Diane Lefever has undergone procedures to help relieve problems from an aneurysm.
LIVERMORE FALLS – Diane Lefever’s droopy right eye gives it away.

The mother of five is recovering from brain surgery in March where doctors covered an aneurysm with cotton in hopes it would scar over and toughen.

That would help it from bursting and leaking, said 37-year-old Lefever.

“It’s buying time,” she added.

New York neurosurgeons were unable to clip the aneurysm because nerves were attached to the aneurysm, making it too risky, Lefever said.

She’s a candidate for a new stent – almost like a bridge across the aneurysm – that would alter the blood flow through the vessels.

But Lefever isn’t sure she wants to undergo a third brain surgery so soon. She wants to play with her children and enjoy the summer at least.

But she said she’ll return to New York City in May to talk about it.

The third surgery would be done through her groin, as was the first one a year ago after an aneurysm broke. She learned then she had three of them.

In March, doctors took off part of her skull and took out her eyebrow bone to get a look at an aneurysm as big as an acorn.

Only a strip of her hair had to be shaved, which is growing back rapidly. Her face is still swollen, her eye is droopy and it’s difficult to sleep. She’s still in pain, she said.
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She’s allowed to lift very little: her pocketbook or a half bag of groceries. That means picking up her youngest daughter, Adrian, 3, is out for a now.

Her outlook is positive.

“I think it’s good they have so many procedures and things they can do now,” she said. “I have hope, I do.”

The outpouring of support from family and even strangers has helped her and her husband, Kenneth.

Her husband’s brother has given the family a van so that they can ride in comfort to the hospital.

The Livermore Falls Town Office staff held a benefit supper, the Livermore Falls Middle School students are fund-raising to help with medical expenses, and members of the Assembly of God Church in Livermore Falls have brought the family dinner daily.

“I appreciate and thank everyone for their prayers and donations,” she said. “It’s been a big help.”

Lefever considers herself fortunate to survive her recent surgery.

“I’m lucky I came out normal and that I didn’t come out mentally impaired and crippled,” she said. “I just hope my luck isn’t running out. Am I pushing my luck? I’ve already been through two brain surgeries, and they’re suggesting another.”

“Right now, I have no interest in having it done because every time I just start to feel better, they want to go back in,” she said.

“I just want to feel better for a while before I go back in.”
dperry@sunjournal.com

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