The Switzerland Roller Coaster

It has been a roller coaster of emotions.  Plans, broken plans, hopes and disappointments.  As if living with Epilepsy alone is not enough of a roller coaster!  I'm happy to report that we are at the top end of the ride right now.

First, we had a date for surgery in Switzerland for the first week of November and we thought that all of our waiting was coming to an end and our hopes were riding very high. But, as we approached the date, Dr. J reviewed Josh's head x-rays and determined that he could not proceed because the titanium plates and screws in Josh's head from two previous brain surgeries would be too much of an impediment for the high intensity ultra sound used in the procedure. The date was canceled indefinitely and we all sank to a new low of disappointment.

But, as Sonny said in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: "Everything will be all right in the end...if it's not all right, then it's not yet the end."

Dr. Weiner, the surgeon (and terrific human being) who performed Josh's two prior surgeries at NYU said he could remove the plates in a procedure that is not too complicated or risky. The surgery is not inter-cranial (or is it intra-cranial?) and the hospital stay should be one or two days. Dr. J then told us we could proceed with the procedure in Switzerland about thee months after the plates are removed!

So our hopes are that Josh will have the plates removed at NYU sometime in the beginning of November and we can travel to Switzerland for the ultrasound procedure sometime in March. I will try to post again soon with more details.