When my son had his surgery ten years ago, Dr. Scott was accepted by BC/BS.  We only paid our normal out of pocket hospital expenses -- and we live in New Mexico!!

Coming from Pittsburgh, I would drive.  We flew simple because the drive from here is three full days. 

Dr. Scott is wonderful!  You will love him, his team, and the neurology ward at the hospital!  That's right -- they have an entire WARD for neurology patients.  It blew our mind! 

Good luck!  I wish Amanda well through her surgery.  When is her actual surgery date so we can be praying for her?

Kim -- mom to Matthew, diagnosed in 1999 at the age of 7, three strokes and single kidney due to mm, Laura, 22, Jacob, 14, and Kay, 10.

Tammy~

Glad to see you're already on this section of the mm.com board. I haven't been on for quite awhile.
I wish you the best.
Remember that my account in the 'news/stories' section was about my experiences  after having significant strokes and etc...Everyone is different.
You've taken all the steps to  have the surgery done and hopefully prevent major strokes. People are pretty resilient! but I know this is a significant and a stressful time _ it's good to find out all you can.
Keep up the good work,
My best to you all,

Linda

Tammy,

My son had two of his strokes before the surgery and the third one within twelve hours of being released from the hospital three days post surgery.   

My best advice -- they are hooked to an IV giving fluids constantly while in the hospital.  Make sure Amanda gets LOTS of fluids for quite a while post surgery. 

Believe it or not, but school is the least important thing right now.  She has years to catch up.  This is much more important.  Don't sweat homework or make-up work.  In fact, see if you can get with the teachers to create a 504 Plan to allow for her condition.  Basically, a 504 plan recognizes that she has a physical condition and that she needs some modifications to be successful and NOT stressed out.  This is all according to IDEA, a federal law, put in place to protect people with physiological conditions. 

My oldest was 11 (almost 12) at the time, and we just explained it then.  My little two (one 4 and the other an infant) were just too small and have simply grown up knowing about his condition.  We explained it to Matthew each time he was hospitalized why.

Good luck!  Keep us posted.  We will by praying for Amanda!!

Kim -- mom to Matthew, diagnosed in 1999 at the age of 7, three strokes and single kidney due to mm, Laura, 22, Jacob, 14, and Kay, 10.

Hi, Tammy.

My twin girls are both MM patients of Dr. Scott.  They were 8 when they had their surgeries, and believe it or not, will be turning 15 next month!!

We live about 45 mins north of Boston, and would love to come see you while you're in the hospital - maybe to give you some moral support, buy you lunch, give you a hug?

Let us know!!  And ditto what Shari said - you're in good hands with Dr's Scott and Smith!!

Take care!! 
Kristen

Hi , i wish you all the luck and please keep us updated once you get a date , my son who is 12 had his surgery done her in Ontario ,Canada in late November , 9 days total one day preop so they could hydrate him , recovery went good , and as for school , they did not grade him for the second term , just comments , on his report card , but the school told him the least of his worry should be school , just to get surgery and get better , Josh has missed alot of school with headaches , b4 he had the surgery and once getting the mm diagonisis reactions from the aspirin , but since surgery and taking him off aspirin , i have my lil boy back , who is looking forward to playing baseball for the March break , and has pretty well made a full recovery , thanks to an amazing doc and many prayers, the says the only thing different is the patch of hair they shaved for the surgery that has not grown back and he has had maybe 2 headaches since the surgery , if you need 2 chat or ask a ?? please contact me , when we first got the mm diagonosis , this site kept me sane , , we at one point were going to go to theStates for Josh to have the surgery because alot of docs out there dont have the experience , and for us coming from Canada the cost was over whelming but we were going to do what needed to be done , luckily enough the childrens hospital here had 1 specialist with mm experience , who gave me back my lil boy and we were able to have the support being close to home of our family and friends , !!!!