Stop.....

We awoke this morning to the happiest little girl. Extra smiles graced her face this morning and Brad and I felt at peace with the day.

 Shortly before 6 AM we took the elevator up 2 floors and arrived at Surgery check-in. Now on our way to Surgery check-in we passed the hospital gift shop and something caught my eye in the window.....little did I know it was God placing that sign for me to see, for it would have great meaning to our day.....

 

 

We entered the Surgical unit with our girl, did the requirements of getting her changed etc and nerves were setting in, yet not getting the best of us...yet. Anesthesia came in and we gave consent, at that time they asked if one of us parents would like to accompany her back to the Main Operating Room. Brad quickly piped up and said he would. I was relieved because that is not something I was comfortable with, yet this amazing Daddy didn't think twice about it. Neurosurgery came in and marked the surgical location and she was set.

 Brad got in his garb and went back with our sweet girl. I gave her extra kisses and tears were flowing.

Brad came back and we went up one floor to our designated spot in the Surgical Waiting Room. Since it was going to be 4-5 hours they suggested we go get some breakfast, stretch our legs and then come back. We did just that. Trying to calm nerves yet at peace with the care our daughter was in.
We arrived back to our waiting area, got situated and at about 850 the clerk came in and notified us that they were just starting. We were a little perplexed wondering, was the surgery then 4-5 hours from this point, or was that included? And why the delay in starting? Yet, we knew the roads were bad, maybe they were waiting on someone, they did have to shave her, intubate her with the ventilator etc and it would take time to get her stable. So we waited.....

Then at about 940 the clerk came in again and notified us that the new update was that they were closing Danielle up and her Neurosurgeon would be up in 30-45 minutes to speak to us. This was pretty crazy and I was questioning a bit in my mind because this time frame didn't really match up.
Sure enough our Neurosurgeon came up and called Brad and I into the conference room.
We went in and his first words were, 'your baby girl is fine.....Dr....(insert his name) is not...' And so we sat down. He began drawing pictures on the board. As he was drawing he looked over and said, 'we did not do the procedure, but she is ok.' Brad and I looked at each other with a tremendous amount of fear in each others eyes and I began to shake.
He then began to unfold the events of the operating room:
Because of the psychics of Danielle we could not do the surgery. I made the first incision at the base of her skull near the 4th ventricle where he was going to place the shunt. There is to be a flap over the brain protecting it, that is what he removes to go into the brain to place the shunt. That flap on Danielle did not exist.....there was blood, blood vessels everywhere. He stopped.
He thought ok, maybe this is not the correct placement, this is not normal, so he moved over to another location. He said he always goes by the theory 'where you can fit a needle you do not put a knife.' So he did not cut. Rather he placed a special type of glass syringe in Danielle's brain to see that he would pull back fluid from the 4th ventricle, he did not pull back fluid he pulled back blood. At this point he explained to us that if he did not have the expertise that he does, and had he cut her as planned, she would have died....she would have bled to death on that table. This is not normal, our doctor, the BEST in the world has only seen 2 other cases like this and none in the past 20 years. If we would have had not the BEST Neurosurgeon today, we would have lost our girl........
At this point words cannot describe the feeling Brad and I felt and are still feeling now. Today he stopped, he saved our daughters life. The sign I saw this morning placed in front of the BIG stop sign on the way to our surgical floor said it all, 'STOP, Good Things Happen Over Time.' The past two days I have been getting signs from everywhere. So you ask, what is next?
We go back in 10 days to have her stitches removed, she has 2 incisions in the back of her head that need to heal. She is the same girl that went into surgery but she is in the Intensive Care Unit right now to make sure nothing comes up after what she went thru today.

In 10 days we begin again, we must find out what has gone on with our girl and why these blood vessels have not gone away. You see, when a baby is in utero and even after birth, the base of their brain is covered by blood vessels. These blood vessels go away after the baby is 6 months old. Danielle is now 4 1/2 years old and hers have not gone away. This is not normal. Again our world renown Neurosurgeon has not seen this in 20 years and Danielle is only his 3rd patient ever where he has seen this. A shunt cannot be placed in the base of her brain to drain the 4th ventricle because he cannot get to the 4th ventricle because of the blood.
So he will do another type of MRI scan called a MRV. This MRV scan will tell where the blood vessels are in her head, and also if there is any type of blockage in there as well causing this pool of blood and fluid in the 4th ventricle. This is NOT something that should have been done prior to this surgery. There is absolutely NO reason Danielle should have these blood vessels in the back of her head, again they should have been gone when she was 6 months old.
Depending on what the MRV scan shows our only other option is more evasive surgery, which we briefly spoke of before. It is an endoscopy which is a scope that he would put between the 3rd and 4th ventricle of the brain to try and drain the fluid. This is a one time poke that hopefully will drain the fluid and hopefully the 'scab' will not 'scab' back over and cause fluid buildup again.
So you may ask, why don't we stop now? Surgery has now been haulted 2 times, isn't that a sign? No, its not. That fluid cannot stay there. It is not good for our daughter. We want the absolute best for her in her life and fluid buildup in the brain puts pressure and will cause her to platoe in her development. This next surgery is more evasive, it is more serious, it will be longer, it will test us, yet we will do the very best for our daughter under the care of the BEST Neurosurgeon in the world. After all, he saved our daughters life today.

Our hearts are heavy, our minds are racing, we are stressed, tired, emotional, scared and trying not to be weak. Today was a blessing, just as I was told this morning by a sign from the good lord above, 'STOP, Good Things Happen Over Time.'
Danielle will be in Intensive care for a couple of day. This afternoon she is in a lot of pain and every time she moves her head she cries and cries. We have finally been able to step away from her room after she fell asleep. We are resting in our Rossi room for a few minutes, updating, grabbing supper and heading back up to snuggle our girl. Life is precious, it is not to be taken for granted, we are ever so thankful that we have the BEST doctors in our daughters life. Before he left us today he said, 'I put myself in your place in the operating room today and she is here.' You have no idea what that means to us, it means the world.
We will update again tomorrow, thank you for your love and most of all your prayers. They worked today. It was not her time to go and we are ever SO thankful for the lord above protecting our family right now. There is no doubt the angels were with us today and guiding her surgeon in the OR today, when he saved our daughters life. God Bless.~