Dear friends,
Melissa is going to have her 16th and 17th surgeries today beginning at 8:30 a.m. California time (Thursday, November 13, 00:30 a.m. Taipei, Hong Kong, Beijing, Asia area time).
During the first surgery, the surgeons will re-attach her left skull which was removed after her aneurism on March 21 to allow her brain to swell without being damaged. At this time, her surgeon feels comfortable that it is safe to perform this surgery, and we are excited to have it put back for Melissa, too. This is not only "safer" for her, but now she can also continue to grow her long hair to where it was before all of this happened.
The second surgery is to replace the old-type G-tube for a MIC-KEY* Button. The current G-tube is long and easily gets caught during many activities. Replacing this tube with a detachable tube and button will be a great improvement and much less of an inconvenience. The great news is that Melissa might not need this new tube very long. She is now eating better, has a greater appetite, enjoys a variety of food, and chews much better. She is working very hard to reach her goal of enjoying her favorite dish, steak.
Following these surgeries, Melissa will remain at CHOC for 2-3 days for routine observation. Please pray for the surgery to go smoothly and successfully.
Over all Melissa has made great improvements:
* she stopped vomiting 2 weeks ago;
* her appetite has increased and she is able to take more and more food by mouth, allowing us to cut her G-tube feeding by half;
* she can sit on the wheelchair up to 4 hours now and even roll herself in the chair;
* her speech has improved and she can sing songs from a CD given to her by her friend, Brendan.
Melissa still has a long journey to be able to retain words and recover her language usage. Many times, we have seen her suddenly become sad after visitors leave. With tears in her eyes, she looks at us and just silently shakes her head. She wants so much to be able to express herself, but she just can’t.
During these tough times we lead her in prayer … it’s really the only thing we can do for her. We believe that God can repair and heal the damaged area, and we pray for his mercies on her.
In Him,
Michael
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