A rapid path to another brain surgery

It's been a wild few days. What began as flu-like symptoms for Susan last weekend progressed to persistent fever and cognitive decline on Monday and Tuesday. After getting blood drawn at the UCLA treatment center yesterday, concern about the return of meningitis brought Susan to the ER for tests instead of getting chemo. A routine CT scan revealed bleeding in her brain and moved her to observation and testing in the neurosurgical ICU. Infection may also be present. Susan's neurosurgeon Dr Liau evaluated the series of scans Susan had over the past 24 hours. The mass appears to be a bleed, but could be an abscess or even tumor growth - in any case, it needs to be evacuated. This will be Susan's third major craniotomy and will reopen the same incision and skull area as before. Surgery begins tomorrow at 7:30am and is expected to last four to five hours. Dr Liau will also remove her lumbar-peritoneal shunt, place a temporary drain, and add a permanent ventricular shunt later. Talk about a brain drain. Susan remains the world's most gracious patient and is ever the fighter. We trust God implicitly, continue hoping for the best, and are ready for anything. We are grateful for everyone's prayers.