Mom update #2

My mom is doing amazing. I haven't been able to go see her yet, but I just talked to her on the phone and find it incredible that I can have a conversation with her the day following brain surgery. The human body is such a miracle.

The human brain is ‘ …the most complex and orderly arrangement of matter in the universe’. Isaac Asimov

My mom had an MRI and angiogram this morning as a follow-up to the surgery & everything looks good. She has some pain, but is treating it with nothing stronger than Tylenol. She expects to be moved out of the ICU tonight or tomorrow morning, and the doctor is talking about letting her go home on Thursday if she continues to do as well as she has been! We are so thankful for all the prayers that have been offered on her behalf. The Lord has uplifted her and given her strength beyond what she thought was possible.

As part of today's update, I have to include an excerpt from an email that my dad sent last night. I think it gives some great information about mom's surgery and beyond that - well - read the excerpt and then I will tell you what I thought as I read this email . . .

The aneurysm was surgically "clipped". The surgeon removed a small section (2.5" x 2.5") of her skull then went in between the temple lobe and the frontal lobe of the brain and located the aneurysm then placed a "titanium" clip around the base of the aneurysm then ruptured the aneurysm! With the "clip" in place there was no bleeding and leaving the clip in place he then proceeded to put everything back into place! Janet will be in the ICU adult care through tomorrow and should move to regular hospital care tomorrow afternoon! We hope that she will be able to be released from the hospital by Friday or Saturday?? I know this may be redundant for some that I spoke with today or the ones that I text messaged but I did not want to miss anyone and I have included the picture of the aneurysm that the surgeon provided after the operation! This is the actual picture of the inside of Janet's brain showing the "Before and the After" pictures and yes, the clip will remain in Janet's brain for the rest of her life!

As I read this email, I wondered if my mom would really appreciate my dad sending pictures of her brain all over the internet. That's pretty intimate, don't you think? For all he knows, her brain could get forwarded to complete strangers - someone could run across the pictures and end up using them for a project they're completing in their BYU anatomy class. Maybe the pictures will find themselves in some lengthy "spamish" email that gets forwarded all over the web 20,000,000 times under the topic, "crazy things husbands do to embarrass their wives." Thankfully, my dad wasn't such an email fanatic when mom had her colon cancer 12 years ago, or you can only guess what part of her would have been circulating over the waves of the world wide web. And does the world really need to see that? So, you may be disappointed, but I am not including the pictures of my mom's brain in this post. But if you want, I can send you my dad's email, and I am sure he would be happy to forward the pictures to you :)