The nurses just called the family back to give an update. They are currently resecting David's tumor. During this process of resecting, the surgical team must cut out a small portion of the brain around with the golf-ball sized tumor to ensure they get all of the tumor.
In order to do this, the surgical team must confirm they are not taking out any vitally important portion of the brain. So, David is awake and is being required to communicate with them on how he is doing. The nurses are using flashcards to confirm David's cognition is in tact. David cannot feel them touching his brain.
David has been awake for about 1.5 hours. They typically want the patient to be awake for no more than 2 hours as it can be exhausting for the patient's brain to be stimulated for so long. So, we anticipate this part will not take much longer.
David is awake during surgery for only the middle part of it. He was asleep during the opening of his skull and will be put back to sleep for the closing of it.
So far, so good!!!
