We have a date, and the date is good. We wanted the date to be soon (we were really hoping it wouldn’t stretch into January), but we didn’t want it to be right before Christmas (when doctors and staff might be on vacation, or distracted, or impatient).

The date is Wednesday, December 10. Enough time to get ready, but still well before Christmas. It’s a very good date. It’s the date Rachel will start healing.

We also go in early the previous Monday for pre-op appointments with the surgeon and the anesthesiologist.

I can’t thank you all enough for your responses to the blog! I’m sorry if I wasn’t able to write back to all of you, but each and every one of your messages was shared and enjoyed together. Your love and support means the world to all of us! There is no better way for Rachel to go into surgery than surrounded by love.

With all the tests complete, it was time for one last consultation with the doctors. We met today with Dr. Porter (neurologist) and Dr. Cheshier (neurosurgeon), along with a PA and a couple of Cheshier’s baby docs.

Dr. Porter confirmed that the EEG and the fMRI results were very positive for the surgery they want to do. All of the tests have convinced them that Rachel’s right temporal lobe is not helping her. This will allow them to be relatively aggressive in how much tissue they remove, and that will give Rachel a much higher chance of not having seizures any more.

We also learned that she will stay on medication for a long time — at least a year. The shock of surgery, and the resulting scar tissue, can create new seizure-inducing areas. Staying on medication has been shown to reduce the chances of a new seizure area starting up. Once she’s seizure-free for a year, they will wean her off the medication.

We are expecting a call from the hospital this week, offering options for surgery dates.

The last test the doctors wanted to see was a Functional MRI (fMRI). You may have seen this images of the brain, where areas are brightly lit, indicating which parts were active while the patient was thinking or doing some particular task.

Our first attempt at the test didn’t work out. The hospital was full, we waited all day, and finally at 5pm Rachel got in the machine, only to find out that the “Functional” part wasn’t working. It made my mother wonder what the “f” really stood for.

But the staff was really nice, as always. They apologized profusely, gave us gift certificates to the cafe and shop, and kept us informed over the next week as the machine got fixed. Finally Rachel was able to complete the scan, and it was verified that her language capabilities are firmly settled on the left (non-surgical) side of her brain.