Surgery Day

Alyssa is now in surgery.  The expectation of the doctors is that the surgery process, prep, craniotomy, brain scan and post procedure bandaging will take until 3 PM today. 

There is a team of two anesthesiologists, a surgery nurse, the primary surgeon (Dr. Madsen) and some interns that are in the operating room. 

They are hoping that Alyssa will not need any blood transfusions but thank you to everyone who was able to donate blood.   Now we just wait, with updates every 1-1/2 hours by the nurse liason so as we get more information, we'll post it to the blog.

6/2/08 @ 9:30 AM - The anesthesia has been administered and all IV's have been inserted.  There is an arterial IV that will monitor her blood pressure and heart rate throughout the surgery.  She will also have a bladder catheter and a breathing tube.  They are about to make the incision.

6/2/08 @ 11:00 AM - The doctors think they are about half way through the resection (tumor removal) and Alyssa is doing well.

6/2/08 @ 12:30 PM - The doctors have removed all of what they think is the tumor from Alyssa's brain.  They are now going to scan her while she is still opened up to ensure that they have indeed removed everything.

6/2/08 @ 1:35 PM - Just spoke with the surgeon... he said that the tumor extends further than they anticipated but because what they've removed so far seems to be pathologically benign, they do not want to risk going any further.  They'll be closing her up next.