JACKSON, MI - Since a medical procedure this month, 16-year-old Mikayla Hines told her mother her headaches are less frequent.
In the eight days after she arrived home from the hospital, she was yet to have a seizure.
"That's the best I could ask for," Christine Hines said Tuesday night.
Mikayla underwent a procedure Aug. 19 at Beaumont Children's Hospital in Royal Oak to block blood flow to a brain aneurysm, a bulging or ballooning of the wall in an artery, a rare condition for a child.
The operation is expected to fix one of her issues. Diagnosed with epilepsy, she also has seizures and cysts on her brain and spinal cord.
Neurosurgeon Dr. Omar Qahwash accessed the aneurysm by entering an artery in her groin. He packed the aneurysm with "metal string" or platinum coils, causing it to "clot off " and preventing blood from entering the bulge.
"I was pretty happy," Qahwash said in an Aug. 24 telephone interview. "Hopefully, everything goes well and she won't have any problems in the future."
Without treatment, aneurysms usually do nothing, but they can rupture, causing a subarachnoid hemorrhage, a kind of stroke. Qahwash called this a "very serious condition." Such a break can kill about 1/4 of the people who experience it, he said.
Because Mikayla's aneurysm was causing headaches, there was a higher chance of rupture, the doctor said, and he decided it would be best for Mikayla to intervene.
He considered surgery, a more guaranteed method that involves "lifting up the brain" and placing a clip on the aneurysm to pinch it closed, but opted for the less invasive, less risky approach.
Mikayla's aneurysm, mound-shaped, has a wide neck, meaning a large opening to the artery, and this made it more difficult to close.
Typically, about 15 percent of patients have a residual aneurysm or reoccurrence, the doctor said, but he believes he completely cut off Mikayla's aneurysm.
Last week, she acted and looked normally. Within about a day of leaving the hospital, she was at the Jackson Civil War Muster, handling out pamphlets for the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. Tuesday, she entertained a friend, played with her rambunctious 10-week-old puppy, Mozart, and asked her mother to take her to Wal-Mart.
She has been happier, less "lippy," her mother said. Her mood has improved.
"Kinda," Mikayla said when asked if she was feeling better. Her focus was on a tablet, the family pets or her brother, playing a video game in the next room. At one point, she picked up the puppy - a pit bull, lab, cane corso mix that will be trained as a seizure alert dog - and disappeared into a downstairs bedroom.
A few days later, she appeared cheery and said she was doing well.
Qahwash called her condition "extremely uncommon." Only 6 or 7 of every 100 adults have an aneurysm and only one of every 100 aneurysms are found in children, he said.
The doctor said he is not concerned about any arachnoid cyst, a fluid-filled sac located beneath a membrane covering the brain and spinal cord. Mikayla has one on her cerebellum, the back part of the brain that controls balance and muscle use and another behind her left eye, her mother has said.
Christine Hines, however, noted Qahwash's specialties are in vascular and endovascular neurosurgery.
In addition to Qahwash, Mikayla sees a neurologist and another neurosurgeon, who have been treating her epilepsy and deciding what to do about the cysts.
Hines said Mikayla will undergo a second procedure sometime between Halloween and Thanksgiving. This will "shunt" or drain and relieve pressure from the most problematic cyst, the one growing at the back of her brain, Hines said.
In the meantime, Mikayla, a talented singer involved in school and community choirs, will return to Jackson High School, where she has struggled some academically. Her health problems have caused her to miss much school.
Her mother will continue waitressing at Belle Notte Ristorante in downtown Jackson. There, she picks up extra shifts whenever she can, sometimes working from opening to closing, as part of a constant effort to pay the family's bills.
With publication of her family's story, the Hineses have received some donations. There is a gofundme account and recently, they were gifted almost $600 at the Jackson County Rosequeen pageant.
Mikayla's brother, Daniel, 17, works at Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches and helps some - "He's learning the hard way how things are in life," his mother said.
Still, there never seems to be enough money to meet the family's needs. Hines is behind on rent, again, and struggles to keep an operating phone.
They have one working vehicle, necessary for trips to medical appointments in the Detroit area.
Mikayla returns to Beaumont in September and soon after, is to see her other neurologists. "They'll tell me what, when, why," Hines said.
The family has gotten over one hurdle.
Now comes the next.