The amazingly gifted and powerful neuro-surgical team at the Cleveland Clinic
Little signs of hope and divine intervention, like hearing “Fever” ( Michael Buble’s version ) playing on the radio on my drive home last evening; as if to tell me that “everything is OK”
You — my readers — who since Sunday have prayed, sang, and held up great hope for our gal, Cathy, in her battle against Glioblastoma. So many of you posted here, sent emails, and even a few text messages to check on her progress. Your thoughts and prayers were heard. Yesterday was a good day.
I apologize for my lack of details and facts, it was late last night before Jeff and I were able to connect — I was sleeping and didn’t take notes. I’m sure he’ll pass along more details for all of us later this week.The gist of his news about Cathy was this — the neurosurgery team called her craniotomy a “great success”! They were able, through brain-mapping, to identify where on the brain Pinky was sitting and pushing. They could actually identify which parts of the tumor were causing Cathy so many symptoms and so much pain.While they couldn’t remove the entire tumor, they were able to resect some of it to give Cathy some relief. Jeff isn’t sure how much of Pinky remains at this time. After the surgery, the family was warned that it appeared that Cathy had no functioning on the left side, from head to toe. They were told that Cathy would start physical therapy as soon as possible to try to regain some functionality. Apparently some of the “wire-connections” weren’t being made from brain to body parts post-surgery.However, before Jeff left the hospital to get a few hours of sleep, Cathy was already kicking her left leg (I think she was trying to dance) and she was moving another body part on the left side. She’s made friends with a nurse in the drop-down unit (she’s been moved out of ICU already, but not to a regular room just yet). Today, Cathy will have another post-surgery MRI, and will learn about her physical therapy and other future treatment options.Jeff sounded jubuliant, ecstatic and ever grateful for all the thoughts and prayers that continue to come their way.
I continue to be amazed by the brain. It appears that Cathy’s post-surgery left side weakness is very similar to what we M.S. patients face as well — when our “wires” just don’t make the necessary connections. I’m officially taking a day off from M.S. to celebrate and be grateful for this small miracle.
Today I am grateful for:
For those of you who continue to follow “O Sole Mio Sundays, Cathy’s Story”: here is the update I shared with my staff this morning: