SURGEON UPDATE

HI everyone!!

Sorry it took us so long to post. We were waiting to see Dr. Frim tonight to make a post.

Lets start with Anderson. He did an amazing job today. We are so proud of him. The resident surgeon told us after surgery he did great and was so brave. We were able to see him at 12:30 CST. They took us directly to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Understandably, Anderson is on quite a few meds right now. He is on strict bed rest for 24 hours. Sadly, we have not been able to hold him, it is killing us....we are dying to get our hands on him. In the meantime, we hold his hand, sing to him, smile at him, read books with him, kiss him and anything you can do leaning over a bed with a 19 mo old baby! The surgeons, doctors and nurses think he is doing great. He is drinking quite a bit, which is good news! We are in a private room in the PICU, so we are both spending the night tonight with Anderson!!! We are glad we can all be together.

We saw Dr. Frim tonight. He was able to give us some great news. The decompression surgery was quite successful. The 1st goal of the surgery is to open up space and allow more room for cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) flow and brain. When they went into Anderson's C1 (location on his spine) to access the area they needed to work....they were able to visually see pressure being released (can you imagine...just what this could do for him??) Then, they went further into the brain (the dura to be specific) and opened up more room. Again, could see pressure being released.

Once they were in there....Dr. Frim could see that Anderson's cerebral tonsils were asymmetrical. (These tonsils are what was seen herniating down on the MRI) Anderson's left tonsil was significantly herniated more than his right. Dr. Frim was able to perform a procedure on Anderson's left tonsil to make it symmetrical to his right tonsil...this is allowing more room as well!!!!

Dr. Frim told us that Anderson's decompression surgery was "Special". He said, in patients with asymmetrical cerebral tonsils (like Anderson's), the patients tend to respond even more favorably to the decompression surgery!!! THANK YOU GOD! Again, answered prayers!

So, Dr. Frim was even more hopeful this could be the answer to things we have been looking for. We are even more encouraged. We obviously will not know for a long time what this will mean to Anderson developmentally...however, I can only imagine that it has to help the overall way Anderson feels since they were able to visually see pressure being released during the surgery. No more headaches??? ;) We shall see. We believe, We are Hopeful!!

Anderson continues to rest comfortably. We just sit and watch him.

Thanks again and again. As you can see...all of the prayers and support are working!! We are so blessed to have all of you supporting us.

XOXOXOXO
Liz and Charlie