My Mom
A couple of months ago, my Mom found out she had Polycystic Kidney
Disease. This led to a CAT scan since PKD often leads to other
complications and they found an 8mm anuerysm in my Mom's brain at the
center of her head. After some convincing, Mom finally went to a
specialist that knew what he was talking about (i.e. not someone in
Concord) and was told that she needed to have the operation to have
the anuerysm clipped.
The Dr. said that it wasn't something that had to be done immediately,
but the chances that it would burst on it's own if it's left alone is
20% (and only half of these people make it to the hospital). The
possibility of her having some sort of complication is 5% (ranging anywhere
from dying to stroke to having an infection due to the surgery), so
her odds are definitely better to move forward with the surgery. She
was planning on waiting until January to go through with the surgery
(there is a 6-8 week total recovery period), but her blood pressure
has been increasing (which could cause the anuerysm to burst) due to
her obvious worries and she has been getting upset easily, she decided
to try to work it in ASAP.
So next week, on Sunday, Dec. 9th, my Mom will be prepped for surgery
on the following day to undergo brain surgery at Duke University
Medical Hospital. Thankfully, her doc will be Dr. Allan Friedman,
Chief of the Neurosurgery Division of DUMC. They expect her to be in
ICU Monday night, and moved to a regular room on Tuesday if all goes
well. Discharge if all goes well by Wed. or Thursday. Then she will
be staying at my house for 5 to 7 additional days to make sure all is
going well.
Thankfully, Lindsey and I have both been cleared
at work to be able to take at least Monday and possibly more days off
to be with Mom and Dad. My Dad is doing
fairly well with it all, but you can tell that he's just as worried
and scared as Mom. Please pray for my Mom and all of us as we go through this difficult
couple of weeks prior to and during her surgery.