Ananda is home. She is doing GREAT.
Here are the details of yesterday's events:
We met at the Gamma Knife Center at 5:30am. The nurse took her height, weight, vitals. We met with the anesthesiologist and Dr. Pattisipu, and she was anesthetized and put on a respirator. The headframe was mounted on her head, and she was given a MRI...
Afterwards, she was taken to get a angiogram by Dr. Hellinger. Her artery in her thigh was catheterized in preparation - but the headframe placement prevented them from being able to do the angiogram. Whether a mistake was made when they put it on her head or not, I don't know - only that instead of having both the MRI and angiogram data to target the gamma knife, they only had the information from the MRI...
Then they took her to the GKC in another building. They targeted the AVM with the MRI data and showed us the area that would receive the radiation - saying that they would begin the treatment shortly... Over an hour later, I keep noticing a guy in street clothes going in/out of the room. It turns out he was a tech - the GK machine broke. The table wouldn't go through it's test run. Apparently, they took over an hour to take it apart and put it back together - while my daughter was still under anesthesia. Finally, they told us what was happening, that it was repaired, and that they were proceeding - the radiation taking about 70 minutes...
So they moved her to outpatient recovery, where we waited for 2-3 hours to see her - finally we became tired of waiting and found our way to her bed. She was waking up, groggy and nauseous from the medication, but she knew where she was and what had happened. She was surprised when I told her that the doctor had to take out her loose tooth...
In a few hours, she was on her feet and released by 7pm. We took her to the hotel room across the street, so she wouldn't have to travel. She slept for a few hours, then woke up HUNGRY - eating everything we offered her...
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[01/22/08: One week later - still trying to edit this post. I'll add the rest tomorrow...]
5 comments:
So glad to hear that she is doing so well. What a huge relief for all of you.
-Tamara
That's fantastic that Ananda finally got the procedure she needed....and is feeling good!! So happy for her as well as all of you....still, we're all gonna dance hard at the nyc benefit and send her a lot of love and energy this sunday... peacelove...anand
Finally! So glad to hear your day with the GK happened. We are sending our daughter's info off to location number 3 tomorrow for review by a GK team in St. Louis.
Good to know about the head frame/angiogram issues. I'll be sure to mention to the Drs. that will treat our little one.
Thanks so much for sharing your precious girls experience. I showed my daughter her picture. She said "Mommy I want to visit her" I hope Ananda is able to get back to her full range of activities soon!
Many blessings to your family,
Dawn
Cogratulations...you've come a looong way baby! My son Andrew and I had a great time at the NY Benefit. The kids party was the highlight of my week! Thank you! It was good to see so many people come to support Ananda. I hope we helped put a dent in the bills :-)Ananda is going to be okay.Thank you for reminding me what a blessing it is to have a healthy child. Thanks to you I am reminded to give gratitutde every day for Andrew's health.
A speedy recovery Ananda!
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