Johanna's second post surgery appointment in Miami~by Beth

Six weeks and one day after surgery Johanna had her second check up in Miami at MCH.  She is doing very well and they are delighted with her progress.  We met first with Dr. Bhatia.  We asked again when she can start basketball and his answer went from anytime, to end of January, to when ever we think is best.  We decided to wait 2 more weeks. Since the surgery: No Seizures, Praise God!!!!  We feel so blessed not dealing with them.  I told Dr. Bhatia that my mom told me to tell him that she was praying for him for Johanna's surgery and for Sennett's, our little friend who we met while in the hospital (who lives 4 streets from us).  He just laughs if off but he also heard it from Sennett's mom too.  They are believers and were praying for him.  Who knows what will happen in his life. He told Johanna that she was a brave girl.  He actually told her that twice.

In December we began a new unit to study and it just happens to include the study of the brain and its anatomy.  I had only assigned Johanna two small projects this wisdom book since she did just have brain surgery.  One was to make a clay model of the 4 lobes of the brain.  She drew the head and face on a paper and placed her clay model in position.  So, I brought it to show her doctors.  Her surgeon was impressed.  I showed him what we are studying in the wisdom booklet about the brain and his words were "How come our children don't learn such interesting things?"  He began flipping through the wisdom booklet and was very impressed with our learning.  He asked a number of questions about where we get this, who do we need to be accountable to, etc. 

The neurology doctor, Dr. Hyslop, came a little later.  Johanna had made her a scarf using that loopy yarn, and we got her a big snowflake pin to go with it, so she gave it to her.  Then we showed her the clay brain project and she thought that was great.  We just love her and appreciate all she did for Johanna.

After we got all our appointments made for April, where she will have another MRI and meet with the neurology doctors, we finally got to go visit Sennett up on the neurology floor.  He finally had his surgery this past Monday and they came home Thursday.  The two children played games for almost 2 hours and they had a blast.  It seemed to be good medicine for Sennett to play with Johanna.  I enjoyed talking with the parents, Shannon and Jeff, and hearing how everything went.  Being there reminded me again what a miracle the Lord did through the doctors there.  We saw Dr. Hyslop on the ward again so we grabbed some shots with the two brain surgery kiddos and her.  After that we left to brave the Miami traffic to get to Alligator Alley to come home.  It was a long day, but we enjoyed it. Here is a shot of Sennet, Dr. Hyslop and Johanna.