Uplifting Uncertainties

So many have been so kind,  we hang on every word you send us… Thank you for your love, thank you for your supporting words and for your prayers.  For those fasting… thank you for walking the extra mile with us this night.

Cindy and I met with Dr. Lee later this evening.. honestly I don’t know how he does it. He is not your normal doctor, the hours he puts in are long, his concern for his patient’s are extraordinary; we have not found this level of service else where.

We all have developed different talents and skills in which we work, in which we serve and in which we go about and use in our daily lives.  I wish to express a word of appreciation for these doctors who will be operating on Adam tomorrow.  They have taken years out of their lives to study, learn and practice medicine;  They now bring a lifetime of preparation into the operating room.  Without these skills we would not have the hope of helping our son.

Dr. Lee took about an hour with Cindy and I to explain the anatomy of Adam’s brain; where his seizures are originating and the placement of the grids inside his head.  He has four large computer screens that act as one.  He could easily slide a picture or file from one screen to the other without ever lifting his mouse off the table.  On these screens we viewed videos of Adam having seizures, of his EEG’s, of CAT and MRI scans, etc..

Adam is experiencing two different types of seizures or should I say the seizures are manifesting themselves in two different ways.  The one type of seizure is the monster we see: The shaking, seizing, wild  arm movements, and the contortions of facial muscles, etc.. These seizures have their beginning in Adam’s frontal lobe.

The other type of seizure Adam is experiencing often goes unnoticed.  He doesn’t make any wild body movements, he doesn’t produce the groaning, he doesn’t experience any of the body movements. During this seizure he is able to stand, walk and perform minimal tasks… but it does cause him to loose his speech and he can not find words to say, he becomes confused and sometimes irritable.  Others around him might not even know and most likely will not know that he just had a seizure. We watched a video of this type of seizure; Adam showed no outward signs, no eye movement, no twitching etc. The only outward clue was that he paused and stared into space and was unable to find his words to express himself.  Afterwords he was somewhat confused but able to function, albeit at a lower level.  I wonder how many times he had these types of seizures at school and no one knew… maybe other kids even tried to talk with him but he could talk back or at least not well so they might of thought he was being distant… but in reality he was just trying to survive the situation the best he could.

Dr. Lee explained several options, I outlined them in a previous post.  In the end we are going to go forward with the removal of both areas tomorrow, left temporal lobe and left frontal lobe. Adam will have a large portion of his Left Temporal Lobe resected along with his hippocampus. There is a strong possibility that he will have difficulties learning with the hippocampus removed.  The doctors are staying away from the language area in this portion of the brain

The other area to be resected is a portion of his left Frontal Lobe. The motor cortex and the SMA are located in this area, The doctors will not intrude into the motor cortex but they will need to cut into The SMA: The Supplementary Motor Area; This area deals with motor skills that are associated with planning.. i.e., playing the piano.. we are not sure what his outcome will be here, every patient is different;  1 out of 5 or 20% risk having stroke like symptoms when this area of the brain is breeched, these symptoms can last as little as a week or up to three months.

Now you might ask.. why?  Why because we have a hope of a better future for our son. A future where he is seizure free, a future where he can drive like other teenagers, a future where he can be independent and live his life, develop his talents and raise a family. Why, because we are optimistic for his recovery and his future. God has a plan for our little boy and we want to do all that we can for him then ask God to do the rest. We are willing to go the distance.

Are we Optimistic… You Bet.  Are the doctors optimistic… Yes.  Are there a lot of uncertainties.. Yes there are. Before leaving the private consultation room with Dr. Lee I explained to Dr. Lee that I believed in God and the powers of Heaven; I told him that I believed he could be guided as they operated on Adam and ask him for One Favor. That favor was is:  If he felt at anytime a prompting to do something different than what was planned or to not to do something would he please follow those promptings.  He said he would.

When the dawn breaks and the sun breeches the horizon tomorrow morning my uncertainties will rise with it; there are uncertainties for Adam and his future, but I am uplifted by your prayers, by your support and by your exercise of faith…you have given us hope and uplifted us in uncertain times…. Uplifting Uncertainties.