One of my very best friends, Sara Beth is still having trouble with the artery in her brain. It has closed up after the first surgery and she is having to have bypass surgery to fix the problem.
The power of prayer is truly amazing and I am asking all of you for that amazing gift. Please pray for Sara Beth, her family, doctors and nurses, and those close to her.
I am attaching an email I got from her to explain her situation:
The past 2 days are almost a blur to me as I sit here and type. I am a very strong person and have a great outlook on life but WOW is this a really tough time! Me and my sweet "aunt" Sharon drove to Memphis to meet my parents. I went and had an MRI and amazingly fell asleep in the middle of it....please don't ask why because it is the loudest most miserable thing to do! We went straight to Semmes Murphy to meet with Dr. Barr and Dr. Arthur. Dr. Arthur came into the room and told me that they didn't receive the news that they had hoped for. He told me and my parents that the artery had renarrowed to 92% which is 40% more than in the beginning and another artery that was attached to that main artery was completely gone...yes, gone-nowhere to be found. The doctors kept telling me that I was an absolute walking miracle and they couldn't believe all of this was happening and I hadn't had a massive stroke. My condition is so rare and practically unheard of in someone my age so they or any other doctors do not have any answers to this problem. My parents and I sat there and listened to the doctors in shock and disbelief. Since the artery has renarrowed this fast and since the first balloon wasn't a success we have decided to go ahead with the bypass surgery. The true term for this surgery is Left Superficial Temporal Artery to Left Middle Cerebral Artery Surgical Bypass-this is all new and greek to me but I'm being fully educated! Dr. Barr will not be involved in this surgery but Dr. Arthur and Dr. Clarence Wattridge (world renouned neurosurgeon for Chucky Mullens' surgery) will perform the operation. We had orginally thought that the surgery would take place on Dec. 18th but found out today that Dr. Wattridge will be out of town so it's looking as though it'll be performed next week but not certain when. My whole life is up in the air right now which is becoming hard to somewhat grasp! I've never truly realized how important my brain, my motor and speech skills and really my whole life are until now....BIG HUGE REALITY CHECK! The surgery will take 6-7 hours and it is invasive so they will have to actually cut into my brain. They will re-route the artery to another artery and then my brain will have to tell the blood to flow in the new place. There are four vessels that will have to merge themselves to the new artery and if they don't do that properly I will suffer a massive stroke and lose all speaking and motor skills and emotion (everything that controls the left side of the brain.) Of course we are not planning on happening but the truth of it all is that it can very well happen. I'm at chance for a massive stroke any way I go. Dr. Barr and Arthur feel very confident that my age, will to live and strength in all of this will help me in my recovery and everything will go as planned.After the surgery, I will be in ICU and being that everything goes well will be transfered to a regular room for 2-3 days then will be able to go home. Recovery time will last around 2-3 weeks and then I will be able to return to work and my daily life. I will not be able to chew and will have bad headaches for awhile....the chewing part may be a good thing-I may lose weight...YAY!I will have to have the left side of my head shaved so if I'm going to only have one side gone I figure why not go ahead and take the rest...there's nothing I can't wait to see but me and a bald head! Guess I'm going to have get used to lots of scarfs and a fabulous wig.I pray that each of you find comfort in the fact that I'm going to be okay and fight this with all that I have. Noone said this would be easy but the true fact of that is Life isn't easy. Thank you so much for your wonderful friendship, love and support towards me, my family and doctors. I have turned everything over to the Lord and know that he will give the right guidance to me and my family and the knowledge the doctors need to make me better. Please continue to pray for my family and doctors and that I will recover from this quickly! I love each of you and will keep you updated throughout the next few weeks!Much Love-Sara Beth
7 years ago
