Uggh.  Tara was recovering fairly well on Friday and Saturday, with only some minor speech and hand problems.  We took her home to San Jose from Stanford yesterday afternoon, but when she got home her speech problems were either more obvious or intensified.  After about 4 hours the MDs said to bring her back.  She is BACK in Stanford's B3 wing.

She has very good physical movement which probably rules out bleeding.  She has poor speech and word recognition.  Example:

Dr: Who am you?
Tara: Tara
Dr: Who am I?
Tara: Tara

After several more tries, Tara would then correct herself.

It's supposedly due to swelling from the surgery site, plus possibly the Vicodin and Decadron.  It will also supposedly get better by later this week.

Thank you again to everyone who has been sending responses, saying prayers, or generally just keeping her in their thoughts.

Campbell MacInnes

praying for Tara---------Bless her heart........PatM :-* :'(

Hi Campbell,
The one big thing I've learned about MM is be careful about giving too much advice because everyone recovers differently ;)

BUT...to put you and Tara a little at ease, this may help:  I had my left side STA/MCA bypass surgery on May 18th.  I had lots of trouble with my speech which began easing off some on May 21st when I was released.  My surgeon, Dr. Barrow @ Emory Univ. Hosp in Atlanta assured me that     the reason for my difficulty was due to the fact that he attached my "scalp" artery to the artery on my brain that was very near my center for speech.  He said that there would be swelling there for several days but assured me that I did not have a stroke during surgery and that it would eventually go back to normal.

When I was in ICU, I couldn't make myself say "butterfly needle" and had to call my mom into my room to speak for me!  I was asked at another time what month it was and replied "march" when it was really may and explained that "at least I had the first letter right"!
On another occasion I was asked to say "no ifs ands or buts" and after trying several times, couldn't get it right!  :-/

In about a week, it almost all cleared up (it seemed to be aggravated by my pain medicine,percoset), and by May 28th when I was completely off of it (the percoset) I was back to normal as far as my speech goes  ;;D
Tomorrow will be 4 weeks post surgery, I've had my staples out, been back to work for a week, and just had my follow-up visit with Dr. Barrow! ;;D

He's having his office call me to schedule my right side next.  Have any idea what that will affect? [smiley=huh.gif]

I'll understand if you don't feel like writing [smiley=sleep.gif].
It's a lot harder being on YOUR side of the fence - my parents were there!

My prayers, too are with Tara,
SC girl

Wow, SC girl, Pat's left-side surgery affected her speech too, whereas her right-side surgery (done first) did not seem to really have any of those kinds of side effects.  However, her doctor said she had seizures, and I know she had fluid buildup with resultant swelling with this left-side surgery (just under two weeks ago).

I had not thought about the different areas of the brain being affected and having those different side effects.

Diane

Tyler's left side surgery affected his mouth in gerneral. He couldn't feel the inside of his mouth and couldn't eat for 2 days, but it all self corrected. Boy was it scary at the time though.

Your family and Tara are in my prayers.

GotChlorine,
              I was wondering if when you went to San Jose if Tara was in the sun or pretty hot from heat? We had a party on the beach for my son on Sat. and it was beautiful weather here but still warm in the sun, Mandy was in the shade but used to being in air conditioning most of the time and about 45 min. to an hour after we got there she was acting really strange staring more than usuall not real responsive taking a longer time than usual to answer and much much spacier than usauall she was eating at that time. I put her in a lounger leaned it back gave her an ice cold drink put her feet up and she almost dosed off then was fine the rest of the day. I wonder if just walking from the car and being where there's no ac just affected her so much. It was strange and I see people always talking about the effects of the heat and to hydrate all the time which she does.
                               Nancy