Dear Alexis,

I will definitely keep your Claire in my thoughts and prayers.  Our Taylor had her surgery April 7th at Stanford and we are currently waiting to see how her other side (the right) progresses.  The waiting and anxiety wondering when she'll have to go through her second surgery is horrible.  Hopefully now you will have the comfort of knowing that she's in good hands and that everything will be fine.  When we were waiting for Taylor's surgery to be over and done with, I had met Carmen and her son Mark that had his surgery 3 days before.  It was Mark's 2nd one and he looked wonderful.  I was comforted knowing that our Taylor would heal quickly just like Mark did.

What did the doctor look for before he decided it was time for the second side?  Did you have to wait until Claire had TIAs?  In April, Dr. Steinberg said that Taylor's right side had the beginning of MMD and that we need to monitor it by having all the tests done every 6 months.  We are due back in November for the tests.

Your daughter will be fine and she will go through the process of healing quickly as she did before.  Having your Mom with you will be a wonderful thing.  (I am half Korean by the way)  When Taylor had her surgery, I had my brother and sister-in-law with us and it definitely helped to pass the time.

You take care and I will definitely keep your Claire and your family in my prayers.

Love & blessings,
MaryAnn & Taylor

Claire and family will be in my thoughts and prayers today as she goes through her second surgery.  Sending a speedy recovery and hugs from Philadelphia!

-Shari

YEAH!!!! Just the news we were waiting to hear!!!! That's great.Thanks so much for the update.
Mary Grace

I spent the night with her last night, and came back to the apartment to freshen up. 

This is close to miracle!  She was up and about one day after surgery.  She was comfortable enough to go to bathroom without any help.  Dr. Steinberg came by last night, and asked me when he did Claire's surgery, and I said, "Yesterday!" He couldn't believe it himself.  I have to be cautious in saying this, since, at the time of last surgery, the real pain started 48 hours after, however, so far, it really looks miraculous to me.

I met with another wonderful family, the Fields from Indiana.  Cameron is a wonderful 18 year-old, and his left side surgery was right after Claire's surgery.  My husband went to see him in the ICU and he was doing very well, too.  they found Dr. Steinberg through MM.com. 

I would like to sincerely thank DJ, MM.com, and all the wonderful people that I met through MM.com, especially Jill and Tara.  Tara stayed with me all morning when Claire was in surgery.  Such a sweet girl. 

I am going to keep praying that pain won't come back as it did last time, and she won't have many TIA's as last time.  So far, she looks really, really good.  They might discharge her one day early. 

I really believe in Dr. Steinberg, and his method of surgery (STA bypass).  Claire had immediate increase in blood flow (10 times last time, and 12 times this time).  Looking back after the firt surgery, after the first month of frequent TIA's, she rarely had any symptom per se, even when the left side was progressing a lot.  When she stabilizes after this surgery, she will be more like "normal" person.  The chances of stroke for her will be the same as any other person next door.  This is a true miracle.  My emotion is filling up and running over. 

Thanks everybody for their prayers and thoughts.  I will keep updating Claire's progress.

Alexis

We are back in GA now, Claire is still doing very well (she is begging me if she can go to the swimming pool).  However, I have one thing to report here.  Usually for right side surgery you are warned about possible language difficulty after the surgery.  I was so concerned about that so, in the recovery room, I kept her talking and talking and she was fine.  Well, she got discharged one day earlier (6/9 instead of 6/10), and we did a few hours of riding in the car on 6/10.  On the next day, while I was briefly out leaving her with my mom, she calls me with very slurred speach.  She says that her tongue is numb and her chin is heavy.  My husband and I were totally out of mind since we have never experienced something like this before.  We rushed back home, and called Dr. Steinberg, who immediately told us to come to Stanford ER. 

The slurred speech lasted about 15 minutes and she was back to normal.  We were in the ER for 4 hours, did an emergency MRI, obtained reading of neuro radiologist, and got discharged by neurosurgery resident.  Dr. Steinberg thought that it was part of post-surgery TIA that just happened in the speech area.  Since then, she never had any language problem.  I would suggest strongly for the patients who come from other parts of the country to get surgeries, that you better stay at least 1 week after the discharge because you never know what is going to happen and your doctor and his team will be the best equipped to take care of any problem that arises.  We were glad that we stayed on.  Again, Dr. Steinberg and his team, the whole Stanford hospital is just an excellent facility.