UPDATE 4/19 - PM

Cindy and I went to see Michele this morning at 9:30am to say the rosary and get updated about the surgery by Dr Bullock. Michele was scheduled to have the shunt operation as well as a muscle biopsy. When I was at the hospital speaking to the Dr. we decided to take a look at her latest CT scan that was taken on Saturday and it revealed another abscess in the same spot as the last. This time it was small but the Dr felt it was necessary to add it to the procedure today and take fluid from the area with a needle and if necessary add a tube to drain. At 1:37 pm her surgery started and by 2:40 pm the Dr. called to tell me she was out of surgery and everything went well. Her shunt is in and draining, her biopsy is done and they did have to add another drain to her head to drain some more abscess fluid. We will get results from the abscess fluid in the next 2 days, but the color was not good and makes them think she has another infection.

Michele was back to her room by 3:15 pm and was awake when she arrived and was able to move her hand and she closed her eyes to tell me she loved me. That has been our only way to communicate for the last 3 months and is so sincere when she does it. They gave her some pain medication and she was off to sleep. I took Cindy to the airport then back to hotel to pick up Karen and back to the hospital again to see Michele awake around 6pm. We left her to sleep again and get her strength so we could see her later tonight. At 9pm we arrived to find her sleeping still and did not want to wake her tonight.

Her head used to be swollen quite a bit but now it is completely sunken in which is normal but tough to look at. The nurse told us it will look worse in the upcoming weeks but this is a good sign. It will take about 4-6 months before we can add her bone plate back to her skull so this will be something we will have to get used to. I expect to see great things from her tomorrow as this is what we have been waiting for and has taken so long to get done.

I added a picture of a bird that flew 18 miles from the coast of Marco Island Florida to land on my hand while fishing. Not really sure of what that symbolizes.

Thanks for the prayers today at 1pm they obviously worked.
John