It’s so hard to believe, but it’s true!  Grace is officially 2 years post op and continues to be seizure free.  This is a huge milestone for her and moves us much closer to our hopes that she’ll be seizure free for the rest of her life.  We wanted to share this celebration with all of you that have been there supporting Perry and I and praying for Grace throughout her journey.

We weren’t sure what to post but I thought it might be interesting to look back at the day of her surgery  by reviewing some of the first Care Page post and see how far she’s come just 2 years afterward.

April 20th, 2007 - The day of surgery

1st post from April 20th:

We had an early start this morning. Check-in was at 5am and amazingly we
were early (combination of 2 alarms, 1 wake-up call). We met at 7am with
the anesthesiologist and at 8am Grace was taken back to the Interoperative
operating room to be prepped for the MRI and then for surgery.

Actual surgery got started at 11:00am and at 1:30pm we got an update that
tumor removal had started. We’ll be getting another updated in 2hrs. At
that time we are expecting them to do another MRI and then we’ll have to
wait until the doctor can review and determine if he goes back for more or
has gotten at much as he safely can.

Internet access isn’t as readily available as we had hoped, but will
continue to post updates as we can.

Perry and I want to thank everyone for all the support provided in the
months leading up to this day and for the prayers you’re continuing to do
for Grace today.

2nd post from April 20th:

We got another update at 2:30pm. Dr.Rekate came out to let us know he was
finished with the initial phase. He said everything so far was going great
and Grace would be going in for another MRI. He’ll then review the results
to determine if he will go in and try to get more of the tumor or close
up. We should know in another 1.5hrs or so.

3rd post from April 20th:

We just saw Dr. Rekate and the secondary MRI is indicating 90-95%
resection of the tumor. He mentioned multiple times the surgery had gone
better than expected, but also stated the next several days would be
critical.

Grace’s surgery also involved Dr.Spetzler the Head of Neurosurgery which,
according to Dr. Rekate, assisted with several difficult areas near blood
vessels. We were also able to speak with Dr.Spetzler separately. His
assessment of the procedure was as optimistic as Dr. Rekate’s but also
restated the next few days will be critical.

We are so happy surgery went so well, but now we move on to the initial
recovery. Grace was under for more than 8hrs, so they are expecting her to
be asleep for majority of the next several days and we won’t know the
success of the surgery until she wakes. At that point we’ll need to watch
for seizures and if she suffered any complications from surgery.

She’s currently in recovery and hopefully we will be able to see her soon.
She will hopefully be moved to PICU in the next two hours. We’ll post more
once she’s settled in.

Please continue to keep Grace in your prayers as the next several days
will be very critical for her recovery.

(Sarah is doing great on this trip but is missing here sister very much
and a little out of sorts being away from home. Hopefully we will be able
to see her tomorrow)

April 20th, 2009 - 2 yrs post-op!!!

April 20th, 2007 was the longest and most stressful days Perry and I have undergone.  As you all know the stress and worry didn’t end that day.  Grace spent more than 60 days in the hospitals and neuro-rehab.  The magnitude of the difficulties she faced during recovery was nothing we had prepared for and truly stumped the medical teams.  But she made it through and continues to amaze us with her ability to meet the daily challenges with a smile for her family, therapist, teachers and school mates.

Several of the medical staff still read our updates and to them we’d like to say thank you again for everything you did for Grace.  I won’t identify you by name, but you know who you are!  :)

Here are two photos 1 day after surgery.   Looking back at these brings back so many memories and reminds us at how little and young she was at the time of the surgery.

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I recently took this photo of Grace and think it really is a great example of how far she’s come since being released from the hospital.  When she came home in June 2007 after those 60 plus days in the hospital, she could stand or walk for more than 10 minutes at a time, now she’s standing on one foot and kicking the other one out to the side.  Simply amazing!!

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