Meeting with Dr. Carson - Jessie's surgeon

Today, we met the surgeon that will be doing Jessie's hemispherectomy on June 11th, Dr. Ben Carson. He was a very quiet man, and a gentleman. Soft spoken, yet funny, and made us feel as comfortable as possible in this situation. There was a film crew in the conference from CBS, but it was like we didn't even know that they were there. We focused on Jessie and what had to be done. He explained most of what we already knew, but it was important that we went through the formalities, as he had no idea what we knew and that we had been researching this for so many months. I was very impressed with him, and so was Kristi.

We expected a 10 feet tall man, with a superman cape, but what we found was a humble compassionate man who only cared about our sweet little girl, and making her better. Her face twitched quite a bit today, and her speech is very slurred, but not as bad as yesterday. She seemed excited to meet him. I guess that she knew that we were as well, and maybe the excitement transferred over to her.

His entire staff treated Jessie so well, and we felt blessed to have him as Jessie's surgeon. Dr. Carson is arguably the world's leading surgeon on Hemispherectomies. He has done 65 in this lifetime, and was instrumental in making it a treatment for intractable seizures. He did not act like a world famous brain surgeon, however (whatever they act like). He was a man, talking to parents of a sick little girl.

When Jessie met him, she was on her best behavior. We were so proud of her. We had her dressed in one of the cute outfits that Melanie Adams brougt for her from some of Jessie's Angels and she was adorably pink. She looked like a little doll. Of course I'm her daddy, and she always looks like a doll to me.

She said "Nice to meet you Dr. Carson" in a slightly slurred Texas twang, when they met, and then shook his hand. Her eye's twitched, but also twinkled, because I think that she knew how important he was. I think that he might have been a bit taken aback, however, when she asked "Are you going to take out half my brain?" He paused, and thought for a minute, then responded with a question "Do you want me to?" and she quickly replied with a positive "Yes". This is from a 6 year-old. Jessie amazes me every day, with her maturity in dealing with this. She's 6 going on 40.

On the way through the hospital today, some random, but very nice lady called from across the hall. "Hi !! Are you Jessie?" She ran over and gave Kristi and Jessie a big hug and told us that she was praying for Jessie. Here we are halfway across the United States and people know Jessie's story. God, evidently decided that He needed to bring Jessie's Angels along to Baltimore in case we start feeling alone. Dr. Carson also explained to us today that prayer had been scientifically proven to help people heal faster. I'm sold !!

We check Jessie into the EMU (Epilepsy Monitoring Unit) tomorrow, and we will pray that there is no seizure activity on the left hemisphere. As soon as Dr. Vining, Jessie's Baltimore Neurologist (the leading U.S. expert on Rasmussen's) is satisfied, they will let us come home and be normal again for a while. I really just want an ice cold beer and a nice long nap.

I read that the Aledo Ladycats are headed to the Regional Semifinals in Abilene this Friday!! Great Stuff. We are cheering for those nice girls who signed the softball for Jessie. Go Ladycats!!

All Our Love,

Cris and Kristi