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Projo's slideshow and Brendan's "Thank You"
Thank You
September 23, 2007
A
SURGERY DATE AND A REALITY CHECK:
On Tuesday, September 25, 2007, Brendan will report back to the hospital for
what is hopefully the last surgery related to his assault. Doctors will replace the bone in the right side of his
head and his brain will again be protected. Amazingly, Brendan will only be in the hospital for an estimated two days.
As the pictures below show, most of the right side of Buzzy's skull was removed the night of the attack.
The skull was fractured during the assault, but when Brendan got to the hospital and doctors saw the severity of his injury,
they knew the skull had to be removed because of the severe swelling of the brain.
Often when the skull
is removed for these purposes, it is placed inside a pouch in the patient's stomach so it stays preserved.
In Brendan's case, though, they were inserting a feeding tube in his stomach, so the surgeons decided to freeze the
skull instead, where it has remained at Rhode Island Hospital since the night of the surgery. His skull was removed
much like you would carve the top of a pumpkin, at an angle. It will be placed back on and drilled into place.![The "Dent"](sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/undefined/Dscn1872.jpg "The "Dent"")
Doctors (and other patients who have had the surgery Brendan is about to have) tell us that the rate of improvement
increases after the skull is replaced. It's viewed that somehow the brain suddenly knows it is protected and healing
continues at a more steady rate.
We hope they are right. As everybody knows, Brendan made huge strides in the weeks after June 16.
But in the last few weeks, improvement has been slow. The biggest obstacal currently is his double vision.
His speech is improving, and those who don't know him probably wouldn't hear anything wrong. He continues to
build strength by working out at the gym and seeing the physical therapist, but he is far from being 100%. 
We will start a new page soon with more pictures of his hospital stay and rehab.
Brendan is ready to get rid of that helmet!
He continues to have a good sense of humor about things, often referring to his head as "The Dent."
This dent isn't visible in many of the hospital pictures because of the swelling in his brain, but as the swelling has
gone down, it actually leaves a "dent" in his head. It's been a long, hot summer and soon the helmet
will be a thing of the past, and so will the dent.
So, we ask for your prayers again as Brendan gets
ready for surgery. Hopefuly it will be an exciting week, ending on a good note as Brendan celebrates his
26th birthday Friday. 
September 29, 2007
Brendan's
last surgery went very well. Doctors replaced the piece of skull that they had removed the night of the assault.
They inserted 5 small plates in his head, 27 screws, and it took over 100 staples to mend it all together. Still, Brendan
was out of the hospital the next day. No more MRI's for him, and airport security will be a little tougher.
He no longer has to wear his helmet, which, in his mind, was the highlight of the surgery. Now, THAT'S a
great birthday present. Happy Birthday, Buzz.
November 13, 2007
Whew...It's
been awhile since we've given an update. Apologies!
The excuse we're giving is that we had to get
a new thesaurus to describe Brendan. :)
The thesaurus isn't very helpful. He's still amazing, incredible,
unbelievable.
Since the surgery in September Brendan continues to improve. He enjoys not having to wear that
helmet anymore and is getting around better and better. His vision is improving, enough that he's been given permission
to start driving. His speech is 99% back. He'll tell you this too...if he can stop laughing long enough.
One of the strange side-effects of the brain injury is that every once in awhile he gets an uncontrollable urge
to laugh. I mean LAUGH. Non-stop. And while it seems like a great disability, it's something that has
to heal before he can ever go back to work. Not very intimidating to be pulled over for speeding and be laughed at.
:)
Speaking of going back to work: Brendan still has every intention to do so. But he's got a long
way to go. He's still re-habbing and hitting the gym as much as possible to gain his strength, but it's going
to take quite some time still. Brendan is running a couple of miles a day, but tires easily. This is frustrating
because before the attack, running 5 miles was an easy day. Now he has to build to that level and it's a struggle.
But this is Brendan. He will get there. He plans to run a marathon again at some point in the future. We
all know he has the running world's support, as well as all the other family, friends and complete strangers who
continue to motivate him. Along with his self motivation, that's a winning combination.
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