mccamon.org

Firstly, many thanks for the overwhelming response of prayers, calls, emails, visits, food, gifts and on and on from our friends, family and co-workers. The whole experience was truly remarkable and all the more comforting to us knowing I was half a world away.

We were discharged from the hospital on Friday. Today, Lina is behaving as if nothing happened these past seven days. Her prognosis is good but there are still some procedures ahead of us.

Lina has been diagnosed with moyamoya disease. It is a rare condition that affects the arteries in the brain and the condition was clearly visible on her MRI. Generally it is hereditary but they are doing some additional tests to confirm this diagnosis.

Early last week Lina was sick with a high temperature for several days. Late one evening Jody noticed Lina was slurring her speech, she couldn’t move her right hand or arm and nearly fainted. Those symptoms passed but later the next day she was complaining her feet “were tingly” so Jody took her into hospital. From there it was several days of tests and observation. I didn’t arrive until early Thursday afternoon.

The best news is for now, Lina is simply on children’s aspirin and reduced activity that might cause head trauma (like gymnastics). Once we hear from the doctors we are expecting two surgeries that will encourage more vein growth and health in and around her brain. Both of those procedures are expected to occur over the summer in Houston. We don’t have a date yet nor do we know what the schedule looks like around each procedure but we’ll keep folks updated.

As I was telling one of my friends this was one the best possible outcomes for the week. The only thing better I suppose is they didn’t find anything but then you’d always wonder what caused her symptoms. Again thank you to everyone for helping us through the past week.

UPDATE: 30-Apr.  Lina’s surgery is scheduled for 21-May.

UPDATE: 11-May.  Follow Lina’s condition at http://www.twitter.com/linaloveshsm3