Happy Thanksgiving!

Today, the hospital catered a Thanksgiving feast for everyone on the pediatric floor and we all (Evan, Rob, Aria, Roman, Chuck and me) joined in the festivities. It was great to get Evan out of his bed and he spent about two hours at the Thanksgiving "party". He also walked for the first time after surgery! He’s wobbly, but he’s been in bed for almost three weeks and was stoned on morphine at the time. Afterward, he was really wiped out so we brought him back to his room where he took a seven hour nap. It's my night to sleep at the hospital, but I have a feeling there may not be a lot of sleeping going on. I hope the nurses are ready to be entertained!

The best news is that we haven’t seen any seizures and our plan is to continue on this path. It also looks like he has a little greater range of movement in his left foot. Maybe Rob and I are imagining it, but it sure looks like there is some improvement there. Prior to surgery, Evan had a slight weakness in his left leg, but it would sure be great if it's even less! This can happen after an epilepsy surgery but it's never expected, just a bonus if it does. We're looking forward to seeing him walk again tonight and can't wait for his therapist, Flavia, to do a post-surgery evaluation.

I have to say, this is the best Thanksgiving we have ever had. I would never choose to be staying in the hospital for a holiday, but the fact that Evan had his last surgery just before Thanksgiving seems very symbolic to us. There are so many things we are thankful for and Dr. Weiner’s skilled hands are at the top of our list this year. We are also thankful for the care Evan has gotten at NYU Hospital – everyone here has been amazing. We feel fortunate to have such a strong support network of family and friends who have been with us through a lot of challenges. People often ask us how we manage everything and the real answer is that we don’t do it on our own -- somehow we have managed to surround ourselves with a lot of fantastic people who probably have no idea how much they have helped us at various points in this process.

Right now I am thinking how fortunate we are and what a charmed life we have. Evan just had three major brain surgeries and he is doing amazingly well, but there are other kids around us who are still struggling and my heart goes out to those families. You develop bonds and relationships with people in the hospital and everyone pulls for each other and cheers when kids get well enough to go home. I'm glad to say we've seen a lot of kids get discharged and we're so happy for the families who leave us behind and we're eager to follow.