So, many of you know, and many of you may not know that I just recently had brain surgery. I was diagnosed with Chiari about two months ago. Basically some of my brain was coming out my foreman magnum (the hole where your brain connects to your spine). I always knew I was smarter than your average joe! I mean seriously, how many people do you know that has a brain to BIG for their skul!? Anyway, the surgery was scheduled for June 1st at 7:30 am. After about two months of preparing myself mentally, the big day finally came. As we were driving through sardine canyon on our way to the hospital (at 3 am) a coyote ran out in front of us and we hit it, ripping the bumper off my BRAND NEW CAR that I had only drove 3 times! In order to get the bumper off we had to use my moms teeny tiny cross stitch scissors to cut the broken piece of the bumper off! So we continued to the hospital and arrived on time, and began preparing me for surgery. After many tears they wheeled me into pre op. They gave me something in my IV to calm me down, not sure what it was but it made the curtains that were flowing in the air conditioning to look very beautiful, and made me very happy. So I waited, and waited, and waited and nothing happened. Finally the nurse came up to me and said, "Honey I am so sorry your surgeon mis scheduled, he is in south carolina, we can't do your surgery today." At this poing I was so drugged up that I was just fine with that, and really just wanted to go to Ihop for some pancakes. (you know you can't eat or drink 24 hours before the surgery..so I was starving!)
The next day I was not so happy! I had been mentally preparing for this for months, it's like going to the electric chair and then the power goes out! The doctor called and aplogized a thousand times and offered to refer me to another surgeon, but I still felt comfortable with him I mean we are all human, and rescheduled the surgery for the following monday June 8. The big day came again, and the surgery went off without a hitch. The surgeons removed part of my skull and the first circle of my first vertebre to make room for my ginormous brain and restore the correct flow of spinal fluid. A shunt was put into my spine to drain the fluid in order to let my brain heal. I spent three days in ICU and then spend two more days in the regular hospital. I went home and felt great for two days, then BAM! I felt like I was going to die, my head hurt so bad, I have never felt pain like that in my life. It felt like someone had attached a hose to the back of my head and was blasting my head full of water, then letting it out, and then filling it full again. Back to the doctor I went. Turns out the hole they put in my spine did not close on it's own and my spinal fluid was leaking out and not making it to my brain. They re admitted me to the hospital on the 16th of june. I had a blood patch done to try to close the hole. Basically they stuck a needle in my spine and shot my own blood into my spine, the blood is supposed to clot and fix the hole. I had to lie flat on my back for two days in order to let the patch clot. Two days passed, and THE PATCH DID NOT WORK!!!!! At this point I had spent about 6 days laying flat on my back (it's really hard to drink diet coke lying flat on your back, I should know I dumped many of them all over my face!) They did another blood patch on me and after another 24 hours of lying flat of my back the blood patch finally worked. I was released on saturday June 20 and am now just resting at a friends house in salt lake (the doc would not let me go far from the hospital). I have one more follow up visit and if all is still well I am cleared to go home! I have included some of my pictures of my incisions, they are pretty creepy, but the good news is my hair almost completely covers them! WOW, who knew being so smart that your brain is exploding out of your skull could be such a big deal!
