Brain Surgery

Well, this was a post I was hoping would never come to pass, but the time has come so now I'll update the blog with the latest. This next Thursday October 1st I'm having Brian Surgery to remove the tumor.

This decision has come after much prayer and consideration by myself and Scott. I feel at peace with my decision although I am very scared about the actual surgery, recovery, side effects, etc. I've had 3 different surgeries in the past 2 years and each one has had aspects that have been hard to deal with, but this one surely takes the cake.

Wednesday I'll go up to University of Utah Hospital and meet with the Anesthesiologist who will go over all my pre-op information. That'll be an educational appointment I'm sure. The Anesthesiologist is an important part of my medical team, no doubt.

Following that I'll go to radiology for yet another MRI to check pre-op positioning and help the Dr. in making his plan for the surgery. Thursday morning I check into the hospital and will go under the knife sometime that morning.

Surgery will involve them shaving my hair back in the surgical area--its really short there anyhow since I lost it all last fall after Gamma Knife. Then they will cut open the skin as they cut out a half-dollar sized piece of my skull--yes, yikes! After that Dr. Jensen will use a computer guided system to remove the tumor from my brain, trying desperately hard to irritate my optical nerve as little as possible.

Once the tumor is removed they'll suture around the piece of skull to hold it back into place and then I'll be sent to the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit while I come to. Knowing me and anesthesia I could be there all day!! After that point I'll be moved to the NeuroCritical Care Unit (ICU for brain patients) where they anticipate I'll spend 24 hours. The following day I'll have a follow-up MRI to make sure they were successful in removing the tumor.

Assuming I'm doing well I'll be moved then to the Neuro-Acute Care Unit which is a step down from the ICU. I'll recover there for probably 2 days and should return home Saturday evening if everything goes as planned.

Scott will be with me from Thursday through Sunday so that will be great to have his support and company as I'm recovering from this. My parents come into town next weekend and my mom will be staying with the kids and I for a week as Scott will have to go back to work on Monday. The Dr. anticipates I'll need consistent help for about 2 weeks after surgery and then it'll be another month before I'm back to myself. So it's about a 6 week ordeal.

I'm currently making my 'to do' list of all the things I want to accomplish before surgery. It's really hard to wrap my mind around this whole ordeal, but I'm grateful for the peace I've received as I've made this decision. I'm encouraged by the positives of having this tumor removed:
1-NO MORE STEROIDS! Yes!
2-No more headaches!!
3-No more seizures!
4-No more seizure medication--hence no more fatigue!
5-No more tumors in my brain-yeah!
6-We'll get a pathology on the tumor which will let us know what is really going on!
7-I can move on from this part of my life..I've known about this tumor for almost a year now and I'm ready to put it behind me

So there you have the positives and our family is trying to focus on those and meanwhile pray that things go well with the surgery. We'll keep you posted on the blog as we can. Thanks for all your support and love!!
Scott and Heidi