Ryan’s surgery yesterday was a success. The surgeon inserted 13 probes into Ryan’s brain. The probes are held in by “bolts” on the outside of his skull. The bolts also feed the wires to the EEG machine, which monitors Ryan’s brain activity. And now we wait…
And we wait… we wait for seizures. The seizures will help the doctors to decide whether Ryan is a candidate for surgery, an implant, or neither. The doctors would like to see at least three seizures before making any recommendations but there is always the possibility that one will give them the information they need. Also, Ryan has been presenting in the past with both focal and generalized seizures so the doctors may want to see at least one of each type.
And we wait… they have already started taking Ryan off of his medications, which should cause him to have seizures. Ryan has his last doses this morning so tonight he gets nothing in the way of seizure medications.
And we wait… while we wait Ryan has to deal with the pain from the insertion of the probes. They are giving him a variety of pain medications depending on the intensity of the pain at any given time. The pain varies by the minute.
And we wait…but at least Ryan has had a lot of company today whether he likes it or not. The nurse comes in every hour. The neurology team made rounds. The hospitalist made rounds. Ryan even had evaluations by a physical therapist, an occupational therapist, and a speech therapist. It doesn’t look like the therapists are really needed given the great physical shape Ryan made sure to get in before all of this.
And we wait…we are in a limbo anywhere from one day to two weeks to as long as it takes to have the needed seizures and get the needed information.
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