Journal entry by Barbara Bradley — Nov 26, 2010

Surgery is over! We are in the ICU waiting area now. Katie is in recovery still. Her neurosurgeon came to meet with us. He said things moved quicker than expected. The next 48 hours are critical. This is a traumatic surgery and some scary things that can happen afterwards but I don’t want to think about right now. I am just so relieved it’s over.

Last night was very rough. Katie had over 50 seizures just last night. They were happening every 2-5 minutes so I stood by her bed side with oxygen in one hand and the tube to suck out excess drool from her mouth in the other. They gave her atavan twice last night but nothing really helped. She was so exhausted she didn’t even wake up before surgery. They were able to transport her and get anesthesia going without her ever waking.

Things are moving along as they should. The CT scan didn’t show any unforseen bleeding and her bloodwork looks good. The only issue is pain and itching. It is hard to know if she is itching from the rash still, pain medicine or anesthesia still making its way out of her system. I can tell you it’s hard to see. As if she isn’t in enough pain! The itching alone would make anyone crazy. They are great with her though and are playing music for her night and day. Tonight she will be in ICU. We are not allowed to stay with her and this is a blessing in a way.

We will sleep tonight guilt-free. I may even go to dinner and sleep in the same bed as my husband. We need to take advantage of our expensive babysitters.

Tonight we have a room (only tonight and tomorrow night for now) at the Ronald McDonald House. It is a great charity but it is a shared space including living space and bathrooms so you can’t help but feel like we have moved to a shelter or half-way house. After the next few days we will have to move out and back to a hotel. Once she is moved back to the peds floor we will be back to taking turns in the room. It’s a lot of change.

I walked into the waiting room this morning and Joel Olsteen was one the TV and this quote stood out to be from his sermon that has remained with me all day, “Choose to bloom where you are planted.”