purple day-

Wasn't it just too perfect that God moved her surgery to 'Purple Day' - a day celebrated once a year that creates awareness for epilepsy - because He sure has been using her to create awareness for epilepsy for about 6 1/2 years now. Thank you to everyone who wore their purple clothes, accessories, Camilla bracelets, etc... Now to pick up where we left off. During the day Sunday Camilla was fidgeting, restless and generally miserable but thankfully her vitals stayed strong and the steroids they were giving her kept the blood clot in check to hold her for surgery on Monday. Dr. Kim came in and was able to complete the motor mapping with few complications although the stimulation did trigger some seizures. Ativan was given following the mapping to be sure that no seizures would follow and to allow her body to get some rest prior to surgery. Camilla slept the better part of the afternoon, evening and into the night. As 2:00am rolled around Camilla began to wake and grow more and more aggitated as the morning went on, since she was an 'add-on' surgery we knew they would not be taking her back until around 11:00am for sugery. Well in those few hours leading up to surgery Camilla was as miserable as I have ever seen her. She was fighting, thrashing, screaming and crying constantly. Her head wrap was itching and she had tangled the wires coming out of her head with all of her moving and there was no consoling her pain and frustration. Between the hours of 3:00am and 11:00am she was given Benedryl, Morphine, Ativan and 2 doses of Versed (a pre-op drug to cause drowsiness and relieve anxiety)and none of these worked to slow her down, she was still fighting and having to be held down. Finally about 30 minutes before they came to get her for surgery she fell asleep - I'm sure it was from the shear exhaustion of fighting for so long. Surgery began at 1:20pm and she was returning to her room at 6:00pm. It made for a long, anxious day (but remember 1 Peter 5 6-11) but we were really just so excited to know that after this surgery we could begin the journey of healing. Coming out of surgery she looked so much better than when she had gone in - she was sleeping peacefully and during her moments of awakening her eyes were clear and free of pain and frustration. She was able to take her meds with a good bit of applesauce and did not experience any nauseau. She slept soundly most of the night last night, only waking for meds (which she is taking willfully now), bloodwork and vitals but immediately going back to sleep. She was taken down for a follow-up CT scan this morning at 5:30 but the resident has already been by to say that all looked good with that test. She is showing that her Sodium is low (common after this surgery) but they are taking the steps to correct that and will recheck at noon. We are still waiting on both Dr. Kim and Dr. Blount to do rounds today. Camilla really 'woke up' about 8:45 this morning and she was able to take her meds and she ate a whole container of yogurt and is drinking well this morning also. Our challenge for the day: her face is so swollen that she can't open her eyes at all. It is difficult to tell when she is sleeping or awake and expectedly she is scared and is having trouble understanding this even though we are constantly talking to her and telling her what is going on, who is in the room and that this will pass soon. Overall, it is easy to see that she feels so much better than she has all last week and that is such a blessing. I feel so much better knowing that she is on the mend whereas before we were just waiting on so much to happen including seizures, surgery and of course she also had the wires to contend with. Before we talk about prayer requests let's talk about praises: successfull surgeries - check - peace for all family - check - no seizures (maybe y'all prayed too hard about that for last week haha) - check - isn't our GOD AWESOME! By far though the biggest praise we have to celebrate is that the 3 areas that were resected were NOWHERE NEAR her motor strip so we did not even have to make the difficult decisions that were expected regarding compromises to her physical abilities - A.MAZ.ING GOD! Prayer requests: swelling to go down soon and Camilla's understanding and patience until it does; no seizures; eating and drinking to return to normal soon; and for God to reveal his plans as to how we all (including Camilla) are to share our journey and experiences to tell of his grace, patience, mercy, love and salvation over the last six years.