Home Already!!!

Guess what?! We are home already!!! Surgery went very well and Laura was able to have the minor surgery, and not the major neurosurgery that was a possibility. Thank you so much for your prayer! Here's the update Michael put together:

The surgery went very well. Dr. Havlick was able to follow the tract through the bridge of her nose and remove at least 99 percent of the cyst in there. As they got into the operation, they found that the tract actually stopped and did not continue through the whole length of the cyst. Therefore, even though a small filament of the cyst does seem to go up toward the brain, there is no tract communicating any infectious material to the brain. Therefore, they decided removing the majority of the cyst through the nasal operation would be sufficient, and opening the skull from the top to remove that last tiny bit would be unnecessary. This means they were able to keep the surgery simple, and did not have to go into the far more complicated and risky procedure of full cranial surgery. However, it also means that we will need to have more MRIs done at six month intervals, for awhile, to make sure that remnant of the cyst is not causing any trouble.

Also, another new problem requiring attention was identified. Heather had noticed, months ago, a small area of Laura's scalp where her blood vessels enlarge when she cries. Heather brought this to the attention of other doctors before, but when Dr. Smith saw it (and double-checked the head scans), she identified it as indication of a hole in Laura's skull where some of the blood veins feeding the brain are coming through to the surface. She says the major concern with this kind of situation is that, if Laura were to take a bad fall and cut her scalp at that location, the bleeding would be significant (and potentially serious). So, to make a long story short, it looks like we will be scheduling another surgery for another six months down to road to get that repaired, too.

Thus, the news this morning is at the same time very good (concerning the present surgery), uncertain (concerning the need to monitor the remainder of the cyst), and unfortunate (concerning the need, already, to plan yet another surgery). But all in all, we are encouraged and so grateful for the excellent care God has provided for us here at Riley.