Surgery???

Happy Birthday, Brenna! She's nine years old now! We just got back from her party today. She wanted to have a pool party, so we went to the neighboring town that has an activity center, rented their pool and had a great time. Brenna had a few friends from school and then grandma and grandpa and mamaw came along with cousins.

Her actual birthday was the 12th. We had two kittens delivered on Monday. She was thrilled. She's wanted a kitten for a while, ever since our last one met an untimely demise. :) We also got a pygmy goat a couple weeks ago. He's a doll. We bought him a dog harness, so we can tie him out and he can eat the brush and weeds around our property. But, it will be a while before that happens. We have to do a little training first.

Spring is a happenin' season for us because of all our birthdays, on top of graduations and end of the school year parties and field trips. We also have a wedding next weekend that David is doing in Topeka of a couple that was in our youth group there. Then the week after that is my mom and dad's 40th anniversary celebration. Whew!! After that, on June 9th we go back to Memphis. It will be time again for her three month check up, but also we are going to sit down with the epileptologist and surgeon and talk about surgery. Our nurse practitioner called last week and said that they really think she's a candidate for surgery based on the test results from the MEG. I knew that's what they've been looking for, but it's kind of overwhelming to hear. I mean, I need to sit down with the docs and have them look me in the eye and tell me that this is our last option for fixing these seizures and it's more than just a 50-50 chance of working. I just need to talk to them face to face. They told me over the phone what the procedure would be, but I need to go over it again. It may be something that they do with expertise, but it's still cutting into my child's brain. We've been asking people just to pray that we have wisdom in knowing what the right decision is. Of course, our ultimate desire is for her supernatural healing by the power of God's hand, but if He says no, then we need to have wisdom is knowing what to do next.

I absolutely hate making a decision like this. Of course, we've had to decide twice before to do brain surgery, but it was a little different. Before, it was to remove the cancer. That was a life/death decision. This isn't. It's more of a quality of life kind of decision. She's not probably going to die from having these seizures. But, she's not able to function or be a normal kid either. Besides that, they're painful and frustrating for her. She got pretty tired today and she's had five seizures and the day's not over. And the meds are not working. Even if they were working somewhat, the list of side effects that goes with each med is frightening. Besides, they also make her an emotional basket-case. God help us to know what to do.

We haven't gotten any results back yet about the growth hormone testing they did when we were there before. They said it could take four to six weeks. But, they did call and tell me her thyroid levels were still off so they increased her thyroid meds.

She's such a trooper. We've talked a little with her about the possibility of surgery. She seems to be okay with it, as long as it helps her get better. I wish I were so readily accepting of it.