Karen's Blog

Paul's Update: Aug 28th - 9:20am; Karen's Surgery today

Saturday marked two very important milestones in Karen's life. First, it was her birthday. In order to avoid catching Karen's wrath, I won't disclose her age. It was a wonderful day to celebrate Karen's life, and the joy she brings to ours. Karen thoroughly enjoyed it. For those of you who were at my house on Saturday, thanks for making it such a happy time for Karen. She has been talking about how much she enjoyed it over and over again since that day.
Thanks go to Kristin, and Jill for giving me so much help in preparing and putting the whole thing together. I also want to thank my brother John and his wife Maryanne. I don't know how I would have been able to do it without your help.

And thanks to all of Karen's wonderful friends who took the time to visit with us, and to battle the heat and the hoards of flies. I don't know where the flies came from, but I can assure you they we not invited.

The second milestone for Saturday was that it marked exactly five months since Karen's injury. to those of you who have had a chance to see her and visit with her lately you will agree that her progress is nothing short of extraordinary. Each day we see more and more of the Karen we all remember.

It's hard to believe it has been five months since that horrible day. For me, they all seem to run together sometimes.

There were the early days when we thought she wouldn't make it, and the days when she made terrific leaps forward. We've watched her progress from barely being able to sit up, to where she is today, which is on the verge of walking on her own, unassisted.

Throughout this time we were told by all of the doctors and therapists that it would be a long, long road to recovery, and there would be some bumps in that road. We have seen several with the clotting in her legs and arms, the hydrocephalus, and others.

Unfortunately, late last week we were presented with another bump in that long road. Karen has developed some clotting in her head as a result of the shunt that was put in back in the spring. According to the doctors this is not too unexpected, and does happen to patients from time to time. However, they believe it is the likely cause of the persistent headaches that have been troubling her in the last couple of weeks, and they also believe that it needs to be corrected right away.

So, late this morning Karen will be admitted to Mt. Vernon Hospital again, and will undergo surgery to remove the clots from her brain. If all goes well, she should be out of surgery in a couple of hours, and will spend about three days in the hospital. After that, she will go back home, and hopefully pull through it just fine. Then, she can continue with her therapy, will be relieved of those pesky headaches, and continue to impress us with her amazing progress.
I will provide you with additional posts tonight and this week as the information becomes available to keep you all informed.

posted by Karen's Blog @ Monday, August 28, 2006