Author Archives: rkdenlinger

At 5:00pm we saw Matthew’s surgeon. Everything went well, there were no surprises. Matthew was stable the whole time and didn’t need any blood transfusion. He will probably have some right side muscle weakness from which he’ll recover during rehab. But first he has to recover from this surgery. It is possible he will needContinue reading “Surgery Wrap Up”

We arrived at the hospital at 5:30 this morning. At 7:30 when we gave him our “see-you-laters” he was excited as anything to have his bed wheeled to the OR. He’s been excited ever since we told him about this hospital stay – so much so that he had trouble going to sleep last night.Continue reading “Surgery is Underway”

Our journey with Matthew and epilepsy… Today (Wednesday): We are five days away from Matthew’s surgery at CHOP. For some details, see:  https://www.chop.edu/treatments/functional-hemispherotomy Thursday: We continue the process of preparing Matthew. This morning we will let him know that he is having surgery on Monday, using a booklet and video (both prepared by CHOP). Friday:Continue reading “Countdown”

Thank you to those of you who read these blogs. We do not take your time in reading them for granted and try to keep them short. I (Joan) am going to work my title backwards. HOLDING US UP: We are dealing with some immense issues, but this one thing I know: we have anContinue reading “Hope, Healing, Holding Us Up”

Here’s a reminder of the goal, the target date and of how you can stay informed. Let us know if you’d like a wristband.

by Joan April 12, 2021 is the date of Matthew’s hemispherotomy. Followed by 8 weeks in hospital recovery and rehab. Matthew has not been informed yet of this information, we are still waiting to explain to him closer to the time as it will be hard for him to process. As it is for usContinue reading “Courage”

by Joan Matthew, our son, is eight years old. Since the age of four months, he has lived with the left hemisphere of his brain severely damaged. During the past four months he has been subjected to many tests of his brain to determine the source of the frequent seizures he lives with and thatContinue reading “The Cutting Edge”

by Ron So said Matthew to Joan after a full day at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). First, Matthew loves that place because his five-day hospital stay back in November was that good. He especially loved the room service – how he could pick up the phone and order food, having Music Man MikeContinue reading ““Thank you for borrowing me!””

Check out our photo gallery at https://joyinaforeignland.com/photo-gallery/. We’ve finally posted something new – seven new photos of the last three months. Hope you enjoy.

by Ron Tonight, I saw the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn through my 6” Newtonian reflector telescope. This was quite a thrill for me. It has been over 20 years since I’ve looked through that telescope. On Saturday I took it from storage and began to clean it up for the event. Having had astronomyContinue reading “The Christmas Star”