Tuesdays Neurosurgery/ENT update

We were in with Ellie and Dr. Menezes came in and had Ellie blink her eyes, squeeze hands, wiggle toes, etc. He reported the CT scan today looked great. He said the tumor looked gone that he had gotten all of it. He said the brain is swelling how they expected and it's not too much swelling. He said swelling peaks at about four days after surgery so we are going to keep watching things with scans. He wants to do another MRI of her head and spine to check for other tumors because he thinks it was the kind of tumor that spreads so he wants to check it all out. He is not sure if it's hereditary but Pathology will give us more answers later. We won't know details from Pathology for 5-7 days after surgery because this is something they have to do lots of tests and dye it for other tests etc. He was very pleased when he came in and then saw how well she has been doing so we are pleased that he is happy.

Her right eye isn't moving so easily to the right side. He said the tumor was also around her optic nerve so he had to pull the tumor off that optic nerve. He said the nerve is still in tact and it will just take time for it to move smoothly again.

Dr. Gantz, the pediatric ENT surgeon, saw us and said Ellie lost all hearing in her right ear because that nerve was cut out from the tumor all consuming it. He said there are options in the future for getting another nerve to run the right side of her face some, but that is a long time in the future. We have to wait to see how her vocal cords have been affected until we take the breathing tube out. Her voice will be horse due to the tube but later we will know if her vocal cords have been affected. Swallowing is another concern. We want to see that she can swallow some on her own before they take out the tube.

The nurses put in a tube through the other nostril so they can feed her pediasure. So now she is getting nutrients. Dr. Menezes ordered to start physical therapy so that will start sometime soon.

Ellie is such a trooper going through the tests every 2 hours. We can tell she is tired after testing so she rests for a while then she wakes up and wants to see us and stuff. I will get a picture up sometime.