Erika Update 01/28/2010

Erika update:

Two weeks after getting out of the hospital Erika went to Ok City and completed her next four week rotation. It started out bumpy, but she kept at it and finished two days before Christmas. She was home for 10 days over the holidays and just got home last night following a four week rotation in Galveston, Texas. This was her last rotation away from home before graduation and we are both so very glad. She has been gone on rotations for nearly all of the last six months.

Over Christmas she had her eyes checked because she had had a couple events where her vision went crazy for a brief time. To put it in NTSB terms, no anomalies were found. Friday (tomorrow) she goes in for another arterial gram. The neurosurgeon wants one more look to see if they can find the source/cause of the hemorrhage. If there is something to be found I pray they find it. If there is nothing found then my guess is that this is her last trip to the neurosurgeon.

I haven’t heard Erika complain about a headache for awhile now. Every once in awhile after a long day she will say her brain hurts. I think that is code for, “I have a headache.” We don’t much like to hear the “headache” word anymore. The only symptom she talks about now is that she feels more tired throughout the day.

Nearly every morning she is up doing her pushups and sit-ups and then complains that she can’t do as many as before. I just shake my head. I have heard many stories of people who have either died or sustained neurological damage from a subarachnoid hemorrhage. I have not heard many if any stories that match up with Erika’s. I choose to believe that it was a miracle and that God has something very big in store for her.

Erika is on schedule for her May 21st graduation. Wow!!! Who would have thought I could say that a couple months ago. She finished the residency interviewing circuit a couple weeks ago and we should find out where we will be moving by the middle of March. Residency will be for the next three years. At this point we don’t plan to sell the house here in Ft. Worth, but will get an apartment near her place of residency.

Please remember to pray that all goes well with the test tomorrow. The dye they inject tends to make Erika sick, and following the test she has to lay flat on her back for six hours. That, of course, is no fun.

Thanks again for your caring, concern, and prayers.

Tim