This was sent out in an email yesterday, and I thought it was worth sharing here. My dad is a big fan of Ella's.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some of you have perhaps kept up with Ella through Megan’s Facebook page. Others of you have been asking about her. I am a bit behind on bringing you some news [all of it positive] about our precious granddaughter. Thank you for your continued care and concern.
Ella is doing marvelously, I think. She remains seizure-free [25 days so far]. She is still on the same medication that she was on before surgery and that will continue for another year or more, as a precaution. Prior to surgery, she had seizures while on those meds. Megan reports that this is the longest stretch Ella has been seizure free. Since one of the goals of surgery was that she be without seizures, the surgery has to be considered successful.
The “Ella Support Team”, including her “pit-bull” advocate a/k/a Linda, all got home on April 27. Her first days home, Ella was sapped of strength and not real active. She was unsteady on her feet and actually crawled during that time. But as she began to recover her strength, she also recovered more and more of her gross motor skills. I spent a good part of a wonderful day with her this past Saturday and I would say that she is back to her previous levels, insofar as her physical movements [she isn’t jumping off the ottoman—but I would have been fired as the sitter if I had let that happen so soon after surgery]. She still has some residual weakness on her right side, all of which is as was foretold to us by the doctors. Although her smile has a slight sag on the right, it is still gorgeous and warms my heart every time. Speech is also coming along—right now she doesn’t have much to say, which again is expected. But her efforts are clearer and include more syllables. Earlier this week she said “Hi Daddy” to Chris and that is a first.
We marveled at the expertise of her medical team—so dedicated, so skilled and so caring. The anxiety during the time leading up to the surgery gave way to the realization that she was in great hands. While it was difficult to watch her have to undergo the various procedures and to see her deal with the discomfort, we recognize it was necessary and thankfully, short-lived. We anguished that she was going through so much without any warning or explanation of what was being done to her. Still, we had to have faith and hope that the days ahead would indeed be better and that this all was required to insure a more promising future for her.
She was such a good patient and was [and is] such a delight to be around. We cannot be certain of what her future holds, but believe it is brighter. Ella is special for many reasons and will continue to be so. We look forward to the next chapter of her life—this unwritten book is going to be a real page turner.
Charlie
♦
