Surgeries

I am going to attempt to express what all transpired when it comes to my brain tumor and the surgeries that I had in 2016.

  I was finishing up my student teaching in December of 2010. I was constantly sick at this time it seems. I had been diagnosed with COPD because I had bronchitis so much. I was constantly on medicine as well as using a nebulizer. I almost didn’t graduate because I was sick so much.

Then one day in December, we had a meeting at the school I was student teaching. I noticed that I was having trouble hearing in my right ear. I couldn’t hear myself talking and I kept hearing a low buzzing noise. I felt like I was hearing a radio station off channel. 

 So I went to the doctor I go to, and he referred me to an ENT specialist.

I told the Dr. my symptoms and he did a hearing test. He decided that I needed an MRI to see what was going on. Sure enough I had a brain tumor, but it was small and beign. It was located behind my right ear.

He said we would just monitor the tumor because it was just too small right now to get to at the time.

So I went on with teaching and didn’t think anything about it.

Fast forward to 2015. I start having issues with my balance. I kept falling down. I started having problems with one of my legs and my hip. I went to my chiropractor but that didn’t help.

I got to where it was so bad that I couldn’t work anymore and had to stop substitute teaching. 

Finally in 2016, I went to Dr. McCrackin, he is my ENT doctor. He referred me to Dr. Vanderbilt, which is my neurosurgeon. He made me get a current MRI. It showed that the tumor had grown significantly and needed to be taken out.

So April 26, 2016, I underwent brain surgery. It was a long surgery. It was longer than it was originally planned. The tumor was attached to my balance nerve and my facial muscle. So when they took it out, it messed with my facial muscles.

Thanks to that surgery, I have Bells Palsy, which is a paralysis of the face. What I call lovingly as “Frozen face.”

My face isn’t nearly as bad as it was when I first got out of surgery. I stayed in the hospital for a couple of days and then was transferred to Health South. It is a rehab facility. I was there for about three weeks. During this time, I was having extreme headaches.  It was so bad I couldn't handle loud noises or bright lights.The doctor there put me on allergy meds. I also kept having a constant drip from my nose. Turns out I had a spinal fluid leak.

I got out of rehab on our 26^th anniversary, which is May 12. There was a Carman concert that night and I really wanted to go. However, because I was having so much problems with having headaches, I decided to just go home instead.

I had a home health nurse that would come in to check my blood pressure etc. I also had an occupational therapist and a physical therapist come to the house. I couldn’t go anywhere because James was working in Kiawah Island at the time and would be gone most of the day. James worked from home for a couple of days when I first got home. After those days were up though, he had to get back to going to Kiawah everyday.

So he would watch over me when I took my shower and then get me settled in my recliner. I wasn’t to go upstairs unless he was at home. At this time I also wore an “Emergency call button monitor.” So if ever I needed help I could call for someone. I think this was more for James’ peace of mind than for mine. 

So I went through everyday seeing my therapists and nurse for a couple of weeks. My right leg started giving me problems. I started to be incontinent. So about May 18^th or so. It was so bad I couldn’t walk or get to the bathroom on my own. We called the on call neurologist and they said to bring me in to ER. So James got me into the SUV and took me over to MUSC which are the initials for Medical University of South Carolina.

By the time I got into an ER room, I was starting to throw up constantly. They took me to get an MRI. They finally figured out that I was still having a spinal fluid leak. So I had my second brain surgery on May 20^th of 2016. This was a day before my birthday. I don’t remember my birthday that year. I slept through it. I vaguely remember my son, Justin coming to see me and bringing me a balloon, I think. I stayed in the hospital for a couple of days. Then I went back to Rehab at Health South. This time it was slow going. I had to relearn how to walk all over again. I was there probably 3 weeks. I still had headaches but they were not as bad as before. I could at least handle the light. 

So I finally get out of rehab and get back home. I start the process again with the nurse coming in and the physical therapist.

I am doing ok and I am progressing with my walking etc. Then I continue to have leaks from my nose. However, they are not as bad. It is finally decided that I will come in the first of August an get a shunt put in to help control the spinal fluid.

This is when it gets rather blurry for me. I go in to have the shunt put in. However, while I am under the doctor is using a camera inside my body and going down into my stomach. This is where they usually put part of the tubing for the shunt. Well, he went in and found something black down there. I found out later, that they had told James that my colon was dead.

They finally figured it out that it was actually an ovary that had a grapefruit size cyst on it. So they called in Dr. Koulher to come in and remove the ovary with the cyst on it. He is an OB/Gyn. They didn’t give me a hysterectomy at this time because according to them. “They didn’t have my permission.” I wish they had done the hysterectomy at the same time. It would have saved me from having another surgery. All well.

So after the surgery, I find out that they still haven’t put in the shunt. So I ended up staying in the hospital for 2 weeks so I could have the shunt surgery the next week.

Finally, after I had the shunt surgery, my headaches went away. I was doing a lot better. I was to have my hysterectomy in October. In the meantime, Dr. Kohlher wanted me to have a Colonoscopy, Mammagram and a Pap smear. Gross. I managed to get those taken care of. After my hysterectomy, I stayed in the hospital a couple of days.

I was to have a couple of chemotherapy treatments because the tumor was graded on the low end. It was mainly precautionary. So in Dec of 2016, and January and February of 2017 I had Chemotherapy. Lost my hair and had all the side effects possible from Chemo. I had lost 70 pounds after all of the surgery in 2016. 

Except for having Chemotherapy the first of 2017, it was a pretty uneventful year. However, in June of 2018, I was having some type of leakage behind my right ear. This is where my incision was for my surgeries. So around July 5, I finally went to ER and had an MRI and they said that my “Hardware was showing.” Evidently, I have a plate behind my ear that was showing through. I had no idea it was there until they told me. 

So they went in on July 6^th and cut part of the plate out that was causing problems. I only had to stay in the hospital for a day in a half. It was probably one of my easiest surgeries I have ever had. I have had a total of 10 surgeries in my life so far. Most of those surgeries, occurred in 2016.

I hope I don’t have to have any more surgeries. However, if I do,  I know to ask for Dramamine. It helped with the sickness, you feel after the anesthesia. I usually get sick after surgery, but this time around I didn’t . It was wonderful.