Update on Leah

"Hi everyone! Thanks for praying for me! I am a happy girl now!!"

We also wanted to express our appreciation for all of the comments, calls, visitors, messages, flowers (thanks Stephen Foster elementary school and Aunt Sarah), thoughts, and prayers we have received over the past few days. We have truly felt so loved and supported during this experience. We are home, recovering and catching up on sleep missed. Leah is sore, but happy. She's eating fine, sleeping fine, and is a joy to be around. She has to be out of daycare for two weeks while she is healing and my mom is coming up to help us out with that for a few days at least. We wanted to share some praises and prayer requests and ask that you all would continue to pray:

Praises:

• Leah's hydrocephalus was not caused by a mass, lesion, or tumor.
• The surgery was successful! Leah's hydrocephalus is being treated, and will be controlled as long as the shunt is working properly.
• Leah is recovering well and in good spirits
• God's timing - from our previously scheduled 6-month check-up so that the hydrocephalus could be discovered, to the neurosurgeon being in the OR on Thursday with availability to do Leah's surgery, to Stephen's dad being in Orlando at a conference and being able to be with us during the surgery, to my brother just moving to Tampa and being close enough to come be with us. God has shown his sovereignty in the midst of this hard experience.
• Family and friends who have shown such love and support. We are well-loved!

Prayer Requests:

• Leah's recovery - pray for quick healing, and the least amount of pain and discomfort possible.
• Leah's left eye has been swollen since she came out of surgery, and was swollen almost shut this morning when she woke up. The pediatrician says it is common after surgery to see swelling due to all of the fluids she received from IV. Pray that she would not have any discomfort and that the swelling would go away quickly.
• Pray that this shunt surgery would be the only Leah will ever have to go through. The tube that was put into her body to drain fluids is designed to grow with her. It is coiled up right now and will uncoil as she grows taller. So, she shouldn't have to ever have another surgery. However, in about 40% of shunt patients, multiple surgeries are required, and in a patient Leah's age, the average is about 2.5 surgeries before her 21st birthday. Multiple surgeries happen because some part of the shunt fails - tubes can become clogged and valves can malfunction. Pray that nothing like that happens to Leah.
• Continue to pray for Leah's vision. While the hydrocephalus and her vision impairments might have the same cause (this has been speculated upon, but not proven), they are not related in any other way. So, the shunt will not help to improve her vision. Leah's impairment is due to a structural problem with her eyes. We still do not have an answer as to the cause or the extent of Leah's vision impairment. Pray for healing or for some sort of correction or treatment for her condition to be developed.

One last picture of our happy girl