Not Great News

We just met with the neurosurgeon, Dr. Avellino. He said Zoe is "okay", but it's not going as well as they would like.

Her bone is extremely soft and mushy; the dural wrapping around the brain is interwoven with the skull bone. Every time they drilled through the bone they hit brain matter. What is supposed to happen in a healthy construction is that they would drill through bone and be able to separate the bone from the dura while leaving the dura in tact.

Dura is supposed to be strong and resilient; Zoe's dura is more like an 80 year old's. It is not strong and easily tears apart.

Her brain was under a huge amount of pressure. That combined with the surgery trauma, makes it extremely "angry" right now, said Avellino. He wants to leave her in a medical induced coma for at least 3 days to help her brain heal.

We will be in PICU for at least that long, if not longer.

Nothing about the surgery has gone the way they would have liked--she's required so much blood product that they have brought in a cardiac specialist in the event she has a cardiac arrest from all the product (a distinct possibility). The pressure in her cranial system caused the lumbar drain to squirt and leak. They will not be doing the optic nerve decompression as it posses too much risk in her situation.

It is possible that she could have a stroke--the CT scan after the surgery will tell them if this is a real concern.

She has bone encroaching in her sinus vein in the brain. This is not good.

I am in shock while writing this. Avellino says we should hope for the best, but be prepared for some very rough stuff.

He said that Dr. Hopper should be finished in another hour, and then she goes for the CT scan, and then we will be able to see her.

What I know is that I had a wonderful evening with my girl last night. I'm holding that vital girl in my heart.

Please help us with that.