July 31, 2025 - It has been a long time. Every time I try and write this down I am crippled by all of the horrible memories that come flooding back and never get anything down. Internally, I also struggle with the fact that as horrible as all of the following days, weeks, and months were, Hannah's survival and recovery was as close to a miracle as I will ever experience.
July 31, 2016 - (Facebook) "Yesterday Michelle and I took Hannah to the ER after she was having a severe headache and she ended up having surgery to remove pooling blood from her brain. She is doing as well as can be expected and is getting great care in the pediatric ICU unit at St Luke's. Once she is no longer in critical condition they will begin to try and figure out what might have caused it.
As bad as today has been it has taught me that I am incredibly fortunate to have a wonderful family and friends who truly care about us. Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts."
Normally when someone has this surgery, the bone flap that is removed is placed in your abdomen so that when you are well enough it can be removed and replaced in your skull. We didn't learn this for some time afterward but when we asked what happened to her bone flap we were told that it was thrown away. I asked why and they told us it was for two reasons. First, with her low platelet count they couldn't risk doing another surgery and have her bleed out. Second, they didn't expect her to live through the night.