing up and say there's about 1 hour left!

She's in...

Hollis went into surgery at 8:15. As always, she was the social butterfly with all the other folks waiting. She definitely had the biggest team of docs among all the kids-it looked like a football huddle! More updates when we have them.

Ready to roll

We're ready. Let's go. Gotta be at Children's at 6AM, and the surgery is scheduled for 7:30. We'll update with news as soon as we get it. Thanks for all the love, good wishes and prayers!

Pre-op appointment

The "plan for one to one and a half hours" pre-op appointment turned out to be FIVE. That is a long day for anyone, nevermind ants-in-the-pants Hollis. We saw 5 different liaisons: general health, anesthesia, neurosurgery, admissions and phlebotomy. Hollis still managed to have fun (thanks to Katie), and went on the playground and in the garden, and waved to everyone around. One of the most challenging things was to try and develop a pain scale for a kid who is non-verbal, and often throws a screaming tantrum over a band-aid on the arm. Hollis would definitely rather be spending her day at the beach.

Hollis's neurosurgeon and one of his success stories

Hollis's neurosurgeon is Joseph Madsen, M.D., at Children's Hospital in Boston. He is a very kind man, and extremely dedicated to his "kids". Here is a link to one of his success stories.

http://www.childrenshospital.org/dream/dream_fall07/extreme_measures.html

Surgery description

Hollis is scheduled to have a "functional hemispherectomy", rather than an "anatomical hemispherectomy". The primary difference is that with a functional, the hemisphere that is causing the seizures is left in place, and is neurologically disconnected from the healthy hemisphere. With the anatomical, the whole hemisphere is removed, leaving a space in the head which fills with cerebrospinal fluid. Here is a link to Cleveland Clinic's description of the procedure.


http://my.clevelandclinic.org/services/functional_hemispherectomy/hic_functional_hemispherectomy.aspx

Getting in as much fun before surgery as possible

Hollis has had a very full summer vacation thanks to her PCA, Katie. They've been to the beach, to parks, in swimming pools, on trampolines, and keeping up with a very busy social calendar visiting friends. Tomorrow is her pre-op appointment, where we'll make sure she is healthy and get the three ring circus introduction to her medical team.