Teen looking to future after December surgery

Taylor Granitz writes and eats with her right hand that once laid against her body.

She also likes how she walks now.

"I have not been able to walk kind of normal for a long time," she said.

The 15-year-old said she is looking forward to starting driver's education in February, but added she is unsure she would be able to drive due to the tremors in her arms and legs.

Called one in a million by her doctor, Taylor enjoys the changes since she underwent surgery to treat a rare cystic brain disease.

"She has improved so much physically. It is not even the same kid," said Taylor's mom, Tami Doyle.

Taylor and her mom traveled to Arizona so Taylor could undergo surgery in December. Conducting the surgery was Dr. Robert Spetzler, who was able to cut a window in seven to eight masses that sat on her brain stem.

"He said it went better than expected," Doyle said after surgery. "They got everything they could see."

But after Spetzler left, Doyle said she recalled him saying Taylor had 12 or more masses in her head and wondered if there were indeed more.

"I was both elated that the surgery went well, but I was worried that it was not over yet," she said.

The next day, she learned that some masses were left untouched because of their positioning and angle into the back of Taylor's head.

Doctors began to contemplate a second surgery, this time going in through the front of the head.

"Part of me wanted it done and over with," Doyle said.

But surgery had to be delayed after Taylor went through bouts of painful headaches, fever and vomiting. She was released after six days in the hospital.

They returned to Lake Villa on Dec. 19, with Taylor ecstatic to be home for Christmas with her sisters, Tiffanie and Riley and her friends.

Taylor now undergoes daily physical and occupational therapy. Doyle said her therapists are amazed how much she has progressed.

She is slowly able to use her right hand to eat and to write. Her eyes were frozen straight ahead and she hadn't been able to look up. She now can look upward and has regained some field vision.

"She used to drag her right leg and is now being able to bend it at the knee and lift it. She used to say it felt dead or very heavy, not any more," Doyle said.

She still has tremors and muscle spasms, but they have lessened in duration and severity.

Taylor will need an MRI done in two months, when Spetzler will revisit the issue of a second surgery.

Doyle is grateful for what Spetzler has done, but adds it is bittersweet because of the uncertainty about the future.

"Now she's doing great," she said. "Will she continue to do great? We don't know because we don't know about the cysts left behind."

But Taylor is proud of all the doctors have done to change her life and looks forward to more possibilities including playing softball again and driving.

"I have a whole new life ahead of me," she said.