Rosie's medical news

Some recent mild changes in sensation on her right side reported by Rosie sent us back to Wirginia Maixner at Children's Hospital. Wirginia ordered an MRI and when that came back showing that a small bleed had occurred, she ordered an angiogram. This gold standard test was done on December 13 and on the 17th we saw Wirginia again. She gave us the unwelcome news that Rosie's AVM was back, not as big as last time but a worry because it had already bled. She referred us to Melbourne's finest neurosurgeon for adults, John Laidlaw at Royal Melbourne Hospital, since Rosie is no longer a child.

John was able to see us the next day and gave us a very generous and comprehensive consultation lasting more than an hour and a half. He spoke directly to Rosie most of the time, stressing that while he and others would advise as best they could, her opinion about what to do was the most important one. He answered all our questions in great detail and we all loved him, especially Rosie. It seemed as though surgery would be the best option for Rosie this time. At one point I asked John if he was as good as the best in the world. He said no but pretty close. He said the best was probably Robert Spetzler in Phoenix who's done about 5000 AVMs and has written most of the current literature. Then he said Michael Morgan in Sydney would be hard to go past because he's done the most AVMs of anybody in Australia with outstanding results.

On the 20th, after a couple of days of thinking about it, I decided to email Michael Morgan. Even though the logistics of doing Rosie's surgery in Sydney were obviously a little more complicated than in Melbourne and even though we were all quite attached to John Laidlaw, I thought we needed to explore the option of using the supposedly best AVM specialist in Australia if Rosie were to indeed have surgery. I sent my letter to him at 9:51pm and at 10:46pm I got a reply back from him saying he could see us the next day. By 12:30am Rosie had been consulted and Peter had booked the three of us tickets to Sydney at 9am!

At 11:30am on the 21st we had our consultation with Michael Morgan who was very impressive and nice. He and John Laidlaw of course know each other well and had spoken that morning about Rosie because John needed to send through the latest scans of Rosie's brain to Michael. By the end of the consultation (and our research the night before), Peter and I were convinced that Michael Morgan is the man for the job. He has done more than 620 AVMs including ones like Rosie's and does nothing but AVMs and aneurysms. Rosie probably agreed deep down too that this was the safest option but she needed some time to come to terms with somebody other than John Laidlaw doing the surgery. Michael reassured her that John was perfectly happy for Michael to do it and that they would confer in any case so that Rosie would be able to see John in Melbourne if there were any issues once she came back home.

We booked her surgery for January 8 at Macquarie University Hospital in Sydney with Michael Morgan operating with the proviso that Rosie would have a little time to think about it before confirming. She would probably be in hospital for 2 weeks with a short period in intensive care after surgery. The hospital is very new and state of the art. I would stay in one of the University Colleges which offers accommodation close by on campus and would probably be allowed to spend the first couple of nights with Rosie in the ward even though she will be 18 (just).

After the medical part was done we had some fun. Here are a few pics from our day in Sydney.
First stop was Adriano Zumbo’s kitchen and shop. (He's one of Rosie's chef heroes, a sweets specialist.) Adriano himself was lurking about the kitchen and was happy to come out for a photo and autograph.

Then it was on to the next Adriano patisserie in Balmain. We ate something at each stop.

Time for a swim next because our 3rd Adriano stop was the dessert train near Darling Harbour which didn’t start till 6pm - just as well because we needed a few hours off eating.
The coveted autograph - she’s showing it off at morning tea as we speak to her foodie friend who’s also doing the hospitality cooking course at school one year behind Rosie and wants to be a chef.

Two days after we got back home, Rosie confirmed that she will go to Sydney to Michael Morgan so we are all going to go there on Jan 6 for her birthday then she will have an MRI on the 7th before surgery on the 8th. By the way, Rosie made it into the high-achievers listing in the Age VCE results section for Hospitality, Kitchen Operations as it’s called (cooking). With 44/50 she was 12th equal in Victoria for that subject. She did an admirable job with her other subjects too.