Surgery update

The following is a forwarded message from Sophia's aunt:

To all of Sophia’s prayer warriors,

Yesterday, needless to say was a very long day at the hospital. Sophia went into the operating room at 7:30 AM, they put her under right away and started hooking her up for the surgery. At 9:30 AM the light by her name in the screen in the waiting room came on indicating surgery had started. Every hour the nurse came out with “updates”. We would look at her face from the distance looking for a smile, indicating everything was going smoothly. Every time she came out, it was the same thing, “She’s doing great. Doctors are going very slow, taking their time. She’s still under the microscope.” We knew that the whole surgery was “under the microscope” and that when that part was done it would mean “start closing” and that part would take another hour and a half. At 7:15 PM (almost 12 hours after they put her to sleep !!!!) the surgery was over. She was in the recuperating room for an hour before they took her to PICU. Dr. Cherny and Dr. Johans came out and gave us the detail of what they have done. Dr. Cherny said that he was very pleased with how it went. It took longer than what he had expected, he explained that the tumor was very large and it was more attached to the walls than he thought it would be, so he took his time. But they took the largest part of the tumor out, cleaned that area very well (he thinks they removed all of it from that area), and got as close to the pituitary gland as they had plan to get on this first surgery. He was pleased with how the walls of that part of the brain came back together and explained that the brain, without all of that pressure from the tumor would be “more relaxed” for the second surgery. She lost some blood, so she had a transfusion in the middle. Again, everything went as they had planned, and what they found was what they were expecting, a “craniopharyngioma” tumor. Because she had been asleep for 12 hours, they said she would take a while to wake up, but they woke her up enough to make sure she was responding well. She said her name, her age, and moved hands and wiggle toes as directed. When we went in to see her at 9:00 PM she opened her eyes a little, and tried to smile. The nurse tickled her feet to try to wake her up and she moved them and nodded her head when asked if she was ticklish. :) All those little things, as you can imagine, were huge for all of us to see !!. She looked beautiful, like an angel, as usual, nothing swollen or out of the ordinary. The next couple of days, she’ll be in PICU, awaiting the second surgery. They will try to do another MRI today to concentrate on the small piece of tumor left. That is much smaller than what they removed already, but it’s also the part in the pituitary gland and eye nerves. They’ll know more about the surgery after the MRI, but they are expecting it not to be so long.

Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all of your prayers, love and support. Our prayers were heard, our Lord was so incredibly good. Our little Sophia handled the 12 hour surgery like a champ. God worked through Dr. Cherny and Dr. Johans hands, no doubt !!!

Please continue praying for no complications this week or during the other surgery, for strength in Sophia’s body to be ready for another surgery, for the miracle of the tumor to “loosen up” in that area so that it can come out without damaging the gland or nerves. Please continue praying for the doctors, that they can rest and be ready for another long and tedious surgery. And please pray for Veronica and Scott.

I’ll keep you posted. Thank you. God Bless each and everyone of you,

Daniela