A little background on Charysse’s doctor for this surgery. We found her on TV, strangely. I was browsing through stations one evening and stumbled across Dateline. They were running a story on an actual brain surgery she was doing. The surgery involved a father and musician having a tumor removed. The newsworthy portion of the show was that due to the location of his tumor, he was at risk of losing his musical abilities. Dr Liau is one of few who actually wakes the patient up during the surgery and then stimulates the portion of the brain that they are looking to take. While doing so, as long as the patient is able to speak intelligently, or in his case, hum a song, identify musical notes, etc. then they know they are not creating a residual effect by taking that tissue. Fortunately for Charysse, this is not necessary.
Being in Texas and two hours ahead of Charysse, I called her and told her to be sure and watch the whole show. I only saw a portion of it. She did and two days later Dr Liau had Charysse’s brain scans in her hands. As you may know, Charysse is and has been very aggressive about learning all she can and taking her health into her own hands by being informed. Long story short, even though 4 other doctors had told Charysse that her tumor could not be removed, Dr Liau said she could get it. The proof was in the fact that she did.
We are thankful today to be fully confident of this caring and talented doctor. She has been spot on, on everything she has told us from day one. Adult brain tumors is all she does and her experience is clearly working for us again today. We will be very anxious to see her late this afternoon, to learn more about what she finds. But, we know she is the right person and God is directing her on our daughter’s behalf.
Prior to today’s surgery they have taken 3D images of her brain in all kinds of color to know exactly where they want to go to reach the area of swelling. Dr Liau would have studied those again last night, at home after she put her children to bed. That’s when she and Charysse have spent many nights emailing back and forth. After she removes what she can see, she will then do another MRI while in the operating room. This allows them to, right then, see if she missed anything. If necessary or possible, she will then go back and get any residual tissue before closing. That’s what we know. We’ll let you know as we hear anything throughout the day.
http://faculty.bri.ucla.edu/institution/personnel?personnel_id=8887
http://www.knbc.com/newslinks/5546445/detail.html
