Hey Everybody:

I met with Dr. Martin at UCLA on April 7th, and he said the surgery should be done within two weeks.  He said I had more narrowing on the right side, but the brain must be compensating.  Therefore the left side will be done first.  That side isn't compensating since I all ready had a stroke.  In 4 to 6 weeks after the first surgery they will be do the second surgery.  Yeah!

Just thought I would let you know. 

Paula

Hi Paula,

Great news on the surgeries.  My sister has mm and had the surgeries after a horrible stroke.  The surgeries were a bit difficult but well worth it.  Patty had her surgeries at Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minn.   

Please keep us updated.  At Mayo Clinic they have a library and we were able to go there and use the computers.  We were able to send 'Patty Updates" from there.

We will keep you in our prayers.

Janice

Dr. Martin said he could do them quicker but wants the brain to recover some.   I thought the 4 to 6 weeks was pretty good since some people have waited months to have the second surgery.

I will make sure that my husband will update everyone on my progress.

Paula

Hi,

I had my EDAS surgery performed by Dr. Martin last year, so if you have any questions about the surgery or Dr. Martin please feel free to email me.

Hi Paula,

I had both surgeries performed by Dr. Martin; the first one in Feb. and the next in June of 2003. The first was hard and excrucruciating for my family because it lasted 17 hours! The 2nd one was a bit less nerve -racking for them as it only took 10 hours. Of course, it was all the same to me as I was knocked out during the entire process.

I felt more pain coming out of the first surgery than the second. But the headaches persisted longer after the 2nd surgery than the first.

Dr. Martin is a not very forhright with information so I suggest you prepare alist of EVERYTHING you want answers to brought up to him at your next visit.

I apologize for being so short but I have to head off to to in-patient rehab at Casa Colina tonight afte just being released from Huntington after a 5 day stay. I just saw your post and had to reply. My girlfriend was writing in my name in the prior post. Please email me with any specific things you want to know and maybe I can help you find the answer to. Although, going into the operations, I was in shocked that I had something called moya moya and completely felt like I had no other choice but to trust the doctor's opinions and recommendations. The stroke completely paralyzed my right side (arm & leg). To this day, I'm still more or less wheelchair bound.

So, being the victim, I didn't have the luxury to debate over whether which was the better procedure to undergo.

Sorry, they're calling me... gotta go... but will be back in about a week or so. If you go into surgery, before I come out of rehab, hope all goes well and good luck to you and your family, especially the latter for the surgery and you for the recovery.

Doug