Dr. Yamini called today, and yeah, that's him on the right. Really like him so far.
He has agreed to do the surgery. He consulted with a handful of other neurosurgeons and Molly's neurologist and pretty much everyone agreed that surgery is at least recommended. Problem is that they are only giving Molly a 50/50 chance that the surgery will help her. Actually, Yamini thinks the odds are better than that. But the general consensus is that they aren't extremely confident in good results, meaning that there is a chance Molly could have surgery and still be suffering some, most, or all of her symptoms.
Yamini said that Chiari surgery is only absolutely necessary when the symptoms include 1. problems swallowing, 2. drop attacks (sudden spontaneous falls followed by quick recovery), or 3. syrinx (cyst on spinal column). In these cases an operation is crucial and urgent. Molly doesn't have these. Now that's a good thing because these things are bad, but it makes surgery seem more optional.
Yamini's greatest concern, and ours as well, is Molly's struggles with balance and walking. He feels these can be serious enough to warrant surgery, which is why they have agreed to do it.
But the odds of a favorable outcome feel too low, and concern us. So we are considering a 2nd opinion from Mayo. We still have an appointment on July 2nd and may keep it. We can even keep it and have the surgery at the University of Chicago with Dr. Yamini if their opinion matches the other doctors since Dr. Yamini would probably not do the surgery until at least July 6th, and maybe even the 13th.
So now we are praying and trying to decide what to do. I think we are leaning toward Mayo. When your wife is about to have her brains opened up, you just want to be as sure as possible that you are taking necessary risks based on the best opinions.
Geez, this is tough. Thanks for your continued prayers for Molly.
On a more positive note, you may have noticed the "brain donation" button on the top right of the blog. Please pray about donating your brain, or the brain of a loved one.
We figured since Molly's brain is just to big that we might get a smaller one donated to us. If you have the ability to donate a brain, please do so asap.
When you click the above link you will find a map of all the drop boxes around the country for brain donations, such as this one (though the actual drop boxes may vary in color).
Thanks for considering this.
