So, I’be finally been able to get back up to the hospital and Mandy and Mom were able to fill me in on what the doctors think.
He has not had any more events since the first two that we say when he first came out of surgery and was recovering from anesthesia. However, those two events did seem to start in an area of his right side called the insula and then the activity moved more to the frontal lobes. In addition, they noted that the movement we see was more a part of that frontal lobe activity and not the insula part.
What this means is that this right insula could be an area that would be appropriate to treat with the laser ablation. This would be the least invasive option where they would basically do another small hole in the brain, insert the laser probe to the correct location and depth and then neutralize what needs to be taken care of. They made it sound like he’d be able to go home the day after this sort of procedure.
If this approach doesn’t work, then we could be talking about removing more of that right frontal lobe which is more invasive, potentially opening up a flap in his skull and would be a much longer recovery and post-procedure therapy.
So they have removed his medication for now in hopes of trigger a little more seizure activity tonight and tomorrow. If that happens, they could take him in Friday to remove the electrodes. Otherwise, we wait for Tuesday.
As far as timing goes for a potential surgery on this insula, it’s all dependent on scheduling the MRI for a prolonged period of time, which can be a challenge. If they are able to remove electrodes Friday/Tuesday, they may have to wait on the surgery for some period of time before being able to line things up.
The part that gives me the greatest comfort is that originally, the surgeons were not going to put electrodes near the insula. It sounds that as the original procedure moved forward, that decision was made. I’d like to think that was God’s hand directing them to what was needed. I’m not going to get all biblical here, but it’s hard to not hear that and think that with everyone out there thinking and praying for him that those words are being answered in this way at this time.
Pray for more activity over the next 24 hours. It’d be awesome to get that confirmatory data sooner that later, for all of us.