I've gotta' tell you, there are few things in life as pressure-filled as writing your first post back after brain surgery. Two weeks ago, my writing could be littered with grammatical and spelling errors, and everyone would just right it off as blog "informality." Make those same mistakes now, however, and everyone reading will think my surgeon wasn't on his "A" game. Tough spot to be in...
The truth is, I am doing fantastic. I'd be lying if I said the surgery didn't kick me in the ass a tad more than anticipated, but that was the SURGERY, not the surgery. What I mean by that is, the complexities specific to my surgery -- clipping off the aneurysm without disrupting my speech, vision, short-term memory or right side of my body -- were all handled with relative ease and resulted in no complications. What I underestimated, however, was just how intrusive the access to the aneurysm would be: how large the incision, how painful the swelling, how debilitating the medications.
It has been this big-picture recovery process that has kept me from updating everyone until now. I've pretty much spent the past two weeks doing nothing but sleeping; feeling a bit stronger each day but also seeing that progress offset by the cumulative effect of the medications and overall laziness. There have been no complications, it's just been the necessary penance for having one's head sliced open from widow's peak to ear.
I feel like this morning may have been my turning point, as I'm now a few days out from the last of my steroids and codeine and the anticipated adverse reaction seems to have run its course. I've been awake all day, and my headache from the prior two days seems to have resolved on its own.
For those reasons, I wanted to come on line and let everyone know I was feeling fine, and thank you again for all of your kind words. There is much I'd like to say and share about my experience, but I've got to crawl before I walk. I'll be back on soon...
Tony
The truth is, I am doing fantastic. I'd be lying if I said the surgery didn't kick me in the ass a tad more than anticipated, but that was the SURGERY, not the surgery. What I mean by that is, the complexities specific to my surgery -- clipping off the aneurysm without disrupting my speech, vision, short-term memory or right side of my body -- were all handled with relative ease and resulted in no complications. What I underestimated, however, was just how intrusive the access to the aneurysm would be: how large the incision, how painful the swelling, how debilitating the medications.
It has been this big-picture recovery process that has kept me from updating everyone until now. I've pretty much spent the past two weeks doing nothing but sleeping; feeling a bit stronger each day but also seeing that progress offset by the cumulative effect of the medications and overall laziness. There have been no complications, it's just been the necessary penance for having one's head sliced open from widow's peak to ear.
I feel like this morning may have been my turning point, as I'm now a few days out from the last of my steroids and codeine and the anticipated adverse reaction seems to have run its course. I've been awake all day, and my headache from the prior two days seems to have resolved on its own.
For those reasons, I wanted to come on line and let everyone know I was feeling fine, and thank you again for all of your kind words. There is much I'd like to say and share about my experience, but I've got to crawl before I walk. I'll be back on soon...
Tony
